Hopefully an easy question on Home insurance and being a 'new customer'

moneyworrier2021

Hi All

Had Home contents and Buildings insurance for the last year with Policy expert which is due for renewal. I'm shopping around on who gives the best Cashback and Policy Expert are coming up by a large Margin (£80 currently). I obviously cant sign up again as a new customer on the policy but can my Husband do it in his name or does it go by the home address that the policy is registered?

Thanks in Advance

TELLIT01

He would be a new customer so logically he should be able to claim the discount, but insurers don't always use the same logic as the rest of us.  I don't see how it can be based on the home address as people move house.  Basing 'new' on the address would prevent a new owner getting the 'new customer' discount.

Sandtree

moneyworrier2021 said:

 I obviously cant sign up again as a new customer on the policy but can my Husband do it in his name or does it go by the home address that the policy is registered?

Why can't you?

For the vast majority of brokers and insurers there are no T&Cs that stop you advising them to lapse your current policy and then you go and buying the identical policy again as a new customer. I've been doing it for years with M&S both when they were underwritten by Axa and now that they are Aviva. You may however be at a higher risk of the cashback being declined.

If you dont want to risk the above and as long as your husband wasnt joint policyholder then you could go down that route but remember that he will have to declare that he has not been X years claim free because he'll have to declare this is his first home insurance policy. If he was joint policyholder then he has the same risks as you lapsing and buying again.

moneyworrier2021

Yeah it’s the cashback T&Cs that says you can’t be an existing customer or held a policy in the last 5 years. I guess using my husband would be fine but as you rightfully reminded me. I would loose the no claims.

Sandtree

moneyworrier2021 said:

 I would loose the no claims.

No claims is less well defined in Home than it is in Motor, most ask two questions... "how many consecutive years have you held home insurance" and "how many claims have you had in the last 3/5 years" which give a truer view of claims than NCD does in car insurance. Some insurers may allow your husband to count the years he was covered by the family policy that wasnt in his name but it means checking each time you want to switch insurers that the next one agrees with the fact he can. 

Cashback is always a bonus and never guaranteed, by the wording you give you would be excluded but your husband would be eligible if he wasnt named on the policy. If the checks are thorough and consistent with the wording is another question. There is a risk that they match on address and surname (assuming you've the same) and reject on that basis even though technically he was never a customer just a beneficiary. Because of the middleman of the cashback site you have little recourse.