Best (not necessarily cheapest) home insurance

Sandtree

kingstreet said:

you will know which provider's offering is the one with the highest rating.

As Defaqto themselves point out... their rating system is purely on product features, it doesn't consider customer service, interpretation of clauses etc.  Just like hotel star ratings, companies know the scoring system and so can create something to intentionally just scrape into the 5* rating but terrible service etc. Similarly to the amazing hotel that cannot be 5* because it doesn't have a 24hr kitchen some products at lower ratings could in many senses be better but because they have decided to to include trace and access to the required limit they lose a star.

That said it is better than the Which? rankings, which come from their members perceptions. Have seen two brands from the identical company that internally doesn't differentiate the brands (ie one agent answers both etc) and yet Which? had one near the top and the other very much in the middle.

City_Girl_3

What a minefield!  LOL
There's a definite gap in the market for a service that compares both price and service.  It's the one thing that you hope you never need to use, but if you ever do, it needs to be good.  But equally there gets to be a point where you might as well bank the additional cost and just build up a rainy day fund.  NFU has quoted me well over £1000 more than the others (Admiral, Halifax etc who all quotes around £600 ish) - and NFU's quote was without the extra add-ons like accidental cover.  If I suffered a significant loss I'd probably appreciate it, but for an average claim - say a leak- after 3-5 yrs I'd be overpaying vs. just sorting the repairs myself.  Direct line is around £500 more which feels like a more reasonable punt.
Gonna pick one, cross my fingers and jump.
Thx all

dunstonh

There's a definite gap in the market for a service that compares both price and service. 

That would be a broker.

NFU has quoted me well over £1000 more than the others (Admiral, Halifax etc who all quotes around £600 ish) - and NFU's quote was without the extra add-ons like accidental cover. 

NFU is who I am with and its over £2000 more than Admiral etc.  However, I chose NFU because Admiral would not pay out anywhere near as much as NFU.  Indeed, Admiral would not cover most of it.     However, we are a rural property which is where NFU comes into its own.  If you are on a standard town property then you are not necessarily in NFUs main market.

Sandtree

dunstonh said:
NFU is who I am with and its over £2000 more than Admiral etc.  However, I chose NFU because Admiral would not pay out anywhere near as much as NFU.  Indeed, Admiral would not cover most of if.     However, we are a rural property which is where NFU comes into its own.  If you are on a standard town property then you are not necessarily in NFUs main market.

I was surprised with my quote from NFU last year in that it was comparable to my Aviva/M&S policy and cheaper than Hiscox until our Personal Possessions cover was added which added £2,000... Aviva/M&S it added £200  and cannot remember the exact impact on Hiscox but the total Hiscox quote was sub £1,000

The main issue with the NFU policy for us was it had a fairly low PP single item limit and so there was a fair amount of jewerly, watches, camera equipment etc that had to be listed... I doubt we'd ever take all out at the same time but all do get taken out at times. Hiscox/Aviva both had a £15,000 single article limit so no items need declaring and just an overall cap declared.

City_Girl_3

I found a nice little guide that gives a decent amount of detail on quality of service: https://boughtbymany.com/news/article/top-10-home-insurance/.  

I though the NFU quote was high (and no, I'm not their main market as I'm outskirts of Greater London) but the John Lewis quote was well over £2000 - a lot like you had with NFU Sandtree, once I started listing all my gadgets and personal possessions etc, the price soared.

Also took a quote from Nationwide and it's in line with Direct line, but seems if I opened a savings account with them I'd save 25%.

Sandtree

City_Girl_3 said:

I found a nice little guide that gives a decent amount of detail on quality of service: https://boughtbymany.com/news/article/top-10-home-insurance/.  

The issue with guides, and particularly things like service, is they are so subjective. It can also be heavily influenced by branding....

Mucho Cheapo Insurance - £75/year 
Ultra Exclusive Insurance - £2,075/year 

If you had a customer of each of the above insurers with these premiums and ask to rate their service out of 5 after both had a 15 minute call waiting to speak to a claims handler. Despite both having the same service level its almost certain that the former may think 15 minutes isnt a bad wait time at all whereas the customer of the second may say its shockingly bad.

As I said previously, in an old Which? article (which may include their odd approach) one brand was comfortably in the upper 25% and another brand was exactly on the mid point. The brands were only customer facing, both were the same company, operated by the same call centres and with no differentiation in processes, KPIs etc.... I had been a claims handler and your headset said which brand they were calling so you changed your salutation but outside that and what paper to put in the printer it made no difference.

csgohan4

had good experience with Directline on claiming on home insurance, would use them again and renewed albeit 6£ more expensive than price comparison, but i can swallow that