Boiler Cover

Bullet500

We have had British Gas Boiler cover for at least the last 12 years, in this house for 4 of the 12 years. The boiler is approx 4 years old, house is 28 years old. New quote came through from British Gas today £320 for the year, for the Boiler Pump and Controls and i'm sure it covers hot water tank as well.. I have been possibly looking at signing up with someone else, but while British gas don't charge for a call out and include a boiler service the other companies don't seem to include a service and call out charges seem to be around the £90 a visit charge. I don't need cover on pipework or radiators or any of the plumbing, being a retired plumber i can cope with this, just not the boiler or controls. I packed the plumbing in about 25 years back when we moved to another part of the country, so all Gas qualifications are now void, plus things have moved on since i last did any work on Gas Boilers etc.  Anyone got any views on the forms who are offering Boiler contracts, or should i stay with British Gas. Any advice appreciated 

daveyjp

Many home insurance companies now offer home emergency cover.  I paid about £100 on a John Lewis policy and this included a boiler inspection, which would be £60-70 on its own.

QrizB

The general rule with discetionary insurance (as opposed to eg. third-party car insurance) is that it's not worth insuring against anything you can afford to pay for.

k_man

There is another benefit of boiler/heating insurance based cover, in that when you have a problem, someone actually turns up, quite quickly.

I took out cover (with BG at the time), after being let down repeatedly by local tradesmen, who either weren't interested, wanted a big callout, or didn't turn up.

At the time I don't think BG (or the other bigger providers) offered a one-off repair as they do now.

vic_sf49

My friend had the opposite issue with BG boiler cover. They told her to get someone local, pay for the work and claim it back.

All successfully claimed although it took weeks, but the point of the cover is so you don't have to find hundreds of pounds on the spot.

She's cancelled her policy, and will never be using BG again.

k_man

I think the last 2 years have been special circumstances.

And I haven't needed to call on the repair services for a few years, so come renewal I will re-evaluate.
No longer with BG though, as premiums went up a lot over the years.

But if there are deals around, e.g cashback, then it may be worth it just for the yearly service.

whitewitch21

Can anyone recommend a good alternative to BG please - our Homecare cover is going up and up at every renew. Thanks in advance.

Bullet500

Thanks for all the reply's, i have now looked into a good few alternative cover options and they while initially they all seem cheaper, when you add up the extras its not so cheap. As much as British Gas is more expensive i think for now we think for now its probably better to stick with them for another year. 

SaverRate

Homeserve is better than British Gas. I have home insurance with QuoteMeHappy (Aviva) who use Homeserve for home emergency cover. They came out after only 2 days of having the policy and came out the same day for a small leak on the mains water. Was very happy with the service. 

Note - If you do go with home emergency cover via home insurance make sure it covers everything you want it to! the QMH home emergency doesn’t cover the main from the meter to the internal stopcock or replacement taps so have taken out separate cover via Homeserve to cover this! (75p a month and £30 excess per claim)