Home insurance provider

sol2017

My home insurance is due for renewal and after looking online I'm struggling to decide which insurance to go with.

Based on the same insurance levels (excess, new for old, accidental damage etc) and roughly the same premiums I'm considering:

* AA
* Aviva
* LV
* More Than
(possibly Halifax because I have an account with them)

Any good or bad experiences with any of the above?

Feeling a bit lost with so many insurers so would appreciate any advice. 

I've had home insurance for several years but not had to claim. Came close to claiming this year so started considering policies more carefully, overthinking perhaps

I might be doing some building work next year (*not* DIY), don't know if that matters. 

baser999

I took a multi-policy (car and home) with Admiral a few years ago and have found them to be ‘open to discussion’ when renewal comes around. I’ve managed to chip away at respective elements of the renewal by stressing that I’ve got multi cover, or by simply saying I could take one or either element cheaper elsewhere. 

Bottom line though is you’ll never know what sort of company you’re with until you make a claim.
As for your building work, the builder should have insurance in place to cover most eventualities

SaverRate

Have a look at quotemehappy (its aviva's online only brand)

They wont negotiate on renewal though however there renewal prices for me and other family members have always been very good. 

Only ever claimed through the home emergency section of the policy. Homeserve (their home emergency provider) came out that afternoon! and i only had the policy for 2 days at that point

mgfvvc

A small claim with Halifax was bad enough to convince me that I didn't want to have to deal with them if I had a major claim, or even another small claim.

DullGreyGuy

AA is a broker/intermediary and so results are likely to be dependent on which insurer the business is placed with. Aviva, LV (now owned by Allianz) and MoreThan (an RSA brand) are all large direct to consumer insurers. They each have multiple products out there and so dont assume that because someone with Aviva's budget product has a bad experience that their mid market product would be the same.

Aviva are the insurers behind M&S's home insurance (or were last year when I renewed) and never have had any issue with them but again its a different channel and a different product so experiences may not be the same. 

JudgeDekker

I've honestly only ever had bad insurance experiences, so I no longer think it makes any difference who you buy it from. They're all terrible, so just pick the cheapest. I daresay that's a consequence of the comparison sites - the only thing they are really comparing is price, not service. Perhaps if you pay up for a specialist insurer you you would get something better, but I don't know, so I haven't.

Separately I notice that home insurance is up like 25% this year compared with last. Unpleasant.

dunstonh

I've honestly only ever had bad insurance experiences, so I no longer think it makes any difference who you buy it from.

Perhaps you are only buying insurance based on price and not quality.

Separately I notice that home insurance is up like 25% this year compared with last. Unpleasant.

That rather supports the theory you are buying on price, not quality.

They're all terrible, so just pick the cheapest.

No they are not.  However, if you continue picking the cheapest, it will reaffirm your opinion.  Cost is not a measure of quality, but the quality providers don't keep lopping things off their cover and service to enable them to appear top of the comparison site table.

dwsjarcmcd

Personally (based on working in Insurance for much of my working life, including 3 years with one of the major Price Comparison sites) I favour Insurers over Brokers, so for me, I wouldn't consider the AA but the others are fine.

The reason for this is that broker's tend to have more/higher fees - cancellation, mid-term adjustments etc and although many brokers will have delegated claims authority, anything slightly different or higher than their limit will need to be referred, slowing down the claims process.

All of the insurers you mention are fine, so it's a comparison of cover, excess and price for each.

sol2017

dunstonh said:

I've honestly only ever had bad insurance experiences, so I no longer think it makes any difference who you buy it from.

Perhaps you are only buying insurance based on price and not quality.

Isn't that the problem though? Unless you make a claim you will not know whether you've bought based on price or quality.... Can you name the insurers/policies that represent 'quality' in your eyes?

Thank you all for the comments. My takeaway from this is to buy from insurers rather than brokers. 

This year I've stayed with Tesco Bank insurance that I had insured with before, only because I left it too late to research other policies. Hopefully I don't have to claim.

dunstonh

Isn't that the problem though? Unless you make a claim you will not know whether you've bought based on price or quality..

The quality providers are generally known.  Many of whom do not appear on comparison sites.

Can you name the insurers/policies that represent 'quality' in your eyes?

Hiscox, NFU and a number of others  (although some of them also have a near budget end product for comparison sites or quick sale distributions)

DullGreyGuy

sol2017 said:

dunstonh said:

I've honestly only ever had bad insurance experiences, so I no longer think it makes any difference who you buy it from.

Perhaps you are only buying insurance based on price and not quality.

Isn't that the problem though? Unless you make a claim you will not know whether you've bought based on price or quality.... Can you name the insurers/policies that represent 'quality' in your eyes?

You will know because you will know that you bought the cheapest price you could find or if you intentionally sort out higher tier products and bought them despite the price. 

There can be a problem that you may pay more than the cheapest possible price to go with an established name and so feel you are buying on quality rather than price but unless you know the market that may not be what you get. Many large providers have both bargain basement and top tier products and so brand alone isnt always enough to be sure.