Insurance for appliances

Flowers_123

Hi, I had a new kitchen fitted a couple of years ago with all new appliances (oven, cooker, washer/dryer, dishwasher) and they all came with a 2 years guarantee individually. I’ve now got letters from them to take out cover with them
im Wondering if this is the best and cheapest way of covering them or it’s just wasting money? 

macman

It's a waste of money. White goods are generally very reliable. Much cheaper to self-insure.
If you do purchase an extended warranty, buy it direct from the insurer, it's usually half the price offered via  the retailer.

grumbler

macman said:

If you do purchase an extended warranty, buy it direct from the insurer, it's usually half the price offered via  the retailer.

And read the small print - what they will pay you if they find the appliance 'beyond economical repair'. Typically it's sort of remaining value - much less than you need for buying a replacement.

greyteam1959

Waste of money.
In my opinion 

FreeBear

Never, ever bothered with an extended warranty for any appliance here. If one were to fail, it would normally happen within the first 6-12 months. If an appliance works for the first year, it will probably keep going for another 5 or more.

That said, I did have a bread maker fail within the first 8 months. The retailer honoured the 2 year warranty, and provided a replacement without any quibble. A manager even delivered it personally to my door.

Apodemus

Another vote for self-insuring!  If you added up the individual cost of each appliance insurance that is offered at purchase, you would proabably come pretty close to the cost to the cost of replacing an appliance each year.

jonnydeppiwish!

Another vote for not insuring - put the money aside each month for 5 years and then, when they invariably start to go wrong, either buy a new one or get a local repair shop to fix them.
Appliances are supposed to be returning to ‘easier’ fix rather than just replace with new over the next few years.

Bigphil1474

We have a policy with Domestic & General just for our Electric/Gas range oven. It costs about £200 a year, but covers all parts and labour. They've just come out because the grill control knob broke off and one side of the grill element is a bit warped. They took a look and need to get parts and come back Friday - they are going to replace those 2 parts plus the other side of the grill, and after checking the rest of the cooker, they said the fan oven motor is running too slow so will replace that. I think I got my money's worth this year. We've had maybe 4 occasions we've used them in the last 5 years so I think I'm not too far out of pocket.

The good thing with D&G is that it's easy to get an engineer out (took 2 days via online booking), and they've no incentive to do unnecessary work. Not the cheapest, but for me it's a reasonable solution. The policy does state they will fund a new replacement if it can't be fixed.

AFAIK, adding a second item would reduce the cost per item but not sure. I don't cover the washer/fridge etc., but the cooker took 3 of us to get in, was difficult to source due to the size of the opening available, and would be a real PITA if we had to replace. 

Main problem I found is that it's really hard to get anyone out to fix minor problems, if you do find someone, the cost per visit is high, and you can never be sure they aren't doing unnecessary work.

grumbler

Bigphil1474 said:

We have a policy with Domestic & General just for our Electric/Gas range oven. It costs about £200 a year,.... We've had maybe 4 occasions we've used them in the last 5 years so I think I'm not too far out of pocket.

£1K over 5 years to service some bloody cooker?! You must be joking!
Both my hob and oven are 20 y.o. and I didn't pay a penny to keep them alive. 

FreeBear

grumbler said:

Bigphil1474 said:

We have a policy with Domestic & General just for our Electric/Gas range oven. It costs about £200 a year,.... We've had maybe 4 occasions we've used them in the last 5 years so I think I'm not too far out of pocket.

£1K over 5 years to service some bloody cooker?! You must be joking!
Both my hob and oven are 20 y.o. and I didn't pay a penny to keep them alive. 

No. That is £1k over 5 years to have someone on standby that can come out and fix the cooker in about a week if it goes wrong. A regular service would cost extra. Some of these big range cookers cost several thousands, and gas appliances should be serviced regularly - Build a relationship with who ever does the servicing, and call them out for any repairs should something fail. Speed of service will probably be as good, if not better, and you're not bunging out £200 per year on a maybe.

Apodemus

Bigphil1474 said:

They've just come out because the grill control knob broke off and one side of the grill element is a bit warped...

...they are going to replace those 2 parts plus the other side of the grill, and after checking the rest of the cooker, they said the fan oven motor is running too slow so will replace that...

...if you do find someone, the cost per visit is high, and you can never be sure they aren't doing unnecessary work.

The irony!  Looks to me as if they are living up to your expectations, it's just that they are managing to charge the insurance company for the unnecessary work!