Advice on Appliance Insurance

DullGreyGuy

Albermarle said:

That said, we've claimed on our insurance a few times over about 30 years in this house. A slipped spanner led to replacing the bathroom suit, a storm lead to a power outage and the freezer never worked again, and an over loaded wall cupboard collapsed, smashing the cooker underneath and everything in its path as well as leading to food wastage because of fresh food that couldn't be cooked before the new cooker arrived and which wouldn't fit in the freezer

As to reliability? Its swings and roundabouts. Our 2 year old freezer broke down 3 times but its twin fridge hasn't once in 5 years. Our 5 year old washer drier broke twice this year. Have other items 10 years old with no issues.

We must be lucky, as in 35 years have never claimed on insurance for the house

Never chosen to make a Home claim in my life, inevitably minor things could have been claimed but weren't cost effective to and the one biggish loss I had was back in uni days when uninsured. 

There are many factors that come to play, luck is certainly one of them though. The bigger of our two locals has two glass dishwashers, identical models bought at the same time. In the last two years one has broken down 3 times with totally different faults and the other hasn't had any faults. I'd be highly surprised if there was a material difference in use level as both are running constantly as it's a giant place with massive river views on an urban walking route so popular with many. 

FreeBear

DullGreyGuy said:

FreeBear said:

DullGreyGuy said: ... your warranty almost certainly focuses on mechanical breakdown, though some have accidental damage cover. Your home insurance will explicitly exclude mechanical breakdown or wear & tear

Most white goods come with extended warranties now. 2, 3, or even 5 years on some products. So not really much point in taking out insurance when the manufacturer would fix a breakdown. On top of that, the vast majority of appliances are pretty reliable - The last time I had to repair a cooker was when a ring broke on a 25+ year old thing.

What the OP is talking about is rarely insurance, from a legal perspective, but are extended warranties or service plans. Many of the extended warranties you are talking about are from the likes of D&G and once those run out they then market an extension that you start paying for to you.

I had in mind the 2 year warranty from Beko, and the 5 year warranty from Bosch - Both free, and other manufacturers will offer similar warranties (subject to terms & conditions).

DullGreyGuy

FreeBear said:

DullGreyGuy said:

FreeBear said:

DullGreyGuy said: ... your warranty almost certainly focuses on mechanical breakdown, though some have accidental damage cover. Your home insurance will explicitly exclude mechanical breakdown or wear & tear

Most white goods come with extended warranties now. 2, 3, or even 5 years on some products. So not really much point in taking out insurance when the manufacturer would fix a breakdown. On top of that, the vast majority of appliances are pretty reliable - The last time I had to repair a cooker was when a ring broke on a 25+ year old thing.

What the OP is talking about is rarely insurance, from a legal perspective, but are extended warranties or service plans. Many of the extended warranties you are talking about are from the likes of D&G and once those run out they then market an extension that you start paying for to you.

I had in mind the 2 year warranty from Beko, and the 5 year warranty from Bosch - Both free, and other manufacturers will offer similar warranties (subject to terms & conditions).

Yes, and some of those are provided/serviced by a third party agent on behalf of the manufacture. Normally part of the deal is that after the initial extended warranty period has expired the provider can then market a paid for additional warranty/care plan which may or may not be branded to the manufacturer. 

Miele is similar, you get a 1 year warranty as standard, extended to 2-5 years on registration and afterwards Miele/D&G cobrand an offer to extend the warranty further for £X/year  

Insurance is a legally defined term, if something is insurance you must be registered with the PRA to underwrite it, registered with the FCA to sell it, you must hold capital reserves in line with Solvency II and report to the regulator your positions against the SCR, your management plans if the SCR drops etc. You must have a forma complaints process, pay levies to the Financial Ombudsman and give your customers right to complain to the FOS if they are unhappy with you. 

Warranty/care plan etc are not legally defined, anyone can offer one and sell one. You only need to follow standard accounting practices in terms of holding money for future liabilities which is a lot less onerous, no reporting to regulators and no access to the Financial Ombudsman. 

Companies have spent a lot of money to try and ensure their products are warranties and not insurance.

D&G actually offer both warranties and insurance but heavily slanted to the former. 

Bigphil1474

GetEVN said:

Bigphil1474 said:

What is the cooker insurance for and what does it cover? I have a cooker policy with Domestic & General which we took out as the cooker cost a lot (to us), and we don't have anyone local we know who could repair it. We've probably broke even after about 8 years as we had a couple of repairs each of the last 4 years.  It covers all breakdowns and provides a new cooker should it be unrepairable. If the cooker is easily replaceable, I wouldn't bother, but ours is a duel fuel range cooker that took 4 people to get in, and the OH loves it, so it was easier for me to get the cover.

It's pretty much the same I think its even D&G that do it, ours is just a plain electric cooker, I bought everything super on the cheap when I renovated my house as It got convereted from a business premises. (I didnt have a kitchen at all to start with). Mine only took two very kind brothers to lift in and one very long suffering electrician to install. 

I just had a look and the "modern equiv" is £380 ish now, I definetly agree it makes sense if we ever get anything fancier *Dreaming in Agas* 

Funnily enough, the only repairs we've ever had have been on the electric side. We've had the gas serviced from time to time, but it has 4 or 5 electric heating elements within it which have all been changed (the grill one twice), and the motor for the fan over has been replaced twice - the first time because the old one went, and the second time because the second engineer said the wrong motor had been fitted previously. The problem as I saw it was if we do lose a heating element, they aren't that expensive or difficult to buy but can cost to get someone to come out and fit it, so the cost of the plan wasn't that extortionate really. I would agree that a low cost cooker probably isn't worth covering. 

By the way, our new house has a range cooker but I won't be moving the plan with us - the OH want's those cold to the touch convection ring hob thingamys instead of gas.

DullGreyGuy

Bigphil1474 said:
By the way, our new house has a range cooker but I won't be moving the plan with us - the OH want's those cold to the touch convection ring hob thingamys instead of gas.

Think you mean induction hob? Modern ranges come with them too these days. 

PS. be warned that they aren't exactly cold to the touch... the magnet heats the metal of the pan not the glass that in-between the pan and the magnet so there is no direct heat but conduction means that that the metal of the pan will transfer some heat to the glass. Nothing compared to a gas or ceramic hob but you wouldn't want to be touching the glass bare handed immediately after removing a pan thats been on there for an hour on a high setting. 

UncleK

Just had Domestic and General on the phone trying to extend the policy on our fridge (which was a free policy up until now). They wanted a "special offer" premium of £4.89/month to cover a fridge that cost us £289 pounds to buy - so if we took the policy for five years we would have paid for it again! How often do fridges go wrong?
These policies are - for most people - a rip off, IMHO. Either don't bother or put the premiums being talked about in a jar or a savings account in case the worse happens - whatever you do, don't pay these bandits.