Tesco Home insurance not renewing my policy this year.

anotherquestion

Hi folks,

I have been a Tesco home insurance customer for a good number of years, did have one claim at end of 2016, but was offered and renewed every year since, have done an online quote with them on their website last week( to see if a new quote would be cheaper than renewal price)

At end of inputting details, they said we can't offer you insurance but then referred me to a different company. I did receive a letter today stating that as part of a review process with their underwriting teams they are not offering me insurance this year.

Out of curiosity I did an online quote for a house near me that is for sale, and same thing they will not offer insurance for it either, so only reason I can think of is that for some reason they are not offering insurance for other properties in my area.

I have actually taken out a policy for the coming year with a comparison website before I received Tesco decision in writing so will have insurance, but its a little concerning, that when inputting details on those sites one of the questions is "Have you ever been refused insurance by any company" 


 It seems it may well be a business decision on Tesco's part and they were happy enough to refer me to a different company, (when I did a new quote  online) Open and Direct and stated I would get a 10% discount.

It does concern me though because of that question on other websites about being refused insurance by a company, would I need to say yes in further years.?

Thanks

Mark_d

Occasionally insurance companies review their risk appetite.  Maybe the payouts for flood damage are getting very high and Tesco would rather avoid insuring properties in flood risk areas.

Tesco is not refusing to insure you - they are refusing to insure properties in your area.

DullGreyGuy

anotherquestion said:

Hi folks,

I have been a Tesco home insurance customer for a good number of years, did have one claim at end of 2016, but was offered and renewed every year since, have done an online quote with them on their website last week( to see if a new quote would be cheaper than renewal price)

At end of inputting details, they said we can't offer you insurance but then referred me to a different company. I did receive a letter today stating that as part of a review process with their underwriting teams they are not offering me insurance this year.

Out of curiosity I did an online quote for a house near me that is for sale, and same thing they will not offer insurance for it either, so only reason I can think of is that for some reason they are not offering insurance for other properties in my area.

I have actually taken out a policy for the coming year with a comparison website before I received Tesco decision in writing so will have insurance, but its a little concerning, that when inputting details on those sites one of the questions is "Have you ever been refused insurance by any company" 

Since it seems it may well be a business decision on Tesco's part and they were happy enough to refer me to a different company, (when I did a new quote  online) Open and Direct and stated I would get a 10% discount.

They have refused to quote not refused you insurance, so with the classic question there is nothing for you to declare. 

A minority of insurers have moved from the classic question and now are asking if anyone has declined to give you a renewal quote and so if they ask that you will have to answer "yes"

Aretnap

It's a terribly worded question, but apparently it's a throwback to the days when people bought insurance from a broker in an office in their local high street, rather than from a Meerkat. The broker didn't have full underwriting authority so he would give you a provisional quote based on an abridged version of the insurer's underwriting manual, along with a seven day cover note if you needed cover to start immediately, then he would send your details to an underwriter for a final decision.

Occasionally the underwriter would say no, but usually this only happened if you had some very unusual circumstances which weren't covered by the abridged underwriting manual, or they thought you'd lied about something. You were only considered to have been refused insurance if you were refused at this late stage.

Nowadays the whole process is done electronically in a matter of seconds and the gap between quote and acceptance doesn't really exist, but the question persists. 
 
Everybody who has ever used a comparison site has had an insurer not be able to quote for their details - if you scroll down to the bottom of the list there are always a few. Saga won't quote for you if you are under 50. Hiscox won't quote for your car if it cost less than about £50,000. There are probably specialist motor insurers dealing with high risk cases who won't quote for you unless you have at least one drink driving conviction. None of those things make you a pariah who must be excluded from getting mainstream insurance forever - which is why not quoting for your details isn't the same as being refused insurance.

anotherquestion

Thanks for all replies, well got insurance for under £500 including building and contents accidental damage, in spite of my early reluctance to take out only Buildings insurance.

Just noticed on a few of the sites I got a quote for over £10k per year, do they somehow think that someone is going to mistakenly click though and pay that price, for a normal coverage.

Aretnap

anotherquestion said:

Just noticed on a few of the sites I got a quote for over £10k per year, do they somehow think that someone is going to mistakenly click though and pay that price, for a normal coverage.

Someone once posted a screenshot of a car insurance quote for about £104,000, so yours is fairly affordable in comparison. It just means that they don't want your business, basically. The algorithm applies a loading, say 10x if the insurer already insures more houses in your street than they are comfortable with, and comes up with a silly number.

Some insurers will then just say "unable to quote for your details" if the number the algorithm spits out is above a certain threshold, others will show you the silly number in all it's glory. I suppose the advantage of the latter approach is that at least they don't get worried people ringing them up to ask if they now have to declare that they've been refused insurance.