British Gas Homecare insurance - Expensive !

Primrose

(Am re-posting - my first one doesn't seem to have arrived)

We have British Gas Home Care300 insurance which covers central heating boiler maintenance/repair, drains & plumbing cover and call out-repair for 3 kitchen appliances. The renewal notice has just arrived for £448.50, with a £25 discount for "No Claims" last year. This now seems very expensive to me although we've paid in the past for the peace of mind this brings in an emergency. Does anybody know if there are other national companies around which offer this kind of service, possibly at a cheaper rate? And how reliable are they? Thanks

jonesMUFCforever

We pay £16 per month with British Gas just to cover our central heating boiler.
This has saved us loads over the years and we get an annual maintenance visit.
During the last 5 years we have had one incident of a blocked drain and it cost us £140 for Dyno Rod to clear it.

We don't have any insurance cover for kitchen appliances - if they work well for the first 12 months under guarantee I find that they will work for many more.
Just look these days for example how cheap washing machines are just to replace rather than repair.

Work back about 5 years or so and calculate how much you have actually paid for these bills and amend cover accordingly.

If you want drains/plumbing cover then see what your Water board has to offer.

I agree that you are paying too much.

Put the rest in a small account somewhere so if an emergency does occur then you will have funds to meet it.

dunstonh

We pay £18 pm with BG for central heating and have had a number of parts repaired which would have cost more than we paid BG (circuitboard for one). Plus I get the boiler serviced once a year.

We didnt bother with the rest of the cover options because I think it doesnt represent good value. Central Heating only does though.

spspyrou

I've just checked out BG's Homecare Insurance as I just got charged silly money by a plummer to get my combi heating the water to a steady temperature. I'm pleasantly surprised at the cost - £13. Posts in moneysavingexpert.com had led me to expect more.. are there any hidden costs that i should be aware off?
Thanks in advance.

jonesMUFCforever

None that I know of.

judyjetson

I have the Homecare 400 and it's been a godsend. The pump on the boiler went, BG came out next day and repaired it. Next day, noticed it was leaking slightly, BG came out same day, replaced it with what the engineer described as a better pump, replaced a couple of other things he said might as well replace, to update them, and flushed the system at no additional charge. He was here for around four hours so goodness what that would have cost me altogether had I had to pay.

Latest has been our water cylinder developed a leak and that's covered under Homecare 400 - we would have been looking at around £600-£700 to replace. There's not many policies that cover that that I'm aware of.

On the downside, I forgot it covered some household appliances and I've just bought a new tumble drier when I could have got the old one repaired.