Halifax vs Direct Line - too good to be true?

Dragon

Just received renewal of buildings & contents insurance from Direct Line and done a trawl through the home insurance websites as recommended by Martin.

Halifax offer such good cover (increased rebuild and contents figures) + protected NCD + home emergency cover £110 cheaper than my renewal quote.

Direct Line don't want to budge on price so am thinking of going with Halifax but am worried it may be too good to be true!

Can anyone put my mind at rest, or are there horror stories out there I should know about?

Froggitt

Have also recently had DL renewal through......didnt take long to beat the quote by £200......DL not interested in competing for the business so bye bye DL.

cattie

I've always had my Insurance with Halifax as it's who my mortgage is with. When I first took it out I was surprised at how competitive the price was & expected it to shoot up the following year on renewal, which it didn't. It does rise each year, but not by a great deal & each time I get the the renewal quote I do a search just to see if it's possible to get something any cheaper, but find that the deal I have can't be beaten. Having the ncd is a great help & I think it's a good idea.

I particularly like the way the cover for buildings & contents is a blanket cover, so you don't have to worry about doing sums to ensure whether you have adequate insurance or not. The other thing I like is the free key tag service for if you lose your door keys.

katskorner

We just took out a policy for our buildings and contents with Halifax as they came up cheapest in the InsureSupermarket site recommended by Martin. I was pretty impressed with the cover and surprised I beat my old premium by nearly £70 as my last company have been hard to beat the past few years (was with 1stquote.co.uk).

I only hope I have made the right choice if we need to claim!!

Dragon

Froggitt wrote:

Have also recently had DL renewal through......didnt take long to beat the quote by £200......DL not interested in competing for the business so bye bye DL.

Thanks for your reply Froggitt. Who did you go to in order to find a quote £200 cheaper? Sounds wonderful!

Dragon

I hope you've made the right choice too - because I'm about to do the same thing. Thanks for your reply.

zzzLazyDaisy

I was with DL last year. Got quote for £130 less than DL renewal quote. Phoned them and the girl said 'We do not price match - do you wish to cancel your policy?'. Bye Bye DL!!!!

Dragon

Thanks LazyDaisy - but who did you get your £130 less quote from?

Froggitt

DL reel you in with an introductory 25% discount and then rely on inertia and their "automatic renewal" facility.

We went to a broker we had used some years ago.....they do Lloyds of London syndicate policies, plus the leading ones. They are called something like Shearwater Insurances Services and are in Waltham Cross or somewhere nearby. Hope that helps.

Dragon

Thanks Froggitt - I'll try to find them.

amd

I'm also with Direct Line and my policy is set up for automatic renewal. However, when my Buildings & Contents quote came in last week at £198 I went to their online site and managed to get it down to £137 with a bit of manipulation - as I did last year.

They had increased my cover to include Extra Accidental Cover for buildings and contents, legal cover, and extra limits for valuables away from home which I didn't have before and didn't want this time. Infact, it was impossible to get the same quote on the online site. Don't know how they came to that £198 figure!

Going online meant I could juggle the figures to my liking . The website automatically gave me a £40k higher rebuild cover and £10k extra contents cover than the renewal quote - and it still came in £60 cheaper!

After chatting to their guy on the phone he reckoned it's cos I'm treated as a new customer by going online and therefore get a cheaper deal than renewing. So well worth a look.

Got an extra 10% as also have car insurance with them - due next month.... so will be getting my renewal quote direct from their website instead!!!

Be aware that if you buy online you also have to cancel the existing renewal quote or it will renew automatically and you'll have to claim it back!

Off to check the Halifax site just to see if they can do better! Got 2 days till renewal due!!
Edit - got the Halifax quote and their Buildings cover alone is £30 more than the Direct Line quote......! Suppose you really have to shop around to see what suits you. My mum lives 12 miles away from me and no one could beat a Norwich Union online quote for her property! Getting to the point where I am heartily sick of trawling around....