Home and Contents Insurance

janetteosborne

Hi

Our Home and Contents insurance is up for renewal on 1st May. My husband is insisting that we stick with the Nationwide as he feels if there is a problem we can go and hammer on the desk and complain. We have been watching Martin on the TV and receive his emails and he says No to loyalty and that you should check out other insurance companies. This also relates to PPI aswell. What does everyone think please? Stay with the same company or shop around. Help.

Thanks

Janette

Mushy61

I'm in exactly the same position as you, renewal comes up on 1st May with the Nationwide.
A quick check through other insurance companies suggests that I could get my insurance cheaper by up to 50% than I'm paying now.
Check this thread by Martin to get the cheapest quotes and also possible cashback through Quidco etc

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/home-insurance

Although you can compare prices now, I've found that companies cannot give you a direct quote at the moment as your renewal date is more than 30 days to renewal, in which case it would be better if you get your quotes from the 2nd April.

janetteosborne

Hi Mushy61

Thanks. I'm glad we are not alone. What are you thinking of doing? Are you going to change or not? I'm hubby is concerned about not knowing who you are talking to and then they make excuses to weadle out of paying out.

Cheers

Janette:rolleyes:

Mushy61

Hi Janette,
Yes I am definitely shifting my insurance cover in May. I don't know if you checked the article I gave a link to earlier but on the 2nd April I'm going to check through all the companies and decide which one is best for me.

I also use quidco whenever possible, so if an insurance policy can also net me a bit of cashback too then all the better.

Not too sure about whether insurance firms weedle out of paying, I've only been insured with the Nationwide and never had any problems getting paid out.

Hope that helps.

lisyloo

If you are worried about service then you could go with a good company such as

http://www.hiscox.co.uk/

or talk to a broker and get their recommendation (or search the net for personal recommendations).

Of course you need to bear in mind that top service and the lowest prices do not necessarily go hand in hand, so you might not be able to have everything.

Making the ease with which to beat them up your main criteria seems to me to be going about it the wrong way. Why not approach it by trying to get a good company in the first place?

janetteosborne

Hi Isyloo

Sorry I shouldn't have put it that way should I? What I meant was that if you are not sure of the company and go with them and then have difficulties getting them to pay out then are you better staying with a well known company. I will have a go at the links everyone sent in .

Cheers

Janette

lisyloo

I think service is a valid concern and your husband is right.
It certainly has an effect if you stand outside the bank handing our leaflets so there is a benefit to having an local branch.

However a legal contract is a legal contract and there are various mechanisms for sorting these things out if a company is genuninely not carrying out their obligations.
There is the complaints route ending with the ombudsman which is free, and there is also the small claims court which is meant to be low cost and not overly bureaucratic.

But I agree you want a company that is going to help and not hinder you.
In this respect your options are to pay for superior cover, get recommendations or go through a broker (and then you need recommendations for a broker).

Another option open to you is to take care of everything.
I know that sounds trite and not everything is totally avoidable but we take great care of out possessions and have never had to make any claims.
We have a safe in our house, good locks, an alarm, never leave things unattended, lock bikes well, lock luggage onto racks and trolleys (with cable lock) and lock expensive items (like cameras) into the car boot inside a wire security cage.
It does take a little effort and time to lock and unlock things but we have never had to make a claim in several decades so I think it's worth the effort.
Oh and we've also avoided a few conmen as well by looking after our own luggage e.g. my husband avoided someone dressed like a hotel porter walking off with his
bag. We've also avoided a fake car hire person who was loading bags into an adjacent vehicle. Other tourists who were gassing lost their bags but we loaded ours personally and made sure they went onto the right vehicle.
I'm not saying everything is avoided but I think the majority of claims and accidents can be avoided with some effort and care.

shelly

Our Buildings and Contents insurer is the only insurance co we stay with year after year. I think we have been with them for about 4 or 5 yrs now. Cars and bikes we change as we get a better deal but it seems RIAS (our b&c insurer) are rewarding us for loyalty because consistently they have matched or bettered cheaper quotes than our renewal.
Can't comment on their customer service in the event of a claim because we have never had to claim.

As an example, our renewal came in a couple of weeks ago. It was for £290. I used a screen scraper and got it down to £219. I called them up to ask if they could match it and they did.

mark_rammond

Hello

I would recommend that you carefully analyse any insurance policies very carefully before deciding to switch to a product which may have the cheapest month to month premium but will ultimately provide inadequate insurance cover should you need it. You need to make sure that you will get help, that people will replace old for new and that you won't have to pay a large lump of cash if you make a claim.

Price comparison sites such as MoneySupermarket.com tend to cover products which are designed to appear in the top three quotes and this is achieved by companies stripping out everything that is worthwhile. After all, where would the margin be if companies just let people cherry-pick their cheapest apples? Insurers and Bookmakers are experts at analysis and aren't going to let you remove their profits by giving more value than it costs them!

Nationwide's home insurance cover is a quality product at an average price. If you must look around, try at least a decent comparison site such as TescoCompare.com or Confused.com and not one which is price only.

Cheers
Mark