Home Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

Former_MSE_Archna

This is an old discussion relating to the Home Insurance Cost Cutting guide.

Please use this thread to Discuss Home Insurance Cost Cutting

See old thread here.

homersimpson_3

i just read martin's article on household insurance- basically says don't pay by monthly installments because company lends you money and you pay interest. is this true?
if you have opted to pay by monthly installments should you ring up insurer and tell them you want to pay all of it. should they offer you discount? can you insist on it? do you have any redress if company did not tell you they are lending you money and paying interest.
thanks

TheDink

I've used confused.com as a starting point for car insurance for the last few years and hadn't known they are starting up home insurance as well.

One problem I have had with insuresupermarket is that because the form is quick and simple to fill in, they make lots of assumptions about the policy you require. Unless you have a completely "standard", reasonably modern home with all the security features, and no claims, the prices it quotes are meaningless. When you click through to the sites at the top of the list and fill in actual details, prices can soar.

Could we petition them to provide options for a quick & dirty quote, and a more detailed quote (along the lines of that provided by confused.com)?

I've had quotes recently for 2 properties and Halifax came up cheapest by far for both. They are currently offering 25% discount if you buy on line.

Grazer_2

I've just used the guide to save £350 on my buildings & contents insurance :j :j

I was previously with Norwich Union and my renewal quote was £790 - I searched through insuresupermarket.com and it came up with a quote for £330 from Halifax which rose to £440 when I filled in all my details on the Halifax site.

Halifax DO offer interest-free monthly payments over 12 months (I added it up to confirm and the monthly repayments actually came to 20p less than the single payment figure for some reason).

P.S. Halifax told me it was a 20% discount for online application - still great :beer:

Dee_2

I too am looking for a cheap but comprehensive insurance policy for my building and contents. I tried Insure Supermarket and was quoted £99.77 with Halifax. I was a little worried about the assumptions so rang for a telephone quote. The very helpful operator gave me a quote of £103 but recommended that I buy the policy on line as there was a 25% discount. I tried to buy over the Internet and was quoted £114.23 and this was with the discount. I was looking for a way to get a good quote but as these are all with the Halifax I am still totally confused. Can anyone help me?

marylee

Am due to renew building and contents insurance. It's gone up by nearly £50 with Saga. Can anybody recommend a comppany, please? Thanks

coolio_2

look at halifax, online their website is screwed so it deducts too much, doesnt add too much on, etc. Just play around with the buttons. The '£39.99 emergency cover' one on the left is quite good because sometimes when yoiu flag it, it doesnt do anything, but when you unflag it takes £39.99 off. Also, the top right hand corner, you can crank that up to the £15,000 and it doesnt do much either. When I first got the quote it said £224 for £75 excess, no accidental damage, and only £5000 high risk cover. Managed to get it for £185., no excess, accidental damage and £15000 high risk.

Having said that, I had a claim for the first time in 5 years last yr with them and they were awful, truly awful. But they are half the price of anywhere else so you pay your chances. Also, I sometimes wonder whether any company is truly perfect and maybe they just dropped the ball with me.

Ian_W

Went thro' the sequence as per Martin's article.

Agree that insuresupermarkets assumptions make the quote fairly meaningless other than you can go direct to the cheapest and check it out yourself. It was Halifax for me which came out £50pa cheaper than my current insurer - a group scheme underwritten by Norwich Union. Confused.com declined to quote, maybe cos we had a minor water damage claim [burst pipe, not flooding] 4 years ago, maybe they don't like me!!

Also gota quote from RIAS [over 50ys-ads on TV] similar to Halifax.

Went back to my current insurer with both in writing, they've agreed a £50 "no-claims bonus" and their policy has no excess on general claims and only £500 on subidence [compared to standard £1000]. So I'll contine with them but have saved £50 on their original renewal quote. :beer:

Thanks, Martin. :money: :T

rainee

just had my renewalls from more than and has gone up almost £70 .
halifax approx £250.00 less so will go with them unless my old insurer RAIS can do any better

ads_2

Hi,

Has anyone heard about problems with subsidence claims after switching buildings insurance?

I have recently switched buildings insurance and someone has told me that the insurer could weedle out of a claim because the subsidence could have happened before I took the cover out.

I must say that this question is hyperthetical but I'm interested.

Any info would be appreciated.
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darky

Just been reading a lot of these threads and they nearly all focus on price - beware you get what you pay for - especially with Paymentshield. It may be cheap BUT theres a reason - the cover is extremely poor - its probably the worst on the market.

Look at it logically, the premiums are far cheaper than nearly anywhere else.

Its an intermediated business (i.e - they pay commission for someone else to sell it) which they pay 27.5% commission for so.........

The insurer (which pays out the claims) not only receives a low premium but also 27.5% fee for commission paid to its agents.....

Dosen't leave much in the pot to pay claims. I know of 3 people who have had theses policies and all have had trouble at claims stage.

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!!!!!!