Home Insurance Cost Cutting System/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

janthemum

My house insurance runs out 31st of this month, April. We got the usual letter about renewal through the post a couple of weeks ago to say the total for the following year for our 3 bedroomed terraced house for builing and contents insurance would be.......£1,068.38... yes thats right an unbelievable £1,068.38

This is with The Halifax. For the past 19 years we havn't quetioned this and just paid what they have quoted along with our mortgage payments each month. So for building and contents insurance this has been OVER £100 a month. Since having been enlightened by martin on this site myself and OH questioned this when it popped through the door at the end of last month. This time we were not going to just accept it. Last week i called Halifax and after 5 mins they bought the total down to £568. I was ecstatic.

My OT whom I introduced to Martins Money in November insisted we look around futher. Today we got insurance from barclays for £245.99 for the year for building and contents. SAVING £822.39 a year giving us £68.53 more a month. On comparing the T@C's the house gets rebuilt if anything happens and contents insured for a comparable amount so we are quids in. But wouldn't have questioned the renewable amount from the halifax had it not been for Martin. Thankyou.

Nearly forgot, went through Quidco and hopefully will get £55.

Once more THANK YOU MARTIN :money: and the rest of you MSE's

peege

I have had contents insurance with LiverpoolVictoria for several years but premium has been going up £50 every year for no reason( I stay with them because I have a 6 bed house which is outside a lot of companies cover, also the contents limit is £125000 which removes any worry about under insuring). Tried insuresupermarket.com but most companies stop at 5 bedroom houses, however using link to LiverpoolVictoria gave me a saving of £100.
Contacted LiverpoolVictoria by phone to query cost difference and was advised that they would cancel my renewal policy and I could take the insurance through the net.
It pays to ask the question! :A

phil140701

a little trick i learnt a while ago to save money on car insurance is to name a person over 30 with no convictions i am 23 have a landrover 3 series 2 1/4 petrol it would have cost £1800 for me to insure i'm pleased to say after folowing martins advice and using this method i am now insured through cis insurance fully comp for £163 with breakdown so my message is if i can save this much how much can you save?????

mike41

Dear all,

You need to know, as Barclays don't advertise it, that the price match and £50 cashback only applies to quotes within a £100 of your renewal.

My renewal is £184 but Barclays was £286. So they could do nothing. I rang twice to confirm this. There is nothing, that I could find, on their website stating this.

So Martin, maybe you could update the relevant page regarding this matter.

Mike41

By the way in recent years I have found that esure have been the cheapest.
i.e. £99,730 rebuild, £50,000 contents, full accidental and £2,500 away from home.

darky

homersimpson wrote:

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

In answer to your thread (I work for an Insurer). You can ring your insurer up and pay all of thre premium if you like. There is no discount for this. The reason for the instalment interest is because if you dont pay up front the insurer dosen't receive all of your premium until month 12. Most insurers invest your premiums in the stock market and the returns help to pay the claims so if they don't get all the premiuum up front they don't get the investment return as quickly. Regarding the redress issure there wont be any - all Companies make it crystal clear that you will be paying interest on the Direct Debit mandates - they are forced to by the FSA (Financial Services Authority). Hope this helps

darky

phil140701 wrote:

a little trick i learnt a while ago to save money on car insurance is to name a person over 30 with no convictions i am 23 have a landrover 3 series 2 1/4 petrol it would have cost £1800 for me to insure i'm pleased to say after folowing martins advice and using this method i am now insured through cis insurance fully comp for £163 with breakdown so my message is if i can save this much how much can you save?????

I dont think Martins advice would have suggested this although I havent read the original thread. To get the premium discounted to the rate you have got means you would have stated that you were not the main driver of the car which clearly you are - if you have to claim dont be surprised when the insurer dosen't pay out. Why don't you just say your car is a 1 litre mini then the premium will reduce even further - or say you are 71??. Its fraudsters like you that make insurance more expensive for everyone else.

darky

hoopstars wrote:

Hi
We bought our house as a 6 bedroom house but only use 4 as bedrooms, does anyone know if I have to tell insurance companies that it is 6 bedrooms (they usually ask how many) or can I tell them it's 4 as that's all I use? Obviously I need to do this properly as should I need to claim everything has to have been done honestly. I have noticed a difference in quotes for 6 and 4 beds but my insurance company tell me it doesn't make any difference to the quote! Does anyone out there know the answer? Also my buildings ins is due for renewal and I have used Martins advice and got a "best" quote from Masterquote/Equity Red Star, Has anyone had dealings with this company? Are they ok?
Many thanks, any advice is appreciated as I am new to all this!

Yopu have to declare as 6 bedrooms and as you know it does make a difference to the quote. Reason is insurers calculate a 'notional' sum insured for rebuild cost of your house based on the number of bedrooms. Basically it means that they put a rebuild value on your house (sum insured) based on its perceived size due its number of bedrooms (i.e. a 6 bedroom house is likely to cost more to rebuild than a 4 bedroom house if the whole house had to be rebuilt following a claim) - therefore the premiums are more expensive the more number of bedrooms you have. Hope that helps

darky

colmil wrote:

My existing house contents insurance is now due for remewal at £121 (not mentioning their name for reasons that will soon become clear.)

I recently dropped my laptop but due to working away from home I have not had time to make a claim.

Having looked at other prices, it seems that I can save a good amount by changing insurers, but how would a new insurer react to a claim from me within a few weeks of taking out a new policy?

They wont pay it because the claim happened when you were insured by the other company

bylromarha

Now that's wierd.

Excess of £100 gives cheaper quotes on insuresupermarket and confused than a £150 excess.

Anyone else found this?

pmdonovan

Hi all,

First post to the MSE forums and would be grateful for some help if possible. Have lived in our place for 3 years now and have been paying an absolute fortune on buildings and contents cover. Have done some shopping around, found some great quotes, and then come up against a major problem.

The survey we had done when we purchased said this:

'...no signs of significant structural movement. There is some bulging of of the masonry which we believe has been caused by old settlement of the building but this is not considered significant and being long standing, no remedial work is necessary'.

The mortgage company were happy, and their tied insurance were too. I've now found that, being brutally honest with the insurance companies I have approached, no one wants to cover us because of this 'settlement' or are imposing premiums in excess of what we are paying at the moment.

Has anyone else experienced this. There is no indication of any form of recent settlement, slip or heave and I can't even see where the original 'problem' area is!

Grateful for your views

Paul