Home Contents Insurance with Direct Line

Malmo

I was hunting around for home contents insurance for a rented property and had trouble getting my new address recognised correctly by the insurance company databases. I'm moving into a new development and all the companies had the wrong address for my postcode. I had to phone around in the end as I didn't want to insure on an incorrect address.

Norwich Union were thoroughly unhelpful and said that they couldn't apply the online discount as I had "changed" the details of the quote over the phone. In other words, I was being penalised for their database having the wrong address and having to use the phone!

I phoned Direct Line in the end, with whom I have car insurance and I spoke to 2 members of staff - the first started a quote from scratch for me so that he could force the correct address through and took all the pertinent details and quoted me around £200 inc. bike cover, personal belongings etc. He told me to go back into the quote online and get an email confirmation and phone up again to retreve the qoute with the new details. I did so later in the day and spoke to a very helpful lady who bent over backwards to accommodate me and the "unusual" problem I was having. In the end, she was able to apply the online discount and the discount for having car insurance with them already and I got a quote, much to my surprise, of around £160, much less than the original quote! I took it up, as it just seemed like great value and I doubt very much anyone else could match it. Lloyds wanted £260 for pretty much the same cover.

So well done Direct Line! :T

Voyager2002

Yes, for my household insurance their quote was significantly lower than the competition. Of course, I don't know what kind of customer service I would receive if I ever had to make a claim ...

mooncat

brilliant customer service. ive previously had to deal with them when some moron wrote my car off and they were 100% brilliant. and you can always get straight through

divadee

Voyager2002 wrote:

Yes, for my household insurance their quote was significantly lower than the competition. Of course, I don't know what kind of customer service I would receive if I ever had to make a claim ...

i went with them the first year and got a great deal the 2nd year they put my insurance up by over £150 and i hadnt even claimed!!!!

When i said i could get it cheaper elsewhere they just said go ahead we wont price match. SO they lost me as a customer now. They even wrote begging letter afterwards but still wanted all the extra money.

I went with someone else and paid exactly what i had paid the previous year.

njm_2

I’m sorry but I can’t agree with the praise for Direct Line. We were insured with them for a number of years and when we moved we made all the arrangements over the phone. At the time we stated that we had a number of outbuildings/stables etc and they appeared happy to continue cover for both buildings and contents.
I set up one of the barns as a hobby workshop and wanted to confirm this was registered on the insurance document, which had not been a problem in my garage at our old house. After lengthy delays and repeated referral to the underwriters I was told that our policy was being cancelled with immediate effect! They refused to discuss the reasons, but eventually agreed to allow us 7 days to arrange alternative cover.

After several frantic calls I was able to arrange better cover for lower monthly premiums and took great pleasure in cancelling the policy early and telling them why – childish I know, but it made me feel better.

I don’t disagree that Direct Line are probably competitive if you live in a standard property, when compared to the other “known” providers, but it is always worth considering if there may be other niche providers if you live in a non-standard property or have expensive equipment for leisure or hobby pastimes. It is always worth considering brokers linked to your employment, union, leisure/hobby activities, or age (SAGA – for example) as you may be pleasantly surprised.