Home Insurance Discussion

paddyandstumpy

Quentin wrote: »

You've hit on the main drawback (possibility of double excesses)

If you've got two separate policies or even a combined policy with someone like the AA or Saga (who are the only two Brokers I can think of that split risks) then paying two excesses is guaranteed.

And having to deal with two different insurers at point of claim.

Mr_Benn

i need to sit down again and do the quotes as i was suprised that it seemed to work out cheaper by doing seperate policies. Though as I said, the other plus was possibly getting 2 types cashback (im waiting confirmation of that too) ;-)

sunny427

Just want to put this out to all the members. Why are comparison site quotes for home insurance cheaper?
Reason being a proper insurance policy would be underwritten at source, from the start (£700). If you buy a policy from the comparison sites (say £200) , it will omnly be underwritten when you make a claim
I have not read all the posts but just want to know if anyine is aware of this? Even Martin lewis does appear to mention this in any of his articles.
Or have I got it completely wrong?

dacouch

sunny427 wrote: »

Just want to put this out to all the members. Why are comparison site quotes for home insurance cheaper?
Reason being a proper insurance policy would be underwritten at source, from the start (£700). If you buy a policy from the comparison sites (say £200) , it will omnly be underwritten when you make a claim
I have not read all the posts but just want to know if anyine is aware of this? Even Martin lewis does appear to mention this in any of his articles.
Or have I got it completely wrong?

What are you talking about?

anita116

I posted here after my home burnt down to the ground on 12th November 2014.

After over two years, I am still battling with the insurers and have gone to the ombudsman. A strong piece of advice I would give anyone is to have contents and buildings with the same insurers.

There seems to be many grey areas about what fits where in law/common practice and many many anomalies that bear little resemblance, if any, to common sense. At least I am only battling with one company and not two.

familyguy321

Hi all,

Bit of advice needed please.

Home Insurance is due for renewal on Sunday. Had a call from my current insurers (Policy Expert) yesterday evening and they have quoted £104 (including Legal Expenses) which is around the same price I paid last year (£99). This includes the Legal Expenses and Home Emergency cover that I had last year.

I am always hesitate to renew with the same providers but the cheapest on comparison sites is British Gas at £77, not including Legal Expenses or Home Emergency.

Can anyone recommend an insurer I can go to directly (through cashback site of course) that could offer a cheaper deal (once cashback taken into account).

Regards,
FG

Christhetiger

Just one to be aware of and beware of I don't know whether they actually can do this but the person I have just spoken to at LV refused to budge. I have received my home insurance renewal and rang today to try and negotiate a better price - the cover runs out at midnight tonight with the new policy running from 1/6 tomorrow. As I pay monthly she refused to discuss as the payments are set 5 days before the renewal date which I think is outrageous. It is hidden in the small print and is something I didn't realise and so they would not budge on price. As I said to her I have just phoned BT to negotiate the price and they have given me half price for 18 months and have adjusted last months payment that has already been paid by DD. Both paid by DD. Both continuous cover. They have definitely lost my home buildings and contents from next year and before that the 3 car insurance policies we have. Another example of the arrogance of companies taking existing customers for granted. Take care and read the small print!

PhylPho

The wiggle room that some home insurers seem to want so as to get out of paying out on a claim gets worse by the year. I'm surprised MSE hasn't updated its reporting / advice in regard to insurers' small-print fine-tuning.

Our buildings/contents insurance expires next week so I've just taken advantage of MSE's existing guide to compare several insurers. What's become obvious are the sheer number of questions designed to trip up the unwary:

*locks to external doors comply with BS specification? I've no idea. How am I supposed to find out?

* rebuild value of your property? Again, no idea. One insurer suggested I refer to any recent survey report on my home. Oh really?

* contents of your property? One insurer wants me to know that contents includes bathroom suites, and so the total cost must not under-estimate the price of new baths, sinks, and toilets. I'd mistakenly thought all that was integral to buildings cover, but now am told that it isn't. So. . . How do I accurately state a contents replacement figure other than by visiting a plumber's merchant?

* Present market value of your home? How the hell do I know? The property market is volatile. What a seller thinks isn't what a buyer thinks.

(NOTE: all the above questions, be it about BS door lock specs or today's market value or the cost of new toilets appear in online proposal forms which insurers blithely state require "only a few minutes to complete". . .)

* Excess. At least one insurer coyly hid the compulsory figure until verge-of-payment. Others used £100 as the default minimum voluntary excess. Only at the payment stage did it become obvious that the total excess would be £150 for any buildings or contents claim. An excess on that scale certainly undermined the wisdom of paying to insure unspecified goods away from home.

As to special offers: I went through the rigmarole of checking out the "Insure4Retirement" MSE offer, which promises a £75 Amazon voucher to those who buy its policy. But, but: so it should. The quote from Insure4Retirement came in at so high a figure that deducting the £75 payback merely brought the price down to the same ballpark within which almost all rival quotes existed.

Mrs P and I have been happy with Top Cashback over the years. Checking there and I've found insurer RIAS which, to its credit, didn't ask idiotic questions about tell-us-the-rebuild-cost-of-your home (buildings rebuild standard cover: £1 million), or tell-us-the-cost-of-contents-in-your-home (contents standard cover: £50,000), or seek to know the technical specification of the locks to our external doors, or what price I'd get for our home if I sold it now.

It didn't fudge the excesses, either, with a mixture of 'voluntary' and 'compulsory'. The minimum excess is £50, so I chose that. (Zero excess would've been better, but one can't have everything -- and only one insurer amongst those I looked at actually offered the £0 option anyway.)

RIAS's quote for 2017-2018 is: buildings, up to £1 million; contents, up to £50,000; personal possessions away from home (up to £1,500 per item value); excess: £50; Legal Cover (an extra, but we know from friends the wisdom of including it): £138. Cashback: £75. Total therefore: £63 for the year.

Every quote is going to be different because every proposer's home will be different. But what really drew me to this insurer was the fact that yes, I could indeed fill in the form within 5 minutes online, without having to pop out to the local estate agent's for a valuation . . . and without having to ring the local locksmith to discuss external door locks. . . and without having to go round B&Q pricing up bathroom suites.

paddyandstumpy

Rebuild value, there are online calculators which do that for you in seconds.
No one knows your home better than you do, if you can't complete this form how do you expect an insurer, without making sweeping assumptions which may overestimate the value, which mean you may pay more than you have to.

It's unusual for bathroom suites to come under contents, this sounds like a poorly worded question or idiot Broker rather than the norm.
And again, the insurer can make sweeping assumptions about the value of contents in your home, but you're best placed to advise them of this and ultimately the onus is on you to ensure you are insured adequately.
Whilst you have £50k contents as standard, do you know that is enough?

As a very rough guide; each reception room should have £10k contents (including carpets and curtains), each lived in bedroom should have the same, and non lived in bedrooms and the kitchen should have £5k contents each minimum.

Present market value can be got from zoopla in seconds. And is largely irrelevant for home insurance as you insure the buildings, not the cost of buying the land.

Regarding locks, a very quick google search will tell you what locks you have and if they meet BS.
It's worth checking something like this as if you say no to locks, but have them, you could be paying more than you need to for insurance (as there isn't a security discount). On the flip side, disclosing you have locks may then put a locks condition on your policy, it's up to you if you can/want to adhere to locking your doors and windows when you go out.

Excess, most comparison sites default to £250, so the prices can appear cheaper. It's up to you to check the conditions of the contract before you enter it. There are few £0 excess providers, it tends to encourage frivolous and small value claims, which ultimately pushes prices up. It's not unreasonable to expect a £100 or £150 as standard, is it really worth claiming less than that anyway? You'd probably pay that back in increased premiums following a claim, up to you though.

One last point, don't ever factor cashback into a price, it's never guaranteed and should be a bonus, not factored into the 'final' price.

Hope this helps alleviate some of your concerns.

EitherWalnut

Hi Everyone,

Apologies if this is in the wrong place (please point me in the right direction if that's the case!) but I wasn't sure where to post!

I took out a combined buildings and contents insurance policy with Direct Line earlier this year, following an incentive scheme for a £50 eGift card. I have used a similar scheme in the past and after the 120 days following the start of the policy, received the gift without any problems.

Only this time, nothing has arrived. I emailed the address given to me in the eGift confirmation email, and received an auto-response with a ticket number. That was weeks ago now, so I contacted Direct Line, who basically washed their hands of it entirely and said I need to take it up with Tradedoubler who were running the promotion on their behalf. The chap then very helpfully (not) directed me to Tradedoubler's corporate website and customer helpline number. I phoned said number - it doesn't even connect.

So I responded to original auto-response from help email with my ticket number as advised asking for someone to please get in touch. Received another auto-response with a different ticket number!

Feel like I'm going to end up going round in circles here. I'd have thought that seeing as the Tradedoubler email actually appears in my inbox labeled as "Direct Line" and carries their logo etc that they should at least take some responsibility.

Has anyone got any advice?

TIA,

Lauren