House contents insurance

Been with the provider of my current house contents insurance policy, Norwhich Union, for 6 years now. I'm aware that I probably haven't been getting the absolute best deal available from them, but at least my premium has been decreasing year on year (and plus the fact that I couldn't be bothered to change providers anyway as I doubted they're would be *that* much of a difference at the end of the day).

You'd think that loyalty would actually count for something? I guess it doesn't because I just got the renewal documents for my existing policy through yesterday and the premium has sky rocketed. So, enough is enough, time to find myself a new policy from another company? Any recommendations for places to get good deals from?

 

Claim on something on the accidental cover like I did - covers the premium and beats them at their own game... Nice Pro Walkman damage - that'll teach them for doubling my premium in 1998 for no reason....

I mean, it's not like you live in a rough area or a council estate - they're taking the pee dude...

Natwest might do an OK deal - worth a go?

My insurance should crash come 11th August - I'll be able to ring them up and tell them there's a full-time occupant there now and they can thus stop charging me the rip-off holiday home insurance premium costs...

I hate insurers almost as much as I hate cold callers, lawyers and public transport ticket price fixers...

 

Henry always a sore point mate, you could try Direct line, worth a punt, but check max single value pay-out and would they cover you if all your equipment was robbed (retail CURRENT Value), I have a good deal with Royal and Sun allience Tone

 

Dom, you seem to hate almost every one mate

 

Acting like this is why contents insurance is going up

 

Zurich.

These people actually took my cartridge rpice seriously.

All they asked for was an inventory of all my hifi plus amount of cds and records.

They insure the lot for upwards of 20000, no arguments no messing.

Of course I have not had to claim yet, but unlike a lot of insurers they will take what th eitme costs new.

For instance my lat insurer would only insure each hifi compnant upto 2000, for me that wouldn't cover the deck, the speakers or the CDP (hence why I changed)

 

Urm - no - it was genuinely damaged but I wouldn't have claimed if the tight asswipes hadn't hiked my premium by 50% with NO excuse or apology.

Quick to take money, slow to pay out...

LIke the time my Sony telly got nicked - 300 quid model from a year before, they wouldn't give cash but only another Sony - guess what - bottom of the range model at £200 and they got that from a reseller so I paid £50 excess for something they paid about £80 for - and yet you guys chastise me for whining...

I hate ANYONE that profiteers from someone else's misery - including Labour for more taxes on services we aren't getting, and insurers, for making you pay an excess on something relatively cheap - AFTER they've daylight robbed you on a premium. As with the recording industry, you can see why "piracy" is on the increase.

As I said above - my claim was genuine - not fraud. I just didn't think it was worth claiming until they decided that sneaky price hike.

 

That is an understatment if ever I heard it harry, you pay Double what i do and I'm sure I have more cover, ya its about time you got on the dog and bone and start ringing around dude, your the customer, you say to them "what can you do for me", say you've been quoteed xxx and they'll try and beat, it, make up a figure you think sounds right, works a treat!

 

Its people like you Dom that make our premiums so high, so you get some fancy gear out of it, but who do you think payes for it, the rest of us, in the end its what goes around, comes around.

 

NO NO NO, directline quoted me £450 for contents and buildings, complete rip off, it got it for £160 from the Pru in the end and a dam too deal too (IMHO).

 

dom,
if you think home insurance is bad you shoould try car insurance. as this is legally required if you have a car and most people don't want to loose their licence the insurance co's have virtually carte blanche to bend you over and slap on the latex gloves every year (brings human traffic to mind it does).

home insurance is a bugger though i recently got a decent car quote and they wanted to sell me som home insurance so i said go on then. the initial quote of 80 quid (contents only) was ok however when i mentioned hi-fi and laptop i had to be transferred to a specialist broker who got up to triple that befor i said enoughs enough i'll ring back - needless to say i haven;t.

cheers

julian

 

lhatkins, now how did I guess that you'd be along pretty sharpish witn a strong opinion to add to this thread!

Actually, so far, the cheapest quote I've had is from Directline. BUT, Zurich has the best policy thus far, even their basic policy give more cover than the others that I've investigated so far, and they were only £20 more than Directline for a better policy.

NatWest should have been in theory a good deal, especially as they give an additional discount to their banking customers, which I am one. But nope, even with the discount they were significantly more then even my current provider. Oh, and one or two others I tried last night were also more expensive, so no I don't currently have the most expensive policy - ACTUALLY!

A couple of the websites like Royal Sun Alliance and MoreThan were timing out on me last night, so didn't get a chance to try them. Will try again, plus a few more. The faveourite "so far" is Zurich (cheers for the heads up on that one garyi).

I guess it was implied, but just to make it clear, this is contents and BUILDINGS insurance I'm looking for. Noticed on quite a few of the sites I looked at last night that a lot of firms are offering further discounts if you already hold motor insurance from them. I see from Julian's post how they can afford to offer these further discounts now, so I'm not so gutted after all about not being a motorist.

 

Actually I was claiming for something that I *should* have claimed for in Uni - we didn't realise until after the event that I could have claimed back then. Since it was still with the same insurance company that the final claim went through, I'm not going to lose sleep over it - technically it's not fraudulant and NOTE - the premium went up 50% in one year BEFORE I claimed on it - from something like 86 quid up to almost 150. So I feel justified in what I did - at least I didn't burn down a flat to pay off my debts, eh, someone who shall remain nameless - but we know who I'm talking about right??? (note - It's NOT Lhatkins, or Henryt - or any fellow forum user for that matter).

And as it happened - what went around DID come back - the bloody cat peed in the Pro Walkman replacement (a DSP-E492) and I didn't have accident cover in the new place, so I ended up having to shell out replacement costs myself anyway.

I'm stiill not going to feel guilty for claiming on something 3 years after it got bust though - since it was just a delayed claim; and as it happened, the machine hadn't increased in cost in those 3 years anyway, so na na ne na na.

That aside...

...where do insurance companies get off on charging £50 excess on something that's not much more than that to replace - why not a percentage fee up to a capped maxima for excess - sounds fair to me.

 

Why claim on something thats not much more than the excess, that would be whats pushing up your contents up, they do it so they don't get loads of small claims that probally cost more than £50 for them to process.

 

Pru did it for me - good cover & have been well priced for last few years.

 

Well sorry car insurance well you ask for that really don't you,
sorry no sympathy at all with that one.

 

Well Henry I have been telling you for a few years now that you have been paying to much and I think your reply was "a doesn't matter" kind of thing.

I'm not saying I know it all, god no, but even you must see that what you paid compare to what I pay is a very big difference, in fact living in the area I do I should have a much higher premium living in a high crime area.

Anyway what I would say is forget the website, I did mine via the website and was getting quotes over the £400 mark, so I gave up and picked up the phone, and those who know me will know I don't like the phone it is the last resort, but you can haggle on the phone which you can't do over the net, like I said I haggled mine down to £160, that's contents to £20k and unlimited rebuild cost. Needs updating and stuff now with all the computer and hifi gear, but I'll do that when we move house, more fun on the phone.

 

I don't have building insurance myself.. but I have contents and another insurance from Royal Sun Alliance....and they both seem reasonable to me. Even with 4 items of over £1,000 value on the contents one.

I used to be with Churchill.. but they doubled the premium in the second year so I cancelled.


GTM

 

Good for you GTM, that's the way to deal with them, they'll get the message in the end.