Home insurance?

Graham W

Graham W

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Graham
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For the past however many years we have been tied in to Nationwide for our Home & Contents insurance cover as it was tied into the mortgage.
We are now mortgage free :banana:. So we are going to look around for a better deal.
Anyone got any recommendations? We currently have;
Buildings.........................Unlimited
Contents.........................£100.000
Personal Possessions......£11,400
Legal Assistance.............£50,000
Or any recommendations for one of those "We Do The Searching For You" type sites.
Any comments gratefully received.
 
You were never tied into Nationwides insurance and could have shopped around before. That aside there are numerous good home insurers. I'm currently with Aviva and had two claims which were both settled promptly and they are pretty competitive. I would tend to go with a "known" name.
 
I do search various companies when insurance is due - use their own web site though, not through a comparison web site.

Tend to stick with known insurance companies, do shop around when renewal due, even if price is acceptable- just to make sure and satisfy I'm getting a good deal.
 
Thanks so far. I take the point about "Being tied" and I may have that a bit wrong, it was a long time ago.
Also when I said "Better deal" I didn't necessarily mean cheapest, quality of service when you need them most counts quite highly as well!
Thanks @viv1969 for the link to the other thread, I'll go and have a read.
 
I'm insured with nationwide too. Had a claim a couple of years ago and they were brilliant.

Also, more than 10 years ago, was insured for buildings, again had aa flood claim, and they brilliant too ( only thing that Halifax ever got right in my experience). However I think both Halifax and Nationwide use Aviva.

Point being neither of these were the cheapest.
 
Graham W said:
Thanks so far. I take the point about "Being tied" and I may have that a bit wrong, it was a long time ago.
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Ah yes I remember themfrom years gone by, they like to insinuate very strongly, that you *have* to use their insurer, but stop just short of the phrase "on pain of death ;)
Perhaps this will be the latest form of the PPI gate once a few smart arse solicitors catch on ?

edit, I'm with Swinton, they me did a good deal, house and contents, that included camera damage / theft at home and "away"
 
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I suggest NFU. Very helpful, local sort of company. No switchboards just the girl I speak to caller Helen.
 
Make sure you tot up your contents correctly if using NFU. They screwed my parents over thoroughly when their garage got burgled by looking at their bookshelves full of paperbacks and totting their value up on a new for old basis then telling them they were underinsured by around 1/3rd and reducing their claim as a result.
 
Nod said:
Make sure you tot up your contents correctly if using NFU. They screwed my parents over thoroughly when their garage got burgled by looking at their bookshelves full of paperbacks and totting their value up on a new for old basis then telling them they were underinsured by around 1/3rd and reducing their claim as a result.
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Possibly, but that is not insurer screwing over. It is the policyholders responsibility to check they are adequately insured. However odd that looked up the library contents and deducing that all underinsured.Other things may have been overinsured.?

Or were they particularly rare / 1st editions etc?
 
Graham W said:
Buildings.........................Unlimited
Contents.........................£100.000
Personal Possessions......£11,400
Legal Assistance.............£50,000
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What is the difference between "contents" and "personal possessions"? Are not your personal possessions part of the contents?

Mine is unlimited buildings and contents, and all my stuff is covered against accidental damage worldwide.
 
viv1969 said:
No.
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So, I resorted to google and it seems that while they are in your house your "personal possessions" are part of the contents, but not when outside unless you have specific cover.

I have unlimited cover worldwide including accidental damage provided I declare any single item valued at more than £15,000 (I don't have any of those!), so I seem to be covered.
 
onomatopoeia said:
I have unlimited cover worldwide including accidental damage provided I declare any single item valued at more than £15,000
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I had to declare any single item over 2k!
 
Cobra said:
I had to declare any single item over 2k!
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That sort of nonsense is why I am with Hiscox, direct line wanted "collections" to be declared as an item valued at over their ridiculously low threshold, so the fact I have some CDs makes a "collection", likewise books, records, toy trains ....

Can't be doing with all that faffing around, I'll pay more to avoid it.
 
onomatopoeia said:
direct line wanted "collections" to be declared as an item valued at over their ridiculously low threshold,
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:rolleyes:

Luckily I don't have any collections, ( of any value) just my camera kit, which I listed as a whole and hardly any single item is worth 2k.
So it was simple enough for me at least.
 
The first thing I'd do is phone your current insurers help line and say you are thinking of cancelling as it's too expensive.

I have to do this every year to get a (currently) 25% "special one off discount" - every time!
 
I've used a broker for the last twenty+ years for house and car insurance. They do the hassle of checking the deals and act for me in the event of a claim. I occasionally look to see if I can find a better deal, but they've been on the money every time. It usually means yo-yoing between two or three insurance companies but the broker holds my details and fills out the paperwork.
 
Lynton said:
Possibly, but that is not insurer screwing over. It is the policyholders responsibility to check they are adequately insured. However odd that looked up the library contents and deducing that all underinsured.Other things may have been overinsured.?

Or were they particularly rare / 1st editions etc?
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Nothing particularly rare, just a lot of books. To check on further details, you'll need to consult my (both deceased) parents.
 
Probably worth trying the various internet comparison sites. Insurance companies and their underwriters take different views of risk so premiums do vary substantially.
 
I have the AA and last November in a terrible storm all the rendering and pebbledash came off my cable wall. I phoned the AA, they asked for the date and postcode and knew we had winds of 85mph. I sent photos and had estimates, they agree a price which included scaffolding, they paid £4000, after the work was finished I sent photos and they never sent an inspector and on top of the total they sent a cheque for the VAT. When the renewal came they had only raised the premium by £30.
 
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Cobra said:
:rolleyes:

Luckily I don't have any collections, ( of any value) just my camera kit, which I listed as a whole and hardly any single item is worth 2k.
So it was simple enough for me at least.
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I've been buying books and CDs since I was a teenager in the 1980s, so I have quite a lot now, enough that replacing them new for old would be an expensive business, even though none of them are individually valuable.
 
Nod said:
Nothing particularly rare, just a lot of books. To check on further details, you'll need to consult my (both deceased) parents.
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I'll get the ouija board out then.... I don't need any more details, just saying an unusual practice to value based on no of books etc and new for old or something that was still there and irrelevant to the claim.
 
Maybe the loss adjuster was on commission from NFU?
 
My mother had a few Lladro figurines years ago , I broke one & the insurers refused to pay as it was above a set value.....

So they had them all valued & declared

I broke another ( boisterous child )

They refused to pay...

"You've got more than one, that's a collection, we don't cover collections"
 
mrgubby said:
My mother had a few Lladro figurines years ago , I broke one & the insurers refused to pay as it was above a set value.....

So they had them all valued & declared

I broke another ( boisterous child )


They refused to pay...

"You've got more than one, that's a collection, we don't cover collections"
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I suggest you keep well away from the ones that are left, or break the lot and then claim. Just kidding, push them to the back of the shelf and don't touch.(y)
 
mrgubby said:
"You've got more than one, that's a collection, we don't cover collections"
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Damned insurance companies, more wriggly than a can of worms :(
 
I suggest you check out Martin Lewis' website- his money saving website has a section about insurance and explains various definitions - I took his advice and checked out three of the comparison sites and then found a policy that worked for us which means my better half's jewellery and my photo kit. Be careful with what is insured out of the house and abroad, if you are prone to travelling with your kit. We chose Hiscox in the end... not the cheapest but very very good reviews when things go wrong. We also realised, when we tallied up our contents insurance room by room, that we had been under insured for ages and would not have realised had our long term insurers not sold up to LV - we didn't stick with them because of the reviews. Being underinsured will also mean that any payout is also reduced proportionately when the assessor comes to call. Hope that helps.
 
Cobra said:
Damned insurance companies, more wriggly than a can of worms :(
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I think I must be in a minority here, I've never had any problems with insurance companies. A few years ago I knocked a glass of water over my MacBook and claimed for accidental damage. A week or so after the claim I had a phone call from the company, CO-OP asking why I hadn't told them about a previous claim, within five years when I joined them. My son dropped his iMac when moving It and we claimed on the insurance, but it came back within a few weeks working and the report saying no problem found. Obviously I'd assumed no claim, but it seems I was wrong. Feared the worse, but all they did was adjust my premium and backdated it for the year. Two weeks later received a voucher for £600 to spend in PC world. That was six years ago, still with the co-op.
 
Quick update time.
We're currently paying £787.00 pa
Completed the online quote thing with Aviva keeping all details as close as possible to our existing policy. Made a follow up 'phone call to verify cover for a brick built detached garage, flat roofed extension and cover for camera equipment (obviously :-) ).
The Aviva quote comes in at £252.47!
With these kind of things it's so easy to just click the "Renew" button. Thanks for your help in making me decide to dig a bit deeper. :ty:
 
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