House and Contents Insurance

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Wed 12 Jun 2019 18:35
House and Contents Insurance - FP

I am well used to the annual merry-go-round that is car insurance; I've just done that, and managed to shave a bit off my renewal quote - well, about £60 actually.

Now comes House and Contents insurance. My insurer's renewal quote is £303, well up from last year's £182. Using the first of the comparison sites I get £303 (though with a different insurer); the next comparison site gives me £242; and the third... £129.

I was so surprised by the last one that I went through everything, re-entering the details.

It is quite beyond me to understand the huge range shown here. In case anyone interested, the £129 is from Endsleigh.

Bizarre.

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Wed 12 Jun 2019 19:19
House and Contents Insurance - Engineer Andy

A few questions:

Are you currently with the same insurer for your car insurance as the home/contents insurance? If so, and you've just renewed the first, they may think that they've got you on the hook and can up the price.

Have you had any home/contents insurance claims this past year? Have you or any of your neighbours experienced any significant claims due to factors out of your control, like flooding, vandalism, tree roots spreading, etc? Like with car accident/claims 'hotspots', other people claiming a lot in the vicinity may affect the premiums for everyone in the neighbourhood.

You may want to check all the cover and excesses - some insurers, despite setting minimums and maximums on the screenscraper website, will notionally offer low premiums but in reality off far less cover (e.g. not new for old or accidental damage) or have much higher excesses - I've found this a LOT with car insurance, because many of the screeen-scraper webistes only can adjust the voluntary excess, not compulsary ones. Some firms will not offer (for example) £0 excess policies, even for those of us who haven't claimed for many years.

Some insurers have exclusive deals with screenscraper websites so that they get lower quotes.

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Fri 14 Jun 2019 17:34
House and Contents Insurance - concrete

Nothing surprises me any longer regarding the way insurance companies or underwriters go about their business. I have been with a lot of different companies over the years. Presently LV are competitive and I insure both car and house/contents with them, previously Tesco. They all seem to do the same thing. Great first quote, small increase on re-newal, nothing to scare the horses. Then BAM, walking great hike and they lose the business. Can't figure why no customer is better than a loyal customer on a competitive premium. Crazy!

Cheers Concrete

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Fri 14 Jun 2019 19:57
House and Contents Insurance - Vitesse6

The other thing to look for is any offer the company may make to get your business. The Co op often have an offer giving £50 of grocery vouchers for new policy holders for both motor and house insurance.

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Fri 14 Jun 2019 19:49
House and Contents Insurance - FP

"Are you currently with the same insurer for your car insurance as the home/contents insurance?"

No; MoreThan for the car, Lloyds for the house and contents.

"Have you had any home/contents insurance claims this past year?"

I have never made any claims whatsoever on my house and contents insurance.

"Have you or any of your neighbours experienced any significant claims due to factors out of your control, like flooding, vandalism, tree roots spreading, etc?"

Not that I'm aware of.

"You may want to check all the cover and excesses..."

Have done so. Not all the comparison sites' results are identical, but they are broadly in line.

"Some insurers have exclusive deals with screenscraper websites so that they get lower quotes."

Maybe that's it. But Endsleigh is so much lower I doubt it can be explained entirely in that way.

Edited by FP on 14/06/2019 at 19:49

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