House insurance

Harry Bloomfield · 10 Nov 2022

My partner, before she died, took care of all of the regular bills, including the house insurance - that is except for her last two years, so around eight years ago. What happened was, they sent the bill, she paid what ever they asked for. Two years before she passed away, she commented to me on how expensive it had become and showed me the figure - £470, via her bank, Barclays. I did a bit of research and managed to get comparable insurance for <£100 and accepted that as a quick fix.

Some more intensive research after she passed away and I got it down to an even lower figure.

My latest quote via the meercat is £87, that from LV - the very same company and the identical cover I have been insured with for the couple of years and which cost me £79.90 last year. This years LV's direct renewal quote is £74.24. Nice when a bill goes down year on year, rather than up

Which means the cat is charging a premium of £12.76, just for the privilege of using their web site. I've used LV now for a few years, first getting the best quote via the cat, then going direct to the cheapest company for an even cheaper direct quote.

Note- This is just basic insurance cover, for a major loss and in a very low risk and crime area. For minor risks, I do what is called 'self insure'.

motorbiking · 10 Nov 2022

I'm a happy LV customer, when my car was hit by a left hand drive foreign truck, they refunded my excess straight away, even before getting the other side to admit liability. The case is about to go to court as there is a scam going on in Poland, where the insurance company claims the driver is uninsured so that the UKMIB foot the bill.

ETAF · 10 Nov 2022

a lot of insurance companies, put the prices up each year , and people just renewed or on auto renewal - I know LV got up to £800 , when my mother-in-law then started to ask the question and it was reduced to around £200 or less.
I think a new law arrived in April - where new customers had to be on a par of existing customers , so the renewal could not just go up

This includes new rules so that renewal quotes for home and motor insurance consumers are not more expensive than they would be for new customers.

Was the meercat identical - I notice when i use each year, for Home & Car that often there are some differences - on access cover, items covered and quite a few things - usually i can then use those quotes and discuss with present insurance company - But i tend to move each year - one exception has been hastings Direct Multicar - so far always been cheaper then meercats or moneysupermarket .......

Harry Bloomfield · 10 Nov 2022

ETAF said:
a lot of insurance companies, put the prices up each year , and people just renewed or on auto renewal - I know LV got up to £800 ,

Ouch!

ETAF said:
I think a new law arrived in April - where new customers had to be on a par of existing customers , so the renewal could not just go up

It came in as a voluntary agreement long before that, under threat of it becoming law.

The suggestion was that those who just blindly renewed each year, were supporting the ones who got a discount as new customers. My own renewal costs recently, seem to discount this.

ETAF said:
But i tend to move each year - one exception has been hastings Direct Multicar - so far always been cheaper then meercats or moneysupermarket

My rule is to generally to always be ready to have to move everything each year, but hope not to have to. I use Flux for my car cover, whom I have had for well over a decade and unbeaten on their renewal quote. I sometimes ask them to requote, when it creeps up - they without fail, always manage to knock a few pounds off. I pay more or less the same now, as 10 years ago. Likewise with broadband and mobile, but they insist I research better alternate offers first, before they will requote cheaper.

JonathanM · 16 Nov 2022

Harry Bloomfield said:
This years LV's direct renewal quote is £74.24. Nice when a bill goes down year on year, rather than up

Is that buildings and contents?

Harry Bloomfield · 16 Nov 2022

JonathanM said:
Is that buildings and contents?

Yep! Buildings covered for £1M, contents for £100K I think, but I live in a very low risk, low crime area.

JonathanM · 16 Nov 2022

Harry Bloomfield said:
Yep! Buildings covered for £1M, contents for £100K I think, but I live in a very low risk, low crime area.

I'll check LV next time.

noseall · 17 Nov 2022

Harry Bloomfield said:
My partner, before she died, took care of all of the regular bills, including the house insurance

The home insurance was the only bill I left the missus to be in charge of. They (Nationwide) actually got in touch with us to ask if we wanted a review of our home insurance, because we hadn't looked at it for years and maybe we were paying over the odds...."hadn't we" I asked? I was a little miffed.

Harry Bloomfield · 17 Nov 2022

noseall said:
The home insurance was the only bill I left the missus to be in charge of. They (Nationwide) actually got in touch with us to ask if we wanted a review of our home insurance, because we hadn't looked at it for years and maybe we were paying over the odds...."hadn't we" I asked? I was a little miffed.

That would be a disguised attempt to up-sell you to add more cover, at extra cost. I only insure what I am legally obliged to insure, or what I could not afford to replace - everything else, I self insure.

JonathanM · 17 Nov 2022

Harry Bloomfield said:
everything else, I self insure

What is that? Maybe I will try it too!

Harry Bloomfield · 2 Dec 2022

JonathanM said:
Is that buildings and contents?

They have just sent me the auto renewal document and this is what it claims to cover...

Buildings and contents.

Accidental damage to fixed contents, burglary, 24 hour help line for home emergencies - they aim to be here within 4 hours, if needed.

ETAF · 2 Dec 2022

they aim to be here within 4 hours, if needed.

My experianace when used an emergency cover on 2 occasions (both for an elderly lady) 1st they would not make it for 8-12 hours - during a water leak, we got a local plumber out within an hour and sent the bill - they agreed to pay for it before hand ..... when i was making a lot of complaints to the 3rd party company used for this type of emergency
2nd time was drain blocked and took 6 hours to arrive

so dont rely on the 4 hours claim

how much has it gone up - I shopped about and got the same cover cheaper than the orgianal (last years price) mine went up by 34% !!!!!!

Harry Bloomfield · 2 Dec 2022

ETAF said:
how much has it gone up -

Not up, down - I said 'which cost me £79.90 last year. This years LV's direct renewal quote is £74.24. Nice when a bill goes down year on year, rather than up

'

ETAF said:
My experianace when used an emergency cover on 2 occasions (both for an elderly lady) 1st they would not make it for 8-12 hours - during a water leak, we got a local plumber out within an hour and sent the bill - they agreed to pay for it before hand ..... when i was making a lot of complaints to the 3rd party company used for this type of emergency

They say 'aim to'. It's not something I would ever need use of, but they can never guarantee response times, it depends so much on demand.

ReganAndCarter · 2 Dec 2022

I don't begrudge those meercats or the fat bloke who sings their £12. Nearly every year whichever car ins co I'm with hikes their renewal premium quite a lot. Quick 10 mins on comparison sites often elicits quotes and sometimes better cover for less than previous year's premium. Sometimes a lot less. Those comparison sites and others like Ebay have saved me thousands over the years. Their cut off the top is small beer and they need to be profitable to survive.

ETAF · 2 Dec 2022

LV are now Allianz Holdings plc
They sold the general business a few years ago , but still use the LV brand

good it went down, my quote was very high compared to other companies , like hastings and Aviva

House insurance

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