General Chat

Re flood insurance, I know at one stage that people who had been flooded were unable to even get insurance. I wonder if that is still true? The rain we have today which has been torrential, must have some people worried.

In the words of one old codger, 'They don't like it up 'em', Brian.

Good for you.

Having rung Ll**ds they can now offer £674.53 or £355.82 without accidental damage to the building.

the cost of a flood claim can be staggering. The ground floor has to be stripped back to brick to dry out. All the furnishings will need to be replaced. Add in the cost of the eletrics, a new kitchen decoration etc. Also add the cost of housing the occupants for up to a year and you can see how the cost stack up. Someone has to pay and that's why the premiums rise.


Andy

I think they warned buildings and contents would go up because of the flooding. Even if not in a flood area we all have to pay for the few.

you need to really look at the cost of replacing the sofa, tv etc bought 10 or 20 years ago with what it would cost to buy equivalent new this year ......


............ and yes, it is shocking.


that's why we have replacement cost insurance.

It is staggering, isn't it?

Its certainly a worthwhile excercise having a really good look at your contents room by room, and working out how much it would cost to replace them.
You may, say, have bought most of your fiction books from a charity shop for 50p-£2.50, but new copies would be in excess off £7 each.

I am with NFU and pay £58 per month but that does include my business cover at home.

It's not just the premium you need to consider but the excess, which in my case is negligible. We also have new for old and no wear and tear clause. They also offer a cheque or a replacement which is fairer.

The service we get from them is second to none.

A large number of households are probably under insured....when we added up our possessions about 10 years ago we had a shock and increased our contents cover straight away.

That is why I get a comparison, then get Saga to match it. Our house and contents are not with them, we change companies regularly for that, making sure the new quote has all the cover we require

It is worth shopping around. I changed mine two years ago and made a significant saving - ended up paying 60% of what I had previously. However, it takes time to check things out properly, so dont just rush in because it seems cheaper.

You need to be very careful that you are actually comparing like with like. Many so called cheap quotes are not necessarily so. Often cover is far less and the deductable much higher. Beware of comparison sites too. The best offers are often from those companies that don't use them.

Here in the UK, unless you live in high risk areas such as prone to flooding, the biggest cost is actually with your contents insurance, not the buildings cover. It pays to check that you are not paying for cover you don't really need too.

Since being taken over by the AA, Saga's premiums for both house and motor have rocketed out of all proportion and are, in my opinion, no longer competitive.

it works the other way over here :-)

Mum took out separate house and contents insurance in 1961 and kept paying whatever they asked every year.

By chance, I saw the renewal in 2004 and found to my horror that she was paying a small fortune for insurance that was nowhere near adequate.

A swift google found a policy that covered her and she ended up paying a considerable amount less so if you have elderly parents, please do check their cover.

Original policy was Legal and General

It is annoying that these companies offer low rates to try and temp people to join them, then just hope that people will not bother to look around and just accept the higher priced renewals, they make lots of money that way. Loyalty to a company puts you at a financial disadvantage.

We have had our car insurance with Saga for a few years now, but every year we have to go through the rigmarole of getting a cheaper quote, so we can ring them up and get them to match it. We stick with them because they include a section which allows us to do our community driving and claim expenses. Last time we actually thought of changing, I think it was to Swinton, but they insisted that if I was delivering Meals on Whe els, I was the same as a pizza delivery company so I would have to pay hundreds of pounds extra

If you stick with the same company year on year they will simply hike the cost until you get fed up with them. You can try phoning them and threaten to leave and most will at least try to reduce the premium to keep you. The cheaper ones on the price comparsion sites will have cover cut to the bone and if you need to make a claim you may find why its so cheap!

So far this year I've changed one car and house insurance from DL to other companies and saved about £400. Replacements are both well known companies with comparable cover and not the cheapest I could have got.


£826 for building and contents is very expensive, unless you live in a high risk area with a mansion or have a poor claims record.

Andy

Joy

Fire is usually included with "replacement value" insurance


you buy flood and earthquake with house and contents insurance, but they are additions that you have to opt to buy, unless you are stupid

Sylvia,

Do you mean that fire and flood insurances come separate from buildings and contents insurance?

Here they are included. Some companies will not insure certain properties for floods, others hike up the price if there's any likelihood that you are near a flood plain or such like.

I've not come across loyalty discounts unless you take more than one insurance out with a firm eg car, boat, buildings and contents. A few firms will then give you a very small discount.

Last summer I was with one company for both car and buildings & contents. This summer the car quote was better than I was expecting but the buildings & contents quote was much more and there was no valid reason for the hike in premiums - no claims for years and no move to a 'more vulnerable' part of the country.

That's why, when I saw Brian's comments above, I thought everyone was being 'hit'.

They do try it on sometimes, don't they?

For the last few years we've been happy with insurance sold through The Post Office. We're also one of those 'strange' households who have seperate content and buildings insurance. They are renewed at different times as we bought this place but were living elsewhere for about a month.

we don't switch around for either house and contents or car insurance, like you guys do.

Why?

.......... there are big differences in quotes when you include the loyalty discounts we get for staying with one company

plus, we have to look at fire, earthquake and flood insurance, and the costs for those can be huge when switching

We got a really good offer this year from Tesco's
and covered us for more than the dearer policies elsewhere

Its about comparing them choosing the best for you :-D :-D

Compare .com .you will be amazed at the quotes you will get .good luck . .Swinton are as good as any body ..been with them years Barbara