To ask how on earth you choose insurance?

[Fairyliz]

Ok boring I know but relevant to most people.

We have both house and car insurance due next month so I have been on one of the comparison sites and got some quotes.

The quotes vary widely, for example DD's car insurance quotes go from £450 to £850, with the cheaper quotes generally being from firms I have never heard off.
The only problem is you only know how good your insurance is when something goes wrong. Obviously at that stage it could be a major problem.

So wise mumsnetters any advice?

Admiral do multicover where you can have home and cars combined under 1 policy.
I have the highest level of home insurance and our 2 cars together and I paid about £560 last year.

I do a table with a column for each provider (take top 3 from a comparison website) and do a more detailed comparison. Then I pick the one that gives the best value, which isnt necessarily the cheapest.

I look at level of cover provided, the excess we would pay in a claim, protected no claims discount.
I check how much is covered in home insurance, ie sheds, travel, bikes, named individual items. If they replace old for new.
A quick google search for customer feedback.

I do the same as red. Pick the one that offers all essential and most additional stuff for the best value.

I've ended up with Admiral.

Look at the reviews, the quotes you get from the comparison sites usually have customer reviews as one of the criteria

i work in car insurance, go onto the deqato website for car insurance, ranges from 1-5 star, 1 very basic cover and 5 the highest level, hope this helps, they do ratings for home insurance too

sorry should say defaqto !

Always by price. These unknown policies are usually underwritten by a well known company.

I use small, dedicated brokers who will tailor the policy to suit my needs. Always works out cheaper than the comparison sites, though you do have to put a bit more effort into finding the right one for you.

I have stayed with a company who were excellent when we needed to claim for that reason.

I do still check the comparison sites and challenge the renewal price if it seems high. Sometimes they will move closer to the best offer.

As Pinkprincess says the policies with 'unknown' companies will often be underwritten by well known insurers. Chrvj the level of cover, what is covered and the compulsory and voluntary excess. You'd be surprised how many people take a high excess to lower premiums them can't afford to pay if they need to claim.

I don't agree that you should decide on price alone, there's a lot more to look at than the cheapest headline premium.

You need to look a bit more closely than that at exceses, exclusions etc

thanks Pinkprincess that's reassuring to know.

I go for the cheapest one that offers everything I’m looking for.

For car insurance I look for no excess (both voluntary and non voluntary), protected no claims, fully insured, windowscreen cracks repaired for free. I also look to see if they offer any extras eg free breakdown cover or sometimes (although not as often) you can find deals where you get money back which technically makes it cheaper than the one that doesn’t offer the cash back.

For home insurance I again go for no excess, high rebuild cost, accidental damage, old for new and I think £50k contents insured. Again I would see who offers additionals (like rehome if your house needs rebuilding, hotel costs covered etc)

I’m not overly worried who I go through as like has been said, a larger company usually underwrites them.

For insurance for your DD look for one who fits a black box. This means the insurance company monitor the persons driving I think

Just because a policy is underwritten by a big name doesn't mean the policy is the same! For example Aviva is a defaqto 5 star insurer, their cover is one of the best in the UK. Quotemehappy is an online only policy which is underwritten and administered by Aviva but is defaqto 3 star.

Look at what each policy covers as standard and go from there. The defaqto website is great for checking how they compare to each other.

You don't want to cheap out on insurance and find yourself regretting it if you make a claim.

Best vfm.
Look at the cheapest few and check I am really comparing like for like (mainly, is the excess the same).
Then go with the cheapest of those (rather than the 'headline' cheapest with the ridiculous excess).
Have found over many years that the ones you've not heard of are often just a marketing name of a large company.

I check companies on which- website (ratings).
Do comparison website, plus few that aren't on them (direct line, admiral). Normally end up switching every year for cheaper price but only used 2-3 companies. When you compare, make sure it's same excess/ covers as changing them does make a difference.

For the ones you've never heard of, check who they are underwritten by in the small print.

Think about what you want. Legal expenses? Courtesy car? Emergency call outs? Most of them have a comparison table to show what is and is not excluded

Which? And other consumer reviews do customer feedback comparisons

Look at the defaqto rating. They are independent company who rate both car and home insurance. The rating is between 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest rating. Same as a hotel you are unlikely to want 1 or 2 . 3 you would expect there to be some drawbacks etc etc etc
Check feefo for customer reviews.