BG should be renamed Dick Turpin. Alternatives?

[MiMiChuna]

I've been a BG Homecare customer for years, over a decade. Watched the price creep up but every year for the past several years I've negotiated a significant reduction due to issues with unattended appts, rude workmen etc.

My renewal has come thru & it's over £600! Last yr was around £350. We had 1 call out last year, very straightforward job. Issues with that job meant I negotiated some refund during the year. I would usually renegotiate now basedon yrs of loyalty & umpteen crappy call out complaints.

But I'm fed up of the renewal dance.

Can anyone recommend an alternative that covers gas, heating, electric, plumbing & drains? Who are reasonable ££ reliable and give a good level of service?

(I'm also annoyed at BG role in force fitting prepay meters to vulnerable ppl during a COLC bur that's an aside)

I've never paid for this type of service as its a total waste of money.
Use a local gas engineer for regular services. Put the money saved into an emergency account.

£600 is a lot. Where are you based? Local companies are often cheaper and better.

Find a local company who offers a similar scheme. The one we use does, although I’m not signed up to it. Still get reminders for boiler and gas fire servicing etc and pay for those individually (about £80 for boiler and the same for 2 gas fires).
Even when we had our 25 year old boiler it didn’t cost us £600 a year to fix!
BG are sharks, I wouldn’t touch their maintenance services with a barge pole.

I think it's one of those insurances that can be invaluable if something goes wrong. They replaced our hot water cistern free of charge due to a fault (they hadn't installed it and it was about 15 years old). They've also come out quickly if there's a problem. Ours is £25 a month, don't think we have radiators included.

Home serve. Or several bank accounts come with this cover. Halifax (we pay for it but it has other things that are useful too)

Put the £25 per month in a savings account and let it build up. Then you can spend it on a new boiler if you need it.

This only works if you have enough of a savings cushion to get started but it is another reason why life is cheaper for rich people

I reqlly want a full homecover-type insurance so I don't need to stress about finding reliable workmen or being ripped off. As a lone parent, it can feel vulnerable dealing with workmen in emergency situations.