Home Insurance ? any recommendations or warnings about who to avoid?

[belledejour]

Sorry...so dull, but now I am divorced have to do all this boring stuff myself and have no-one to bounce it off!

Have been insured with Prudential for about past 5/6yrs but the renewal premium seems very high.

Anyway, was thinking about going through the AA but have just had a quick whizz through the review sites and there are lots of criticisms saying the insurance may be cheap, but when you come to claim they are inefficient and wriggle out of everything.

Any good/bad insurance tips? I don't necessarily want the cheapest policy ? would pay more for a reliable and straightforward company that deliver on their promises without quibbling...

Try confused.com. Look for offers where they match any quote (sometimes they even offer money to switch too). I just switched to Lloyds and they offer a £30 cashback after 6 months. Some also offer a discount if you buy online. Most are underwritten by 3 or 4 of the big companies anyway, so the policies are much of a muchness.

Thanks Www. I have one valuable piece of jewellery ? diamond engagement ring ? that seems to hike up the premiums massively. Have been through confused.com and most of the companies on there won't insure it. Have got quotes from M&S (half as much again as my Prudential cover) and Hiscox, which is the same price but offers far greater levels of cover, so better value for money.

Never used to stress about insurance but friends of ours (who live nearby) had their house set on fire by burglars while they were on hols during Feb half term and they lost pretty much everything ? clothes, toys, kitchen equipment, furniture, CDs, books. What wasn't burnt suffered smoke damage & was ruined by that. Luckily they were well insured, but that episode has made me very anxious about getting the level of cover right, esp the value of contents.

Hi- Is this for contents or buildings insurance?

Hiscox are amazing - DH used to work for them, and the service is outstanding. I'd absolutely go with them

We use Hiscox, they are fantastic. Everything is covered in the one policy, none of this add-on business.

We changed ours when we bought my engagement ring because Axa wanted to add on some ridiculous amount per month.

Thanks CMOT. Hiscox have already been recommended by 2 friends as being outstanding when it comes to claims. Tdiddy, it's for contents and buildings.

Problem is that everyone says 'oh I got this great bargain with cashback' but then people who have actually claimed have various moans & beefs e.g. one friend had terrible time with the AA (who have given me quite a competitive quote).

I have given up on Confused.com as when I try to enter the rebuild cost of my property, it says it doesn't match the figure given by the BCIS...but in fact the figure I'm entering is the one the BCIS rebuilding calculator gave me yesterday.

BCIS calculator gave me rebuilding cost of £271,000, but Confused.com claim my rebuilding cost would be £198,000 = big discrepancy! If I took their word for it, my premium would be much less, but I would also be underinsured.

Thanks Alibaba for the second vote for Hiscox. I remember ex-h & I had similar hassles with adding my ring & had to change from Direct Line to Prudential.

Hiscox is FANTASTIC!!!!! I stayed with the Halifax though until we resolve existing possible claim.

Is you house a period property or does it have any existing issues? If so then you may want to keep the same insurer to avoid hassles of counter claim and disclaim.

we have just got ours through the AA,
basically we phoned for breakdown cover and they said they could give us a discount if we would let them give us a contents insurance quote,
i was very happy with their service adn now we have breakdown cover and contents insurance, ours is £11 a month including accidental damage cover and theres a £50 excess on it,
i cant say what their service is like when claiming though,

When in the UK I used M&S as it was unlimited buildings and contents, and when I had to claim they could not have been more helpful; even to the extent of sending me a cheque rather than having stuff directly replaced as I could do it cheaper and find exactly what I wanted.

There wasn't a huge hike in premiums either.