British Gas homecare agreement

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Been covered by British Gas Homecare for roughly 9 years now. Had the renewal through - a whopping £748 per annum!
I'm dithering whether to cancel and put the money away monthly and pay for my own repairs should any arise or save up for a new boiler should this one break down (it's over 10 years old) - either way surely it's more cost effective to cancel this agreement, isn't it?

That is a lot. What do they offer for this massive sum? Is it just for the boiler? Does it cover a replacement too? We have our (oil) boiler serviced annually by a local company and it costs about £100 a year. It sounds like you'd be better off just putting the money aside.

My boiler, heating and dishwasher BG home agreement is £29 pm. Boiler is 12 years old. Do you have extras??

Like any kind of insurance, it's a good idea to shop around, rather than sticking with one company, renewing every year without checking if you can get a better price elsewhere.

You'll find a much better price.

Even our 20+ yo boiler / heating was quoted £350. You can reduce it by having an excess. In the end we changed boiler and it includes cover for first year.

Only yesterday I called up on behalf of my mum to say it was too expensive. Up 28% vs last years cost. They agreed in about 2 mins to hold it at the cost of last year's. I've now got that offer on file, and I really must shop around to see what other deals I can find.

So try that at the very, very least.

We've signed up just this year for level 4 which is boiler, central heating, plumbing and electrics (or something like that) and it's £32 per month with no excess - terrible that there's such a difference!

DH phoned BG and renewed at last year's price.

I'm guessing you have the full package of boiler, rads, servicing, plumbing, wiring & 6 appliances at that price? We had that before we moved out & although expensive it was real peace of mind that anything would be fixed if necessary. We even ended up having to call them out for a blockage the day before we moved out. Would of cost us a fortune for an emergency plumber on a Sunday. Depends on how much you want & if you can afford peace of mind! I have bad anxiety, so for me it was still worth it!

Well it used to be ‘peace of mind’ for me but it’s definitely not worth it any longer. If your boiler is over ten years old I’d check they don’t consider it ‘obsolete’ for parts? Because if they do and it goes wrong they will tell you they can’t repair it and you have to get a new one. I have literally been talking to a customer liaison ‘manager’ today about this very issue. I’ve got so many problems with BG and two outstanding complaints (one for damage to my property after a botched repair) that this ‘revelation’ (that my boiler is ‘obsolete’ and they will no longer repair it despite continuing to take money from me for years after the date they decided it was obsolete) is the final nail. I’ll be saving money for a new boiler, not from them btw, and possibly think about cover elsewhere in future.

My mum (79) has the BG cover and every time they have a call out it's £50 which I think is awful considering she pays £30+ each month.

That seems a lot - our BG homecare plan is about £500 per year. I had vaguely been wondering whether or not to cancel it, but I’m glad I didn’t as it’s been well worth it this year as we had 3 separate radiators and 2 boiler repairs needed!

Wow. That's ridiculous.
Save the money into an account.
Ask friends / colleague / neighbours who knows a trustworthy heating engineer.
I've owned property for nearly 30 years and have never paid out anything like that in repair costs. Yes, like anything you get the odd bad year, but even the worst year I've never paid more than about £350, and many years nowhere near that.

You are being done, my friend.

You have to phone them. Tell them you will go elsewhere and it would be useful to have been given quotes beforehand and if they don't better it cancel it and move on.