Home Insurance - anyone had a really good experience? Ones to avoid?

[Wizzywoo18]

I'm getting home insurance quotes for a house I'm buying and I've not purchased a policy before in my name, so don't have a 'no claims' record.

NatWest, Churchill and Direct Line (Which? best buys) have come back with very expensive quotes as in 100s of pounds more expensive.

Cheaper premiums were offered online by Nationwide, Admiral and Hastings Direct but the trustpilot reviews are very patchy.

Home Protect offers a decent policy but I've never heard of them. Trustpilot reviews again variable.

Do any of you have good or bad experiences with these companies?
I would rather pay a bit more and know the company is decent to deal with when making a claim.

Ours is with Nationwide, but I review every year in case there’s anything with the same cover that’s cheaper. This year, the NW renewal was not bd, but there was a cheaper NW quote on a comparison site. It’s apparently a different policy, but has equivalent cover and is cheaper.

We made a small claim three years ago, for a carpet. The company they pass it on to was shit, but NW were OK.

We went for legal and general as advised by our mortgage adviser. Quite reasonable

Direct line can not fault. Had one claim with them and was incredibly easy. It was when there had been a massive storm and they had a lot of claims.

Thanks @Bluevelvetsofa , @Haveallthesongsbeenwritten and @OhDoh .

I will check out Legal & General too. It's a bloody minefield getting quotes and then reading through the small print. All part of the joyful admin of home owning!

Been with Nationwide for 25 years. Two break ins and a ceiling falling in and been totally responsive and brilliant. DP left bag in bus recently and they were really responsive. All done over the phone. No need for receipts for low cost items. Got money paid in within a couple of days. I wouldn’t change.

@Kabloom - that's really encouraging, thank you.

We had a big storm claim with privelege who are part of direct line group and they were fab.

Do check level of cover, look for a defacto 5 star policy - a lot of providers offer things like gold/silver/platinum cover and the exclusions and excesses vary a lot between them so you need to be careful the actual policy meets your needs.

Insurance brokers can also help get good deals for you if you have no clue what you are doing :)

About 13 years ago I had a house fire and the kitchen looked like a black hole and because the doors were open smoke went into virtually every room. The house interior was pretty.much condemned. Fire service would not let re-enter for 4 days. We had to move out immediately into a hotel with breakfast. We had to rush to M&S and buy some underwear and a few bits of clothing. After 3 weeks of hotel with breakfast we found a rental house and rented for 6 months. AXA insurance sent a man to assess our claim and he condemned everything in the kitchen all duvets, pillows and bedding also D's mattress as directly above the kitchen and smoke went upstairs into his room. At the time the rental was £800 pcm so £8400 the house repairs and contents come to £86k plus hotel bill cost over £2k and insurance also paid our hotel bill and basic clothing until we could get back in house then some clothes dry cleaned and some clothes they paid us a loss fee of £5k because did not fit or was a bit old anyway. They never quibbled and just paid the bill including paying a company to go threw entire contents of my house and list then throw away anything damaged. Then I was given money to replace it once the house was re-plastered, repaired and painted with a smoke block. I've stayed with them ever since.

I was with Hiscox for years. Seemed easy but we didnt have to claim ever. Then one year they upped their premiums ridiculously. Think 400 to 650. Then when I complained they said no new clients would be on premiums less than £1400. I was like what!!?

I now go through a broker. It is a Lloyds Insurance syndicate - cant remember the name. But I get the loyalty to a company that has been decent to deal with.

I do check every year if the insurance cover is correct - eg for contents. Need to check wardrobe content value, electricals etc.

Just to note Nationwide doesn't have its own insurance department so it's a product rather than an insurer. You will have an insurance company playing with a team dedicated to running it alongside their other insurance- a quick google shows this is currently Royal & Sun Alliance (who is a respected name).

Lloyd's syndicates are generally well protected as Lloyd's acts as another regulator alongside the FCA so if a syndicate insurer messes up you have two regulators overseeing/ fining/ who will look at your complaint.

@adagio You're absolutely correct - I'm pretty clueless! 😂
@caringcarer I'll try Privilege - another Which? best buy
@socialdilemmawhattodo And I think brokers can help with claims? Will look some up. I've heard of the Alan Boswell Group
@Barleysugar86 My Mum was with RSA for many years. I think she was pretty happy.

I got mine with Policy Expert this year, from a comparison site. They had really good reviews and we're brilliant when I had to claim.

I've just renewed with Policy Expert. I had them for a couple of years, then switched to a cheaper quote from GetSafe. We immediately had a water leak and GS were absolutely useless. It took them 6 weeks to decide whether to do repairs (water leaking the whole time), then declined because they felt it should be covered under our previous policy with Policy Expert. Policy Expert had it repaired the next day. I cancelled the GetSafe cover, replaced it with a new Policy Expert deal and have stayed with them since. I can't fault their website or claims process.

I’ve had positive experiences with Nationwide and Admiral. Claims were handled efficiently. For reliability, check Financial Ombudsman Service reports for complaints and resolutions to gauge service quality.

We got a quote from them and it was a lot more expensive. However It does look as if they’re reliable and give good service, so maybe you get what you pay for!

Been with directline for 6 years.. had one claim and was so incredibly easy. Tbh I could get it around £50 cheaper elsewhere but I like cover and the staff are always super helpful.

I use SAGIC (Salvation Army Insurance). I'm not how they compare cost-wise but they're really nice to do business with.

NFU are superb, quite expensive premiums but pay out and are extremely helpful.

We had a flood. Buildings and contents were different insurers. Aviva were amazing - turned up next day and could not have been more helpful or easy to deal with. Paid our no issue.

Axa can burn in the fiery pits of hell. Dreadful throughout, constantly lying and telling us wrong things about our policy and what they needed to do. Didn't turn up for days, 4 - 5 hour queue on phone to report initially.

I'm actually a lawyer and luckily in insurance (different type) and that is the only reason we got sorted at all. Took months. Avoid!

Direct Line have been good in my experience.

A pipe under the bath suddenly burst and gallons of water pouring out. This was a Saturday night, no chance of getting a plumber. I called the emergency line and a young man (I wanted to ask if his mum knew where he was) came and shut the water to that fitting off. He couldn’t repair it but he got us to a liveable state. No cost, no excess.

Another time DH drilled through a pipe. Luckily the screw plugged the hole. Claimed under accidental damage and it was all covered no argument.

This is their all singing all dancing cover though.

I very nearly changed insurers this time round, as my NFU policy was so expensive compared to some. Even though it was the Which? best insurance company, I thought I should try and get something cheaper.

Fortunately we had a bit of a family crisis and changing companies didn't happen. And I'm so glad. Because the family crisis has turned into a horrible legal mess, with various people at each others throats or just not understanding the legalities and going off-piste. NFU's legal helpline people have been the only voices of sanity. A 24 hours service, that meant when I was horribly stressed at 10 o clock at night, there was someone who could confirm that I was on the right path, doing everything right, and calm me down.
All included in my policy.

So yes, I'm impressed. And to everyone here, make sure your home insurance policy includes legal advice. You don't think you'll need it, until you do.

I’d be interested to hear about experiences with travel insirance too. We are currently claiming with Admiral and so far they have been great.

Just to add, many firms are just “fronts” or brands, and don’t deal with claims themselves. The call handlers can see what number you’ve called and answer in whatever companies name to make it sound like you’re talking to a particular brand insurer but in reality you’re talking to a different one who your brand contracted to. If there’s say 50 brands on comparison websites, there are probably only 10 actual insurance firms behind that. One sign is the almost identical paperwork you get when you change insurer - just different logo and colours scheme, but layout, wording, etc is identical! So even if you “change” insurer, you could find yourself dealing with the same “back office”!

How to tell which insurers are actually who they say they are so to speak then?