Whacking increase in house buildings and contents insurance renewal premiums

It's probably going to be par for the course unfortunately :-(

Negative stock market returns recently and predicted returns also being low/negative means that they need to raise much more of their money directly from premiums rather than investing those premiums.

Of course, that doesn't mean that there won't be insurers wanting to expand their client base who may effectively be prepared to take on new clients at significantly reduced rates and "renewals" relying on inertia selling so the rates can go up more than strictly necessary to compensate.

There's also the possibility that they'll be factoring in increased fraud as times get tight. I would guess that people are more likely to have an "accident" to either replace something that has worn out or just to get the insurance money. I'd expect that to impact contents insurance more than buildings insurance.

Tim.

In message , MM wrote

All insurance companies inflate the price on renewal quotes unless you have been paying too much in the first place! You should have no brand loyalty because they don't care about retaining your custom.

Both my car and house/contents insurance premium renewal quotes rose by

20/35%. I spent 5 minutes on line and found prices a lot lower from the major players and I'm paying the same as I did a years or so ago for the same cover.

I have just done the same. The AA renewal quote for building and contents is £217 (two separate policies). Churchill gives £118 for combined buildings and insurance, though with a reduced insured amount for the buildings component (£500,000 instead of unlimited).

The AA renewal quote for car insurance is £142. DirectLine is offering £130.

I've still got about three weeks before renewal so I shall be having a look at others as well.

And yet the AA blurb letters say "Don't worry! Deal checker has already searched our panel of over 10 leading insurers to get you a great price."

MM

Perhaps the insurance company has heard that Gypos have bought the field next to your house.

Arthur

They all say this. Shop around (and avoid Direct Line as they are terrible if you have a claim).

What about Churchill? Good? Stay away? I've used 'em before, but never needed to make a claim yet. They are a wee bit cheaper than the AA, but £9 more expensive than DirectLine.

MM

Bitstring , from the wonderful person MM said

I've made a claim on Churchill (or at least someone I backed into did) and they seemed halfway competent. Mind you that was 4 or 5 years ago, before they were swallowed up by whoever...

Look for a cheaper policy. confused.com and moneysupermarket are good places to start your search.

I change my insurers every year and generally save about 50% of what I was quoted by the last one.

Unless you claimed for something recently that's very cheeky of them.

Churchill are owned by Direct Line who are owned by RBS.

Neil

Shop around for online quotes - and see what the AA would charge you as a new customer. My Direct Line house and contents cover had gone up to £300+ three years ago. Online they were quoting £106, but wouldn't give me that price when I phoned, so I cancelled and became a new customer. This year the price had crept up again, online was cheaper, and when I phoned they were now quite happy to put me through to another department which deals with competitive quotes and to give me the online price.

Toom

No, I haven't ever made a claim on any insurance.

MM

Bloody weird world, ain't it!

MM

Mines just gone up 14%...could have got it a fiver cheaper but what happens is that they offer new customer discounts which cannot be sustained after the first year. Ime with the co-op, but its been supplied by somone else.

In message , MM writes

My House & Contents with Zurich rose 10% this year.

I don't consider them cheap at £261 for £1M buildings and $50k contents, but under my car insurance they paid out promptly the full market value of my car when I wrote it off in 2000.

I have never risked having the cheapest insurance money can buy. ;-)

We were burgled earlier this year (around 2K lost altogether) and Direct Line were absolutely fine with our claim - vouchers for items on their "list" and retail list-price in cash for everything else. Their quote for contents renewal arrived recently and has gone up from 120 to 145, which seems fair.

My policy got sold on (again) to RAC Direct last year. Had slight flood in Jan caused by blocked gully in the road outside. They were OK with the cleanup and carpet replacement, but have played silly buggers over repointing the relevant wall. I reckon I've _just_ won, this past week. Probably.

Anyway, last year B&C was GBP428. Renewal arrived in May, wanting GBP1783. I phoned them up and suggested they were Having A Laugh, and was told this was because my NCD had gone---not that I was aware of having NCD on my house insurance, like. So I sorted out an alternative quote, which wasn't the cheapest possible, but I got to talk to a Real Human Being, In Person, about it, so I took it and told her exactly why.

Phoned up RAC Direct to cancel, and obviously ended up talking to Retentions. When I told the bloke the story, he hauled up the details... ...and found they were blank. It turned out that the previous year's renewal number had been what the previous company handling the policy had been going to issue, and they'd just issued that, blind. This time round, instead of noticing that the details (house, occupants, smokers, students, all those questions you get asked when you fill in the form) were blank and doing something about it, the quote just assumed `maximally bad' values for all of the details and issued a quote based on that. Filling in those details brought the quote down to within a handful of pounds of the new policy.

I pointed out to the Retentions bloke that, had someone thought about this, they probably could've kept me as a customer, but that I was phoning up to cancel because I had another policy, and wasn't in a position to change my mind. Ho hum.

Yes, but the AA want to increase my premiums by 21% and 32% respectively, far more than your 10%, or the 14% the previous chap mentioned.

MM

In message , MM writes

I noticed. I would be looking round if faced with that increase.

Last year my car insurance went up by about £60, but the agent I insure through suggested an alternative, which excluded the Green Flag cover.

I told him to get back to Zurich and tell 'em I also had my house insurance with them, and they reduced the premium to slightly less than the previous year. ;-)

I like continuity, but not at the expense of being ripped off.