Home insurance renewal increase

[Oortam]

I've just had my home insurance renewal quote in and the price has increased by 34%. I called the company and was told they couldn't explain why it had increased and they couldn't offer a better price for it. Is this normal for home insurance this year?

[ARH]

its normal for all insurance that's why comparison sites exist.

[kharma45]

Is this your first time getting an insurance renewal?

[bad company]

Oortam said:

I've just had my home insurance renewal quote in and the price has increased by 34%. I called the company and was told they couldn't explain why it had increased and they couldn't offer a better price for it. Is this normal for home insurance this year?

No it isn’t. Shop around.

[Buster73]

Had the same , renewed with another company , then started getting emails offering me a discount to renew with the original company.

Why not start rewarding your existing customers for loyalty?

[Nyloc20]

We’ve been with Tesco for a few years, never made a claim. We got the renewal notice this week, for some reason its dropped around £20. I was planning on shopping around but that’ll do nicely. A couple of boxes of San Miguel added to the shopping list!

[Bluevanman]

My renewals have been going down in recent years without me having to do anything.
I can't quite believe how they do it so cheaply

[sherman]

My home insurance renewal just came through.
Its fallen 86p a month.
Im moving to a bigger house in a different postcode on first of June so Im going to cancel the policy after less than a month of it.

[Ste-EVo]

I work for a well known car and home insurance provider, policies are generally lower this year for the first time in about 3 years. However that doesnt mean ALL are, risk factors change, often beyond your control, and what one underwriter sees as low risk another may see as high risk and vicea versa and how an insurance company/underwriter calculate your premium is generally commercially sensitive information therefore that is why they cant tell you. The agent on the end of the phone likely won't have that info anyway.

But such a high percentage increase could mean over the past 12 months there have been alot of highvalue claims in your area (not just home but car claims can impact). This is just one of soo many factors used to calculate a premium.

Shop around, its the age old case that you'll likely find it cheaper. But me personally, price isn't the only factor in my purchase, I look at reputation of company and easy to contact UK only call centres being a huge factor for me.

Edited by Ste-EVo on Saturday 25th April 15:50

[twibs]

topcashback is worth a look..gives you money back and uses well known comparison sites.

[bad company]

Ste-EVo said:

But me personally, price isn't the only factor in my purchase, I look at reputation of company and easy to contact UK only call centres being a huge factor for me.

Edited by Ste-EVo on Saturday 25th April 15:50

Spot on, you might regret buying the cheapest insurance if you need to claim. I’m with the NFU, they have a local office and the phone is answered by the people working there. Thankfully I’ve never needed to claim from them but I’m confident that be ok.

[alfabeat]

bad company said:

Spot on, you might regret buying the cheapest insurance if you need to claim. I m with the NFU, they have a local office and the phone is answered by the people working there. Thankfully I ve never needed to claim from them but I m confident that be ok.

Same here - we are with NFU. It is relatively expensive, but if the worst happens, I want to be able to pop into the local office and see the people I know, to work out the best way forward, face to face.

[BunkMoreland]

With Admiral

Went up about 1/3rd
Churchill was cheaper
Told Admiral
They (their online bot or whatever) reduced it to within a fiver. Couldn't be bothered to dick about anymore so renewed.

Worst thing is you know if you ever need to claim, they will ALL do EVERYTHING they can to get out of their obligation!

[Monkeylegend]

I usually switch every year and went with the AA this year in February.

I had an email from them two weeks ago saying their system had a glitch when I was inputting my information online in February and asking me to log in and check everything was correct.

They had us down as having a two story bungalow with a loft conversion, and no locks on the windows and non approved BS locks on the doors'

I spoke to them and corrected it to a single floor bungalow with no loft conversion, and BS approved locks on all doors and windows.

The guy updated everything and told me there was no admin charge as it was their fault and the annual premium would go down as a result by £0.20p reducing my monthly DD payment by 2p. Not sure yet what I will be spending it on.

So much for having BS standard locks.

[RotorRambler]

BunkMoreland said:

With Admiral

Went up about 1/3rd
Churchill was cheaper
Told Admiral
They (their online bot or whatever) reduced it to within a fiver. Couldn't be bothered to dick about anymore so renewed.

Worst thing is you know if you ever need to claim, they will ALL do EVERYTHING they can to get out of their obligation!

Not always..
I have 2 cars & house with them, multi insurance.
£81 a month interest free.Splitting them up via comparison sites more expensive & faff.
£2k claim paid out on Buildings, to replace water pipe from road to stopcock. Renewal was cheaper..

[mikeiow]

alfabeat said:

bad company said:

Spot on, you might regret buying the cheapest insurance if you need to claim. I m with the NFU, they have a local office and the phone is answered by the people working there. Thankfully I ve never needed to claim from them but I m confident that be ok.

Same here - we are with NFU. It is relatively expensive, but if the worst happens, I want to be able to pop into the local office and see the people I know, to work out the best way forward, face to face.

We had NFU insurance many years ago, then one year for zero reason they upped the premium around 40%.
That’s when we got into comparison sites…..other insurers exist, same cover for less than the previous NFU premium.

I’m more of the view that most insurers will look to wriggle out of claims, so I don’t particularly look for the “well known brands”.

[heisthegaffer]

BunkMoreland said:

With Admiral

Went up about 1/3rd
Churchill was cheaper
Told Admiral
They (their online bot or whatever) reduced it to within a fiver. Couldn't be bothered to dick about anymore so renewed.

Worst thing is you know if you ever need to claim, they will ALL do EVERYTHING they can to get out of their obligation!

Who will, Admiral?

There probably are some Insurers who will try it on but they are so heavily regulated it should be less common now. I do know of someone whose business had a significant claim (£500k) where the broker and the UW agency were in the same office, ran by the same people but they tried to renege on the claim with the UW agency saying they hadnt been told all details by the broker and customer. That was thankfully resolved.

To counter this, my wife lost a diamond out of her engagement ring back in December so I submitted a claim. When the inspected the ring, they told me the repair to the ring element was c. £1,250 and the diamond replacement was £1,300 which was great than the policy limit of £2,000 (silly me never thought about values increasing after buying the ring 15 years ago) but on this occassion they'd make an exception and extended the policy. Fantastic service.

[guitarcarfanatic]

It can be loads of reasons though for increases. Different underwriters or underwriting risk, a change in underwriting strategy, better data around the area or your property, rising building and materials costs etc.

[bad company]

mikeiow said:

We had NFU insurance many years ago, then one year for zero reason they upped the premium around 40%.
That s when we got into comparison sites ..other insurers exist, same cover for less than the previous NFU premium.

I m more of the view that most insurers will look to wriggle out of claims, so I don t particularly look for the well known brands .

We had similar with NFU increasing the premium radically some years ago. Apparently their underwriters decided that they no longer liked older, listed, timber frame houses. We now live in a new build.

The last time I claimed was about 15 years when insured with Hiscox. They didn’t try to wriggle at all, it was an honest claim and they paid it without quibble.