Insurance

"Colin Blackburn" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

No, I'm not asking about insurance.

I have been with Commercial Union and then CGU for many years and their policy has always been
fairly good. Bikes are insured upto 375 without question and more expensive bikes can be added as
named items for very little extra cost. CGU merged with Norwich Union a year or two ago but up
until now the insurance hasn't changed.

Today I got my renewal letter and a leaflet telling me that following the merger I now had a new
product which is the best of both worlds. CGU & NU. Whoopee, my premium has dropped by a quid a
month. However, checking the fine print I find that the pedal cycle limit is now 300 and they have
removed my tourer as a named item, it is essentially now insured for 300 quid, a couple of hundred
below the cost to replace. So, if you are with CGU check that renewal letter carefully.

The worst change though is not related to bikes and is the reason I will be moving insurers after
a call to CGU/NU later today. On my CGU policy my house is insured for an unlimited amount (though
there is a smallprint limit of 250,000) my new policy has put a limit on rebuild costs of 68,000.
The house is valued at 155,000 to rebuild and worth around 180,000. The best of both worlds they
tell me. I'll be telling them something different.

Colin

Without getting into the detail, the way that house + contents insurance is measured/sold is a black
art - with considerable emphasis by the insurers on simplicity ...... i.e. the basic 3 questions are
1) Number of bedrooms 2) Confirmation of "conventional construction" (i.e. not thatched!) and 3)
Postcode - thus by taking averages based on house size and factoring in the risk (on the
contents/theft aspect based on the postcode) they can give a simple rate that's easy for the buyer
to understand and for them to administer.

I too was concerned about bikes and now have a household policy (with Lloyds TSB Insurance)
that covers a total value of £2000 with an individual maximum value of £1000 per bike. Does the
job for me.

Don't forget that insurance is only betting at the end of the day - they place the bet, you provide
the stake money (premium) and they win if the claims don't exceed the stake money!

RG

RG said:

Without getting into the detail, the way that house + contents insurance is measured/sold is a
black art - with considerable emphasis by the insurers on simplicity ...... i.e. the basic 3
questions are 1) Number of bedrooms
2)Confirmation of "conventional construction" (i.e. not thatched!) and 3) Postcode - thus by
taking averages based on house size and factoring in the risk (on the contents/theft aspect
based on the postcode) they can give a simple rate that's easy for the buyer to understand and
for them to administer.

Yes, but in this case my insurers have the documents telling them that the rebuild value is 155,000.
I can appreciate they applied a simple formula but it is the fact that the applier of the said
formula was also simple that they have lost a customer.

Quoted message said:

I too was concerned about bikes and now have a household policy (with Lloyds TSB Insurance)
that covers a total value of £2000 with an individual maximum value of £1000 per bike. Does the
job for me.

Thanks, I'll check them out on a ring around today.

Quoted message said:

Don't forget that insurance is only betting at the end of the day - they place the bet, you
provide the stake money (premium) and they win if the claims don't exceed the stake money!

Accepted. I dion't mind taking that bet with some of my possessions, I earn enough to replace them.
What I'm not prepared to gamble on is my house falling down, or more likely the roof blowing off if
the wind last night is anything to go by.

Colin

"Colin Blackburn" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Yes, but in this case my insurers have the documents telling them that the rebuild value is
155,000. I can appreciate they applied a simple formula but it is the fact that the applier of the
said formula was also simple that they have lost a customer.

As I work in insurance I can comment that NU household (following the mergers) service isnt
brilliant, However a few phone calls to them to alter the policy to how you want it will resolve the
problem (and it gives you a good chance to review your sums insured etc.)

Lee said:

As I work in insurance I can comment that NU household (following the mergers) service isnt
brilliant, However a few phone calls to them to alter the policy to how you want it will resolve
the problem (and it gives you a good chance to review your sums insured etc.)

I called. They are prepared to raise the rebuild value this year but that they would review it next
year and it would go up considerably. However, they isisted that the bizarre rebuild value of 68,480
was the number I had given them which is patently incorrect as I had the surveyors summary in front
of me which contained two numbers the lowest of which was 155,000.

On the bicycle front they pointed out to me that the reason they had removed a bicycle as a named
item was that the personal possession limit had been raised to 1500 and so covered the said item. I
pointed out to them the line immediately below that on my policy stated that the maximum insured
vale of a cycle was 300. they went, "Ah." I did't have much confidence in their systems and now I
have little confidence in their operators' ability to understand their own policies.

Colin

In article said:

"Colin Blackburn" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Yes, but in this case my insurers have the documents telling them that the rebuild value is
155,000. I can appreciate they applied a simple formula but it is the fact that the applier of
the said formula was also simple that they have lost a customer.

As I work in insurance I can comment that NU household (following the mergers) service isnt
brilliant. However a few phone calls to them to alter the policy to how you want it will resolve
the problem (and it gives you a good chance to review your sums insured etc.)

Sounds like their household service is better than their motoring one.

It took me 23 phone calls over two days to not resolve the problem, plus two calls to insure with
someone else and cancel the direct debit for the policy they couldn't find any record of. (Starting
counting with the phone call where I said "I phoned a couple of weeks ago and then you said the
documents would be in the post that day".)

"Colin Blackburn" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On Fri, 10 Oct 2003 09:53:09 +0100, Lee
<[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

I called. They are prepared to raise the rebuild value this year but that they would review it
next year and it would go up considerably. However, they isisted that the bizarre rebuild value of
68,480 was the number I had given them which is patently incorrect as I had the surveyors summary
in front of me which contained two numbers the lowest of which was 155,000.

Well, just recently NU have moved their "call centre" operation to India... hmmmm could be a
case of "we dont know what we are actually insuring" (believe me it happens more than you would
care to think)

Quoted message said:

On the bicycle front they pointed out to me that the reason they had removed a bicycle as a named
item was that the personal possession limit had been raised to 1500 and so covered the said item.
I pointed out to them the line immediately below that on my policy stated that the maximum insured
vale of a cycle was 300. they went, "Ah." I did't have much confidence in their systems and now I
have little confidence in their operators' ability to understand their own policies.

Cant argue with you there - household call centres tend to be untrained "muppets" who dont know
about insurance (generally and I am sure there are some VERY good call centre personell, just not
spoken to any yet!!) - thank god i deal with commecial insurance and proper underwriters!