Halifax home insurance.

[John Evans]

I have been systematically overcharged for Home insurance by the Halifax which they refuse to refund my original policy cost was £737.35 and the re-applied for policy cost was finally settled at £337.54 for identical cover, an annual overcharge of £400.00.

If you are a Halifax policy holder of a few years standing, log on to :-http://www.halifax.co.uk/insurance/insurance_home.shtml click the Home Insurance Quote and follow the instructions; you will find that a quote will not be given as they already have details on file. The information that blocks the quote is the address and the date of birth of the oldest resident (if you try next doors address or change the date of birth [one day older will do] and ‘hay presto’ a new quote will be displayed). I think you will be amazed at the result !

[Alvickers]

John,

I encountered the same problem last year, £230.00 off my bill.

Well done, I'll take another look'

Al

[RedDeath]

Sorry John, but i am on the Halifax's side for this one. I used to work in a call centre and those queries were quite frequent. Insurance prices vary on a day to day basis. Its a bit like buying a pair of shoes and then finding them cheaper a month later in the sales. Or plane tickets, tv, or anything else. The price was set at the time based on claims criteria and so on, the market has since changed, they have changed their loadings for your particular area and so on. Your only other option would be to cancel the insurance with the halifax (check what the refund would be, also there is a cancellation charge of about £30-£50 depending on the company) and then set up a new policy online. Yes, a silly method, but that's the system at the moment.

Its life, sometimes prices go up and sometimes they go down.

[Kizan]

As a rule of thumb, you should never take out your home insurance with your lender as they are normally not competitive on premium.

When I arrange a mortgage or remortgage for a client it is extremely rare for a lender to ever have the most competitive premium. Once or twice Nationwide have been the cheapest, but this is the exception rather than the rule.

My advice to everyone is to either shop around for the insurance yourself, or if you are using a broker, let him do it for you

[John Evans]

Hi, you must be a spy - renewal quote £737.35 similar to year before - call centre quote £337.54 a reassessment of 218.45% hardly a day to day variation ! My wife works in another division of the Halifax (this why I used them in the first place) and workmates of hers have also been systematically overcharged !

[RedDeath]

ha ha, yes I am a spy!!! You can call me 007 if you prefer.
Suppose at this point check how much it will cost you to cancel the policy and set up a new one if need be.

[Kizan]

If John switches to another household insurance company at the renewal date, the lender should only charge him an admin fee of £25 to inspect the new policy.

Tell your new insurance provider to name the Halifax on the policy schedule as an "interested party". The lender will insist on this and will want to see a copy of the new policy schedule to ensure they are mentioned on it; thus the £25 admin fee for inspecting the same.

From what you've posted above John, this will be £25 well spent.

Good luck.

[RedDeath]

First I have heard of that Kizan. The interested party should be noted as the mortgage provider (in case of a total loss that way the mortgage company get their payout).

Some insurance companies do offer an incentive to switch over, so maybe thats what the £25 is for.

[Kizan]

Yes sorry guys,

I didn't explain that very clearly.

If you are remaining with your existing lender, in this case the Halifax, but wish to change your household policy to another (cheaper) provider, you will need to ensure that the new household policy contains the name of your current lender on it (in this case the Halifax) as an interested party. Normally the lender would charge an admin fee of £25 to inspect the new household policy schedule to ensure that both the building sum assured amount was high enough and to ensure that they (the Halifax) were mentioned on the policy schedule as an interested party.

I hope that makes more sense this time