I hate them, but they insure well! (Lloyds TSB insuredirect)

Member Name: tigertom22

Product:	Lloyds TSB insuredirect
Date:	22/04/02 (623 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Half accidental cover, comprehensive, All layout in front of you

Disadvantages: Price

Anyone that knows me will be aware that I?ve just left home for the first time and am now renting my first flat! (Whoho!)

But of course with all this new found freedom comes all the pants bits, TV licence, Gas bills, electric and of course Home Insurance.

I now have some insurance that I am happy with, I am covered by Lloyds TSB insurance and I pay £140 a year. But this whole experience has been a little harrowing and annoying, if only there were some kind of guide on the web regarding? ?How to Pick an Insurer?

? And then it hit me, best write it myself!

So here?s my guide and ?how I did it? to finding home insurance:
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This is the type of property I was attempting to insure:

1 Bedroom Flat in Brighton
With security door entry
Pre-2nd World War construction
Not in a neighbourhood watch scheme.
Second floor
Approximately £10,000 worth of contents
Leased from private landlord

And this is the cover I was looking for:

Contents ONLY (Landlord does the building)
Accidental cover, for the clumsy drunken nights
Away from home cover, so when I am mugged I simply say, ?Yes of course, take everything I have on me!?

And, finally I didn?t want to get this wrong. I am living in a city where everyone seems to get robbed. I don?t want to get caught without insurance. Which is why I made this a mission for myself.

The beginning:
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One dark Monday morning, with rain pouring down my face and some kind of pin in one of my shoes, I tottered off to get some insurance quotes from the banks and then back home again to phone some more companies.

The first one I tried was Natwest and all they did was hand me a phone to call their insurer (Could have done that at home!) which was when I realised that I didn?t even have the postcode of the property on me, nor did I know i
f I needed Contents and/or building insurance!

So one trip to the letting agent and then another phone call to Natwest insurance later I had a quote for £160 contents only insurance, which I thought was a good deal, and a 14 day trial/cancellation period scheme.

I then walked into Lloyds and did the same. Yes, so for next few days I had contents insurance twice over. Using Lloyds and Natwest?s 14-day trial/cancellation period schemes. I did check, and they both said there would be no charge to cancel. (Better not be or there will be hell to pay). I also checked, and no you can?t claim twice. (Damn)

(Why did I get two? I don?t know, I definitely needed one, and I suggest you do too. It would be just too annoying to go insurance shopping only to get home having been burgled and have no come back!)

Anyway in Lloyds, who at least let me talk to a manager face to face about insurance, I found myself being told very calmly and clearly how Lloyds were the best at insuring, and that they were way better than Natwest, which was to be expected I suppose. I then proceed to grill the poor man on every single scenario I could think of involving my stuff at home and there insurance. But they finally gave me my quote and they did turn out to be cheaper!

Important! Despite talking everything over with this guy, people do lie and get things wrong. So although I was happy with the cover I asked for all the bumf to be sent out to me. A verbal contract counts for dick! Only in writing is it legally binding. Make sure you have everything on paper.

And finally, wet and soggy from the rain I stumbled home, made a cup of tea and started phoning people.

Halifax - 0800 028 2498
They quoted me £128 year, which was good. So I asked for the bumf to be sent to me. The bumf turned up a week later minus the policy booklet, which is the small print of the cover. So I asked them to send it out to me, and it still hasn?t turn up.

So a big fat no to them, then!

Direct Line - 0845 246 0429
They quoted £170 year so of course I put down the phone and laughed about their outrageous offer! In a bit more depth, their cover wasn?t as good as Lloyds and it was for smaller amount as well. So, no to them!

Esure - 0845 601 7131
They quoted £83 a year! Which is well good, in fact a bit to good. So of course I really wanted to read the Policy Booklet to make sure that I wasn?t conning myself out of some cover! No policy booklet turned up, yet they did manage to send a very official looking pre-printed direct debit statement to me within two days.
No to them!

Dial Direct - 0800 096 8378
They quoted £138 a year and were without doubt the most frightening ones. They refused to send out a policy booklet or even all the small print. Now maybe there insurance is really good and covers everything. But I am not going to take some phone monkeys opinion on it. I?ve been a phone monkey and I know I lied!
So NO NO NO!

Waiting for all bumf and letters to turn up took about a week and then I sat down and read all the policies (Very dull) and weighed up all the pros and cons. Mainly how much money I was willing to spend on insurance.

And basically, and I?m a little ashamed to say it, Lloyds were the clear winners. Their cover gave the most comprehensive insurance for the least amount of money and they had easily the highest payout amount too. (50 big ones)

So with policy booklet in hand and my policy schedule in the other I sat and made out this list below of all the cover Lloyds do on there basic package. And I defy you all to find a more comprehensive one!


The Basic Contents Cover:
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(Sorry I?m not doing the building cover as I don?t need it and so couldn?t care less)

Well apparently from the guy I spoke too, Lloyds only do one level of insurance.
And it?s £50,000! Yep you read right,
they do no higher or lower insurance. (I only wish I had £50,000 worth of stuff)

So you can put a tick on your list: The cover is high enough. £50,000!

The actual cover:
Be careful here, the cover is outlined in the Policy Booklet, which is only your GUIDE to your cover. You need to cross-reference your Policy Booklet with your Policy Schedule. (i.e. you don?t get everything in the P. Booklet)

You are covered for: Loss or damage to contents

The exclusions are: The excess in the schedule, which is £50; All vehicles: Cars, boats etc etc; Pets & livestock; Growing tress & shrubs; Articles used for professional purposes; anything with other insurance (Be careful)

You are covered for: Fire, smoke, explosion, lightning and earthquake (Yeah great in the UK)
But not: Any damage from fag burns or cigars, unless there are flames involved!

You are also covered for: Riot, civil commotion, labour and political disturbances or strikes. (Phew, thank god)

You are covered for: Malicious damage or vandalism.
But not: If you cause it yourself or someone you live with does so or if the place is unoccupied (60days) or unfurnished.

You also get: Impact from planes or anything falling on the place (Good, very rare) and Storm and flood. (Aw poor sweet Lewes, all that Harvey?s floating down the river Uck nearly made me cry)

And you get: Subsidence or heave and damage caused by; Burst water pipes, gas pipes or Oil pipes (Nice)
But unfortunately not: If the place is unoccupied (60days) or unfurnished; or if the damage were to be caused by the escape of water from guttering, roof etc.

You are covered for: Theft or attempted theft (Whoho)
But not: Theft where they didn?t have to force entry; or if you let someone in; if the place is unoccupied (60days) or unfurnished; Loss by deception; Damage caused by you or family; Theft of bikes outside in sheds etc.

You are covered for: A
ccidental damage to glass and ceramic hobs!
But not: If the place is unoccupied (60days) or unfurnished

You stuff is covered: In your home; in the open boundary of your home up to £500; temporally anywhere in the UK not exceeding 3 months.
But not stuff: If the place is unoccupied (60days) or unfurnished; removed for selling; damaged in a storm or flood when not in a building; Lost from theft in the street (Damn); or student belongings.

So there you go, that?s the basic package. If you get contents insurance that?s the cover you get, there?s also the option of accidental cover but it only extends the basic package to covering floors from stains and so on

The contents limits:
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Basically they replace, buy new, or give you cash for everything under £3000. Anything else must be listed separately.

The added benefits:
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All the added benefits count towards your maximum cover of £50,000, and so no matter what the total of these may be, you will only be paid this maximum.

It includes: Fatal injury, if you get burnt alive or beaten to death you get £5000. (Ya!)
And replacement locks, if yours are broken or stolen up to £500.

And also: Frozen food, if you freezer packs up you get £500.
But not: If your electricity is cut off.

And finally if you have or lose: Money stolen, up to £300; Credit cards, up to £300; Loss of metered water, up to £1000.

And other clauses that don?t apply to me so I didn?t investigate and can?t report upon them.

Summary:
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So there you go, that?s the basic package.

- Half and half accidental cover, it doesn?t cover everything. But if I drop my hi-fi I?ll get a new one.
- No away from home cover, so I will have to run from muggers.
- But pretty much everything else is covered

This is one of the best insurance offers I?ve seen it appears to cover pretty much e
verything you could want.

They also do the new ?no claims? insurance (Just like your car insurance) bonuses. And you can get up to 35% off after 5 years.

You don?t need a Lloyd?s account to have this insurance and Lloyds were very approachable about it, and made it easy to ask questions. The information is easy to understand and there?s a 14-day cancellation period so you can shop for insurance whilst being insured. And you can have everything on paper so as to have a legal record of the terms before you.

I do recommend their cover, but their price is a bit much, 3rd highest! There are loads more companies, which are cheaper, but I suggest you read their policy booklets darn well if you are going to go with any of them.
I will have to see if it has been worthwhile spending a bit more to go with Lloyds just so as to have everything fully covered (And have proof of it). The real test will come tomorrow as I?m going to claim on my broken CD player. Well it was dropped ?accidentally? and so it should be covered. :)

Summary: