Excellent value home contents insurance

Advantages: Value for money
Disadvantages: On-line form was a bit confusing

...Having received a renewal quote for my home contents insurance I decided to shop around and chose the Post Office as one to try. On-line application I obtained a quote online from their website. The website was fairly easy to navigate and the form relatively easy to complete. A few of the questions had me a bit stumped for an exact answer as it was from a list of drop down menus however I finished the quote. I was amazed at how much I could save. Their quote came out £100 less than any other quote I received. The benefits I received were also better than other comapny quotes I had. Confirmation letter I received a confirmation letter in the post of the quote. The letter was very easy to understand and didn't contain lots of jargon or legal terms. Having received the quote I was able to easily check the information I...

borstal 06.03.2007 · Read review
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Review of Post Office Home Contents Insurance

halifax building and contents insurance

Advantages: supposedly comprehensive cover
Disadvantages: too expensive for existing customers

...My buildings and contents insurance has been with the Halifax for many years and even though I shopped around, it always came out well for price and unlimited contents cover. This year, however, the renewal was £930. Comparison websites produced several cheaper quotes but the only one that was directly comparable was M & S at £600. As the Halifax were also offering to beat your quote and freeze for 3 years I tried their website but was unable to get a quote online because I was already a customer! So I tried again using next door's house number with all my details. Result- £560!!! So I went into my local Halifax and showed them the details, the chap was as staggered as I was. So he phoned a Halifax insurance expert who took all my details again and offered a quote of £970!!!!!!!! I politely declined the new quote, which could have been...

walterdeco 21.10.2007 · Read review
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Review of Halifax Home Insurance

Save a small fortune on home contents insurance

Advantages: Easy, on-line, helpline if required, cheaper
Disadvantages: None

...AA Insurance on the internet has just done it again for me. Having saved several hundred pounds by using the AA rather than just renewing my buildings insurance with Lloyds TSB they have just saved me a further £300 on my home contents cover. It couldn't be easier - a few minutes on-line via www.virginmoney.com got me a range of insurance offers using a host of respected names and all at substantial savings over what I had presumed to be a fairly competitive package offerd by my own bank. You even get a discount for booking on-line. Don't just take my word for it, try it for yourself and see how much you can save. Motor insurance will be my next port of call when it comes up for renewal....

sef 12.11.2000 (10.12.2000) · Read review
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Review of AA Insurance Services - Home Insurance

Gina Ford, Contented Toddler: Military style child rearing

Advantages: Some useful points (I would say suggestions but Gina doesn't suggest anything!)
Disadvantages: Absolutely uncompromising, Gina believes there is only one right way and that's hers

...Gina Ford is a self-styled baby / toddler rearing guru who has written many books on the subject and has even given her name to the question 'Is your baby Gina'd?' We start off in The Contented Baby Book, I picked this up off the shelf at a friends house when my baby was 6 weeks old, flicked to the page with the routine for his age group and started reading. She told me what time to get him up how many oz (or mins if breastfeeding) milk to give him, then what time and what I should have for breakfast. At this point I laughed out loud, put the book back and never looked at it again. I like to be organised and have an idea what's coming but don't respond to absolutes, minute by minute schedules and, what I think frankly are patronising comments. Why then have I read The Contented Toddler Years? I haven't had a change of heart over...

masterchef99 20.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Contented Toddler Years - Gina Ford

Pet insurance

Advantages: Peace of mind
Disadvantages: none so far

...the best thing to do was have him castrated at the vets. After spending money on his injections when he was younger and worming tablets and his regular check ups at the vets, she decided to buy pet insurance. I have a car policy with Endsleigh and have been happy with them for a few years so we checked out the pet insurance with them. It?s a costly thing to have a dog as vet fees are not cheap. The castration of a dog costs £180 at our local vets, add this to the worming tablets, regular check ups of weight and health when they are growing up and their injections and your looking at more than £ 400. This is without including any ailments that they might have in their life to come. We bought a policy from Endsleigh for £112.09 a year. You may think this sounds a lot but it is broken down into monthly payments which can be paid by...

Sunnysmiles 18.06.2009 (10.07.2009) · Read review
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Review of Endsleigh Pet Insurance

Home Contents Cover - How Customer Service SHOULD be...

Advantages: Value for money, excellent cover and speedy, courteous service.
Disadvantages: Compensation is paid is in form of gift cards to specific retailers. Cash would be more flexible.

...BACKGROUND As a Direct Line (DL) car insurance customer, I was offered the opportunity to take out home contents cover at a special 25% discount for existing customers. Having been with Norwich Union (now Aviva) for a while and experiencing ambivalent service when I needed them, I decided to go for it. Norwich Union may have ?quoted me happy? when I first took out cover, but their renewal premium (I had made no claims at he time) left me cold and decidedly unhappy. That was three years ago, and I haven?t looked back since. HOME CONTENTS POINTERS Here are a few tips for the uninitiated on home contents cover. Often people base their purchasing decision solely on the premium, but is vital to compare like for like when trying to decide between potential providers. Look at the small print and make sure that the features you...

Hishyeness 10.03.2009 (28.04.2009) · Read review
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Review of Direct Line Insurance plc

Swinton Car Insurance - Nice and Easy

Advantages: Price, Local Branch, Claims
Disadvantages: None so far

...Why choose Swinton Insurance! It was the dreaded time for me to look for car insurance again as per usual I check all the price comparison websites. Swinton came up the cheapest on two of them, so I decided to go direct to their own website to see what price was available and read a bit more about them. The main reasons I decided to go with Swinton was: *Competitive price ? Some £38 cheaper than the next best price and over £50 cheaper than my renewal price. *Local Shops ? I am one of these people who try to keep local companies open, well Swinton has office up and down the country so rather than call the dreaded call centre you can call the local shop. *Cash back ? As usual I always check the cash back sites, and to my delight Swinton was on Quidco. So when I taken the policy out online I got any additional £50 cash...

marcellep2 23.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Swinton Insurance Services

V insurance . .

Advantages: Seems a good policy.
Disadvantages: Let me down, just once.

...Vauxhall Insurance, is now underwritten by UK insurance Ltd, although it used to be another company, I will not name them, and certainly won't recommend them either. I was insured by them for quite a number of years, until it came to renewing the policy that is. well, in the past I have always had the insurance automatically renewed every year without doing a thing. And this year proved to be the opposite, they just didn't renew it, and the first thing I knew was when I wanted to tax my car, and found that my policy had expired! I rang the helpline, which was answered very quickly, and got the confirmation I had asked for. The voice simply said "You are not insured with us" This amazed me, after being covered by them for years, it turned out tjhey did not renew for no apparent reason. I of course needed insurance, so went to one...

smudgeybabes 06.08.2007 (16.08.2007) · Read review
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Review of Vauxhall insurance

Privilege Insurance - Apalling and inefficient customer service

Advantages: Price
Disadvantages: Poor service generally; pedantic; lack of response to complaints; ridiculous hold times

...I had always driven Company Cars until last November when I was made redundant and purchased my own car and insurance for the first time. Privilege were the cheapest quote I found. I set up the policy on line and was advised that I could have a no claims discount if I provided proof from my previous employer's insurer that I had made no claims. I requested this via my employer but it was not forthcoming and I contacted Privilege in Jan 09 to advise them that I had not deliberately 'overlooked' this but was having difficulty due to the redundancy circumstances. They then cancelled my policy in February. At this point I was fairly sanguine as I had not provided the proof. I reinstated the policy with zero no claims on the understanding that when I managed to obtain proof of no claims I would receive a backdated refund of the difference...

nitnatnaboo 19.08.2009 · Read review
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Review of Privilege Insurance

Swinton Car Insurance

Advantages: Easy to contact, good website, good value
Disadvantages: None whatever

...It's that time of year again - just after Christmas co-incides with when I bought my car (off my mum!) last year having just passed my driving test. Bit embarrassing leaving it so long, but money was tight and the busses were good to and from work ..... Anyway, went through Moneysupermarket.com to find a suitable insurer for my 2nd year on the road and came across Swinton. They were not the cheapest on the list for my circumstances, but they did offer everything I needed (plus legal cover as an option) and £50 cash-back after the policy has been in place for 90 days which made it cheaper than the other options anyway. Their website was easy to navigate and make the appropriate payment and the confirmation page came up with useful details like the address and telephone number of the nearest Swinton office. The only thing that...

Vixterbelle 16.01.2009 (21.07.2009) · Read review
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Review of Swinton Insurance Services