Is it ever worth claiming on insurance?

[dave2010]

We went away for nearly a week, and something tripped one of our consumer units. Consequence: a freezer full of suspect food.

Is it ever worth claiming? Maybe the food was worth about £100 - though some was bought at a discount. If we claim, perhaps the premiums will go up so that over a year or two we won't be any better off, and there's very possibly an excess which could be more than the value of the damaged food.

I need to decide on this fairly soon, as I'll be wanting to take the bagged up food down to the dump shortly.

I'm not a great fan of insurance companies. They takes yer money, and then try very hard not to give any of it back, even if there's a genuine reason.

[hifilover]

IMO at that price, no... Just take it on the chin

[struth]

Happened to me a month or so ago. Freezer full of food gone.. i didnt bother with claim as it would have put my premium up and payout wouldnt have been worth it.
I will wait til its a biggie

[nonuffin]

I have had two insurance claims this year which is two more than I have made in my whole life.

The first was a patio door glass which we found mysteriously shattered after a day out. It wasn't cheap to replace, but the insurance paid out very promptly.

The second was my missus got shunted in a three car pile up and the insurance company settled the whole business in less than 24 hours with no excess and no increase in premium. Well that's not true as they put the premium up until the other driver's insurance paid up and we were refunded the extra amount.

[Alex_UK]

Having worked in the insurance industry my entire career (almost 35 years - I know, I don’t look old enough! ;) ) I do get a bit grumpy at the “they’ll do everything they can to not pay out” line, Because it’s simply not true in my experience.

What you have to remember is that you’ve entered into a contract, and like most contracts there are conditions both sides must meet. Of course, any insurer would check to make sure you have kept your side of the deal (telling them the truth, etc.) before they will pay out, but once that’s done most companies these days will do their best to sort it out quickly.

But yes, premiums will likely go up if you make a claim - and I personally agree to take it on the chin for £100 - ad you say, there’s probably an excess anyway.

[Pigmy Pony]

I have had two insurance claims this year which is two more than I have made in my whole life.

The first was a patio door glass which we found mysteriously shattered after a day out. It wasn't cheap to replace, but the insurance paid out very promptly.

The second was my missus got shunted in a three car pile up and the insurance company settled the whole business in less than 24 hours with no excess and no increase in premium. Well that's not true as they put the premium up until the other driver's insurance paid up and we were refunded the extra amount.

I invoice an average of £120-150 for replacement of patio door glass, dependant on size. Don't know what your excess is, but when you get next year's premium you should have a rough idea whether it was worth claiming.

[hifinutt]

I almost never claim on insurance , except for homeserve plumbing etc who are a great support.

[dave2010]

Having worked in the insurance industry my entire career (almost 35 years - I know, I don’t look old enough! ;) ) I do get a bit grumpy at the “they’ll do everything they can to not pay out” line, Because it’s simply not true in my experience.

What you have to remember is that you’ve entered into a contract, and like most contracts there are conditions both sides must meet. Of course, any insurer would check to make sure you have kept your side of the deal (telling them the truth, etc.) before they will pay out, but once that’s done most companies these days will do their best to sort it out quickly.

But yes, premiums will likely go up if you make a claim - and I personally agree to take it on the chin for £100 - and you say, there’s probably an excess anyway.We have had a few “good” results from insurances over a period of about forty years. I agree there’s a contract, but perhaps that’s where the problem as I see it lies.

Apart from the insurance company wanting to write off what for me was at the time (and still is now) a perfectly usable car (apart from the theft induced damage), the replacement cars offered to tide us over were in no way comparable, which is why I had the car repaired. Probably our circumstances at the time were more unusual, but the insurance company did not appear to consider those, nor have any flexibility in discussing a way forward.

One could argue that if we’d paid more for the insurance initially we’d have got better service. Sadly though this is hard to check. Some firms may play fair, and provide a first class service for higher premiums, but others may simply take the extra money and still only provide (the same?) mediocre service. Most of us only really find out how good an insurance company is when an incident occurs.

[MikeMusic]

I've claimed twice - ever
Monster tree falling on the house. Rather a lot of damage from circa 5' trunk and all the branches
Burst pipes the following winter as the repairs to above exposed a pipe !
Even more expensive

Broken pane in double glazed door £100 odd not worth it.
Bonus was getting the guys to replace a unit that was fogging, get two doors and two windows opening and closing properly
Swallowed the call out and brought the unit prices down as well as making life better

[Sherwood]

We went away for nearly a week, and something tripped one of our consumer units. Consequence: a freezer full of suspect food.

Is it ever worth claiming? Maybe the food was worth about £100 - though some was bought at a discount. If we claim, perhaps the premiums will go up so that over a year or two we won't be any better off, and there's very possibly an excess which could be more than the value of the damaged food.

I need to decide on this fairly soon, as I'll be wanting to take the bagged up food down to the dump shortly.

I'm not a great fan of insurance companies. They takes yer money, and then try very hard not to give any of it back, even if there's a genuine reason.

North of Inverness? Probably didn't thaw out fully anyway!

[AJSki2fly]

We went away for nearly a week, and something tripped one of our consumer units. Consequence: a freezer full of suspect food.

Is it ever worth claiming? Maybe the food was worth about £100 - though some was bought at a discount. If we claim, perhaps the premiums will go up so that over a year or two we won't be any better off, and there's very possibly an excess which could be more than the value of the damaged food.

I need to decide on this fairly soon, as I'll be wanting to take the bagged up food down to the dump shortly.

I'm not a great fan of insurance companies. They takes yer money, and then try very hard not to give any of it back, even if there's a genuine reason.

Not worth the hassle for £100 IMO.

[dave2010]

Not worth the hassle for £100 IMO.Probably nearer or more than £300, unfortunately. Our neighbour suggests that since there were power failures, that the trip would most likely have happened when the power came back on.

Are there any devices which can prevent or mitigate against this? For example, detect power cut, then delay power to one of more plug sockets by various random times? If power cuts are going to be common and frequent, any devices to protect angainst this could be well worthwhile.

Another useful device would be a temperature logger in the fridge and freezer, as then the severity and time and duration of the power cut could be checked, thus reducing the need to throw away all the food.

Do such devices exist?

[Barry]

When power is restored after a power cut, connection is made when the AC cycle passes through 0V. That way no current is drawn, minimising any 'surge'.

[dave2010]

When power is restored after a power cut, connection is made when the AC cycle passes through 0V. That way no current is drawn, minimising any 'surge'.Is it as simple as that? Doesn't it depend on the load in each house, whether it's inductive, capacitative, or whatever? The impact of most houses on the grid as it comes live again is presumably not too significant - but within houses there might be effects. The RCDs are triggered by various conditions - for safety reasons. I suppose that faulty wiring might make those conditions more likely after a power cut - but in that case it would be good to know what the possible faults might be, and have the wiring checked to mitigate against those. I don't know what I'm looking for, but I can't afford to throw away all the food in a freezer if power cuts become frequent.

[Barry]

Is it as simple as that? Doesn't it depend on the load in each house, whether it's inductive, capacitative, or whatever? The impact of most houses on the grid as it comes live again is presumably not too significant - but within houses there might be effects. The RCDs are triggered by various conditions - for safety reasons. I suppose that faulty wiring might make those conditions more likely after a power cut - but in that case it would be good to know what the possible faults might be, and have the wiring checked to mitigate against those. I don't know what I'm looking for, but I can't afford to throw away all the food in a freezer if power cuts become frequent.

I'm not sure. Admittedly some items which have a motor in them may present a power factor which is not unity, but they will be close to unity. Ali Tait works in the electric distribution business, so he might be able to advise.

The only time one of the RCBOs in the consumer unit tripped out was when I was checking a 1.5kVA industrial step down transformer. I put it down to the initial magnetising current transient.

[dave2010]

I don't really know. In years gone past, we lived close to the end of a distribution spur - there was a transformer opposite our house. We also used to use incandescent light bulbs - but in recent years we switched to more modern lower energy ones. It wasn't completely clear cut, but we did feel that the light bulbs blew at a significantly above average rate, and I think others at our end of the road felt the same. It gradually seemed to become less of a problem - but I don't know why. Possibly the installation of a new transformer a few years ago made a difference. Seeing it installed was interesting, as a huge crane arrived to raise it over a field, and remove the old one.

It's difficult to know whether there really is/was a cause/effect relationship between problems in the supply infrastructure and failures within the home. We did have a couple of freezer failures, similar to the current one, but over a period of 17 years. Now that we have moved, power failures do seem more common, and also very localised. Sometimes only a few hundred homes are affected by power outages. Although I don't want to have to dump food from freezers, a failure rate of around one event in every eight years is probably not impossible to cope with, but a higher failure rate would really scare me.

[MikeMusic]

Self Insurance crossed my mind
Putting away every year's premium and having that to pay for any damage.
After all insurance companies have to pay out for all sorts and a lot of their customers are not as careful as us - are they ....?
Then they have to pay staff salaries and make a profit