Save money and get 3 months free home insurance with the ‘Get 12 months cover for the price of 9 with NatWest Home Insurance’ deal.
There’s an additional 10% discount as well if you’re a NatWest Advantage Gold or Advantage Private member.
You can get a NatWest home insurance quote online quickly and easily.
The offer ends 12 October 2009 and is for the first year’s premium only.
As well as fairly typical coverage, the policy from NatWest includes up to £1,000 cover for downloaded information, including music, games and films.
The accidental cover also includes DVD players, TVs, hi-fi equipment and PCs
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Halifax Home Insurance website is a hit with consumers
The Halifax Home Insurance Quote and Buy website was recently rated number one in the UK home insurance market in a benchmarking study by independent company, Global Reviews.
Over 1,000 consumers were surveyed to establish what's important to them when buying insurance online. This information was then used to gauge the appeal, functionality and overall effectiveness of the website compared with other market leading insurance sites. Global Reviews, an Australian company, is industry renowned for its website benchmarking reviews, working with over 70 global brands. The company also rated the Halifax Home Insurance site very highly for search engine optimisation.
Head of Products and Marketing, Lindsay Forster says: "The new website is the result of two years of dedicated work by Halifax Home Insurance colleagues. Since its launch, the website has been a huge commercial success and this acknowledgement from both our customers and Global Reviews takes us another step towards achieving our goal of becoming the UK's most recommended insurance provider."
Global Reviews Director Bertie Stevenson said: "We have been working hard with Halifax in recent months to tap into exactly what it is that consumers want to see in a quote and buy site to enable the company to deliver something of real benefit for customers. Reaching number one is a great achievement for Halifax Home Insurance and shows that their efforts have really paid off."
Over 1,000 consumers were surveyed to establish what's important to them when buying insurance online. This information was then used to gauge the appeal, functionality and overall effectiveness of the website compared with other market leading insurance sites. Global Reviews, an Australian company, is industry renowned for its website benchmarking reviews, working with over 70 global brands. The company also rated the Halifax Home Insurance site very highly for search engine optimisation.
Head of Products and Marketing, Lindsay Forster says: "The new website is the result of two years of dedicated work by Halifax Home Insurance colleagues. Since its launch, the website has been a huge commercial success and this acknowledgement from both our customers and Global Reviews takes us another step towards achieving our goal of becoming the UK's most recommended insurance provider."
Global Reviews Director Bertie Stevenson said: "We have been working hard with Halifax in recent months to tap into exactly what it is that consumers want to see in a quote and buy site to enable the company to deliver something of real benefit for customers. Reaching number one is a great achievement for Halifax Home Insurance and shows that their efforts have really paid off."
Britons waste £508m a year on home insurance
Loyalty does not pay when it comes to arranging household insurance because new research by Your Money shows home owners who renew cover may be overcharged by a total of more than £500m a year.
By renewing their policies rather than shopping around for the best deal, home owners are potentially throwing away an average of £180 each a year. Policyholders presume that their customer loyalty will be rewarded on their property and contents insurance, but calculations The Daily Telegraph commissioned from price comparison site Confused.com found widespread premium hikes that could easily be avoided
A quarter of customers could pay less than their renewal quote or current policy premium when shopping for new home insurance, claimed Confused.com.
But market researchers Mintel estimate that 70pc of household insurance customers – or about 11.7 million people – do not obtain more than one quote before arranging cover. So, if you divide these potential customers by four to identify those who could save money and multiply by £180, to quantify the average saving, the annual cost of lassitude is revealed to be £508m.
Most surprisingly, you may not even need to change the company who covers your home to avoid higher premiums.
One reader of The Daily Telegraph had bought house and contents insurance from Direct Line but when he came to renew his policy he was offered a renewal quote of £550, instead of the original price of £280.
The reader cancelled his policy and searched the internet for a better option. Finding that Direct Line was the most competitively priced on the market they reapplied as a new customer.
The new policy premium was £360. Should Direct Line not have been the cheapest option, the reader would have taken his business elsewhere, and he was frustrated that his loyalty was not rewarded.
Andrew Lowe, head of Direct Line Home Insurance defended the company’s policy, saying: “Like many other financial organisations Direct Line offers new business discounts from time to time to remain competitive in the market. This is in no way intended to be detrimental to our existing and loyal customers.
"The discounts we offer to our new customers are intended as one-off incentives and apply only for the first year of the policy. The premium charged at renewal in subsequent years does not result in the customer overpaying, but reflects a fair price for the policy, once the incentives are removed.”
In a similar case, another reader who had been a Barclays policyholder for more than 25 years was shocked to see the exact same policy he currently paid £1,002 a year for on offer to new customers on a comparison website for £460. The customer used Barclays for their general banking and had continued to renew due to brand loyalty. He is now looking for alternative cover.
A Barclays’ spokesperson said that they would not normally expect such a significant difference between a customer’s renewal quote and their quote as a new customer unless their circumstances had changed. They stated that they often offer discounts to new customers, but also reward existing customers who continue to increase their no claims period.
Darren Black, head of home insurance at Confused.com commented: “Loyalty does not pay and those who are staying with insurers in the hope such behaviour will be rewarded, are in for a nasty and expensive surprise.
“In order to get the best price for insurance, customers need to review and renew policies afterwards on a regular basis. Shopping around is now simple and fast for our customers and can save them hundreds of pounds. It is really important that everyone does this to ensure the price they are paying is competitive.”
Consumers need to view financial services as they would retail shopping. When shopping for white goods for the kitchen, or a suit for work, you will naturally compare both the quality and price of potential purchases.
Shopping around cannot just save you money on your premium, it also encourages you to review your coverage ensuring that you are sufficiently protected. New sound systems, Christmas presents, turning a spare room into a home office all alter your requirements for home insurance and reviewing your policy yearly should mean that if you need to make a claim, you will be adequately covered.
Some people are wary of using comparison websites because they worry about the security implications of entering personal details online.
A good way to judge whether a site is secure when entering personal details is if the domain name begins https: rather than http. The former should be secure sites; the latter may not be. Use trusted and established websites (see some examples listed below) who will have a customer services numbers should you have any queries.
As for those who do not have access to the internet or a computer, Mr Black recommends visiting a public library where members can use the computer facilities, or an internet café. You won’t have to re-enter details on every visit either. Where personal details are password protected, after the customer has been on the site once, all details are saved making the following visits even easier than the first.
By renewing their policies rather than shopping around for the best deal, home owners are potentially throwing away an average of £180 each a year. Policyholders presume that their customer loyalty will be rewarded on their property and contents insurance, but calculations The Daily Telegraph commissioned from price comparison site Confused.com found widespread premium hikes that could easily be avoided
A quarter of customers could pay less than their renewal quote or current policy premium when shopping for new home insurance, claimed Confused.com.
But market researchers Mintel estimate that 70pc of household insurance customers – or about 11.7 million people – do not obtain more than one quote before arranging cover. So, if you divide these potential customers by four to identify those who could save money and multiply by £180, to quantify the average saving, the annual cost of lassitude is revealed to be £508m.
Most surprisingly, you may not even need to change the company who covers your home to avoid higher premiums.
One reader of The Daily Telegraph had bought house and contents insurance from Direct Line but when he came to renew his policy he was offered a renewal quote of £550, instead of the original price of £280.
The reader cancelled his policy and searched the internet for a better option. Finding that Direct Line was the most competitively priced on the market they reapplied as a new customer.
The new policy premium was £360. Should Direct Line not have been the cheapest option, the reader would have taken his business elsewhere, and he was frustrated that his loyalty was not rewarded.
Andrew Lowe, head of Direct Line Home Insurance defended the company’s policy, saying: “Like many other financial organisations Direct Line offers new business discounts from time to time to remain competitive in the market. This is in no way intended to be detrimental to our existing and loyal customers.
"The discounts we offer to our new customers are intended as one-off incentives and apply only for the first year of the policy. The premium charged at renewal in subsequent years does not result in the customer overpaying, but reflects a fair price for the policy, once the incentives are removed.”
In a similar case, another reader who had been a Barclays policyholder for more than 25 years was shocked to see the exact same policy he currently paid £1,002 a year for on offer to new customers on a comparison website for £460. The customer used Barclays for their general banking and had continued to renew due to brand loyalty. He is now looking for alternative cover.
A Barclays’ spokesperson said that they would not normally expect such a significant difference between a customer’s renewal quote and their quote as a new customer unless their circumstances had changed. They stated that they often offer discounts to new customers, but also reward existing customers who continue to increase their no claims period.
Darren Black, head of home insurance at Confused.com commented: “Loyalty does not pay and those who are staying with insurers in the hope such behaviour will be rewarded, are in for a nasty and expensive surprise.
“In order to get the best price for insurance, customers need to review and renew policies afterwards on a regular basis. Shopping around is now simple and fast for our customers and can save them hundreds of pounds. It is really important that everyone does this to ensure the price they are paying is competitive.”
Consumers need to view financial services as they would retail shopping. When shopping for white goods for the kitchen, or a suit for work, you will naturally compare both the quality and price of potential purchases.
Shopping around cannot just save you money on your premium, it also encourages you to review your coverage ensuring that you are sufficiently protected. New sound systems, Christmas presents, turning a spare room into a home office all alter your requirements for home insurance and reviewing your policy yearly should mean that if you need to make a claim, you will be adequately covered.
Some people are wary of using comparison websites because they worry about the security implications of entering personal details online.
A good way to judge whether a site is secure when entering personal details is if the domain name begins https: rather than http. The former should be secure sites; the latter may not be. Use trusted and established websites (see some examples listed below) who will have a customer services numbers should you have any queries.
As for those who do not have access to the internet or a computer, Mr Black recommends visiting a public library where members can use the computer facilities, or an internet café. You won’t have to re-enter details on every visit either. Where personal details are password protected, after the customer has been on the site once, all details are saved making the following visits even easier than the first.
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