AIG Home Insurance quote off the scale!!

freddyuk

The quote request is for a 3 bed bungalow built 1980 valued € 350,000 + 60,000 contents. No claims ever. Usual cost around 350 - 400 mark. West Cork area.

I have just applied for home insurance online for my bungalow in ROI via www.aig.ie

We are both retired and live at the house full time. No frills just simple home and contents. No accidental damage. Never had a claim.

The quote is euro 1400.00

Clearly this is an error or you do not want my business. I am curious which one it is.??

Thank you

REPLY: 

Thank you for your email.

 

I can confirm if all details are accurate and correct, the quote for €1340.86 would be the best price we can offer.

 

Our systems will rate you information and provide a quote based on the details you have entered in the quotation.

 

So there you have it they do not want this type of low risk business.

Henry Ford III

Get other quotes or use a Broker to do so.

AIG aren't necessarily competitive.

coylemj

No frills just simple home and contents

€60K contents in a 3 bed bungalow? Is there a lot of jewellery or other valuable items? That may be the cause of the high quote. Try FBD, Allianz, Aviva, Zurich etc, they will all do an online quote for house insurance.

You'll often get one quote that's off the scale, just ignore it.

L1011

Shop around. Zurich, of all places, were significantly cheaper than anyone else for me.

Eggs For Dinner

OP, it's not for you to describe your circumstances as low risk. Other insurers may consider it so, but obviously your combination of circumstances have presented AIG with problems in the past. You'll find huge variations in quotes between insurers for any given risk for this reason

Tow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121942262#Comment_121942262

Tot up a fitted kitchen, bathrooms, wardrobes, carpets and furniture etc. Not much change out of 60k

masterboy123

Try Aviva online.

lawred2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121944352#Comment_121944352

Was once told by someone working in insurance that it's not considered contents if it stays where it is if you lifted the house and turned it upside down.

I'm not sure kitchens count as contents tbh but I'm no authority on the matter

bureau2009

Get several quotes either online or by phone. Then phone again and HAGGLE! It worked for me. "I have a quote here from one of your competitors and their price is........'

Good luck with it.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121944390#Comment_121944390

Kitchens, wardrobes are building. Carpets and other floor coverings are contents.

If you have a top end kitchen, ten grand of sliding wardrobes in each bedroom and luxury bathrooms you need to push up your building cover.

Eggs For Dinner

Fitted units in kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms are buildings, not contents. Appliances are contents. A free standing wardrobe is contents, a fitted wardrobe is buildings. Carpets are contents, but laminate flooring is buildings.

I would describe contents as something you could, but not necessarily would, bring with you to your new house. The definition will be in your policy document

coylemj

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945012#Comment_121945012

+1 This is reflected in the advice on calculating how much rebuild cover you need on the Society of Charterd Surveyors of Ireland website, link below.

In the context of how much rebuild cover you need, this is how they distinguish building from contents. The webpage title is 'A Guide to Calculating House Rebuilding Costs for Insurance Purposes (2023/24)' so 'the sum insured' refers to your rebuild cover alone. Emphasis (bold text) is theirs, not mine.

• The sum insured should be increased to allow for better-than-average kitchen fittings, built-in wardrobes, finishes and any other items not normally included in an estate-type house.
• House contents are not covered by the figures such as carpets, curtains, furniture, etc. These are often insured separately under the contents portion of the insurance.

https://scsi.ie/consumer/build/calculator/

The Macho Man

I've used Dolmen for last years and they got me a good renewal quote from AXA. I tried Aviva online, they quoted about €25 less. Its a small house but if you shop around you should get that down significantly.

coylemj

OP says 'no claims ever' and this is a 'quote request'. Which suggests he has had cover for several years and is currently insured with another company. So what was his most recent renewal quote? And if he went shopping online, why highlight only the AIG quote?

delboythedub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058343512/aig-home-insurance-quote-off-the-scale

Try bonkers.ie online and see if there is any difference. i use them for gas / electricity and broadband and i find them very good

JVince

This is how insurance works.

They may have their limit of west cork bungalows and therefore need to rebalance the book profile.

They do this by increasing the quote on a type of property they have enough of and decreasing it on other types.

You can have a situation where you have two identical properties. One getting a renewal quote of €500 and the other asking for a new quote and being quoted €1400 and using identical figures.

You just need to find what insurance company wants a few west cork bungalows to balance the number of D4 semis they have.

freddyuk

I spent 40 years in the Insurance industry so I am not niave on the subject. I have been shopping around to improve on my 23% increase from my existing insurer up to euro 418 for this risk (why?). No high value contents items, no claims, no accidental cover. As in Motor insurance the burden is on the customer to trawl around every year for a decent renewal price which is a PITA. You traditionally build a book of good clean business and hang onto it. Sadly now there is little human involvement in the "underwriting" process it is all done via algorithms which do not provide the best option for customers. The same happened in the London insurance market when the old school underwriters who you actually spoke to, to negotiate risks were replaced by computer programs which had no leeway on pricing.

I just thought it was interesting that AIG could not explain why they did not want the business rather than insult me. If their "book for West Cork" is full and they walk away from very low risk policies it makes no sense. Low risk is low risk wherever it is geographically. If they wrote a decent book of clean business they could reduce their rates…. an algorithm cannot make many risk based decisions?

I highlighted AIG as it was so ridiculous.

Jim2007

Clearly this thread has run its course based on the OPs last response.