Can you trust online comparison sites?

[The Ken]

I had to claim for burglary a few years back with Direct Line - they were pretty good in general. Compensated for my collectors whisky and grandmothers ring based only on pictures of her wearing it when she was alive. Even paid for a custom reinforced copy of our Victorian rear door that was damaged but not really irrepairable.

They did insist on a few extra (pointless) security measures after the fact (we net the spec already) and the following year our excess went up considerably, we left them for a couple of years because of that but are back now.

One thing I do do every so often is take pictures of items I own - valuables collectables, technology and even things like games CD's and DVDs. It makes claims much easier.

 

[Neil]

As hamster and theredchili says - plenty can brag about how cheap they get a policy for - but it means little until you know how good they are when you need them.

Otherwise, it's just a fee for mandatory cover.

I've seen insurance companies mentioned here, as providing good prices, but from memory of my own experience, were pretty useless in the event of a claim (I'll not go into details of the company, as it is dependent on my addled memory).

On the flip-side, I was pleasantly suprised that my current policy had better terms than I was aware of, when checking about cover for things like courtesy cars (I assumed 3rd party, dealers wanted full comp - policy actually was fully comp for courtesy cars when I checked) - which may have only saved my £12.50 fee for using the dealers policy, but all the same, was a pleasant surprise (insurer is LV).

And I chose them because of recommendations, and being able to get a discount, because best part of 2 decades ago, I worked in the public sector.