House insurance advice: Changing cover to another company

My house insurance is currently with Sabadell and is due for renewal at the end of April. I know this has come up before on the forum but am I correct in thinking I need to give a period of notice in writing to the bank if I wish to change my cover to another company?
I have been meaning to look at other Insurance Companies for a while but never got round to it. I am out next week so would appreciate any advise on Insurance companies.

Theboundary wrote:My house insurance is currently with Sabadell and is due for renewal at the end of April. I know this has come up before on the forum but am I correct in thinking I need to give a period of notice in writing to the bank if I wish to change my cover to another company?
I have been meaning to look at other Insurance Companies for a while but never got round to it. I am out next week so would appreciate any advise on Insurance companies.

Hi,
We changed insurance companies last year, the new quote was about half the price that we were paying. Our old insurance company, through the bank, wanted 3 months notice in advance and as we were in the UK we had to send a written and signed letter of cancellation through the post, they wouldn't accept email. As you are going to be in Spain it will probably be easier to cancel but they will probably still need 3 months notice. We are glad we did change as we now get notice of the renewal price in advance, which our bank insurance wouldn't do for some reason and just took our direct debit each year.

If we were in Spain.like you are going to be, I would have gone to each insurance company around us and asked for a quote - you can then play one off against the other and go with the best....but I would make sure that they are going to give you notice of the renewal price in advance, by email if possible, so you can 'shop around' next time, as we do in the UK.

We used a company recommended on here called Intasure as they have a UK contact phone number and it can all be done online but, no doubt, there are others and we will be 'switching' if need be this year, as we can now compare when our renewal comes through.

Jan.

Jan many thanks for useful advise.

We needed to give Allianz two months notice to cancel our house insurance in writing. I sent the letter special delivery to make sure they got it as they would have to sign for it. I also sent the letter in Spanish and English and added a sentence that I wished them to confirm receipt of the letter which they did. I also went to the bank and cancelled the direct debit to ensure they could not take any more money. We are now with Linea Direct and it us half the cost and a better policy.

Mary

Good advice Mary. We did the same with the letter, in English but translated the main points in Spanish too - It may not be perfect but if simple language is used and a little help with Google translate, it just about does the job. We asked them to confirm receipt by email and they did. We also cancelled the Direct Debit too.

BTW one thing...The other insurance companies always seem to ask either what your renewal price is or what you've been quoted or what you paid for your cover last year. I think that's a bit crafty and always say I don't know (even if I do), otherwise they can just pitch their price a bit cheaper to make it sound good, even if they could have offered a better price.


Jan

Thanks all for the info. My concern with Sabadell is if I go into the bank next week and give them a letter cancelling the insurance bearing in mind my policy is up at the end of April the 3 month period takes me up to approx end of May.
If I cancel I assume they will take my money in April as usual but my concern is will I get my refund at the end of notice period ? That would be a worry. My main issue with Sabadell is not the cost of the policy but the lack of clarity on price as well as the lack of paperwork whenever the policy is renewed. I am not sure it would be an easy task if I ever had to make a claim! To be honest the only reason I used Cam Bank when it was operating was for convenience.

Theboundary wrote:Thanks all for the info. My concern with Sabadell is if I go into the bank next week and give them a letter cancelling the insurance bearing in mind my policy is up at the end of April the 3 month period takes me up to approx end of May.
If I cancel I assume they will take my money in April as usual but my concern is will I get my refund at the end of notice period ? That would be a worry. My main issue with Sabadell is not the cost of the policy but the lack of clarity on price as well as the lack of paperwork whenever the policy is renewed. I am not sure it would be an easy task if I ever had to make a claim! To be honest the only reason I used Cam Bank when it was operating was for convenience.

Your issues above were my issues too, with our old Zurich insurance through Lloyds, and the reason we changed our insurance. We never had any policy details or updates for 7 years and the only way we knew we were insured were by the direct debits being taken each year!

It seems you may be too late to cancel this year, we had the same problem and waited for the year after, but I had everything in place ready to change in advance. We were told that we would not get a refund if they take the money, so we cancelled well in advance of three months but confirmed with them that the actual cancellation of the insurance was only from the renewal date, which was about 4 months away and made sure we had it in writing that our policy was still active until our renewal date - They did confirm this by email too. This gave us time to cancel the direct debit in advance too, so they couldn't 'accidentally' take any money.

When we had all this confirmation, I then searched for other home insurance quotes for our new insurance to start on the same day as the old one ended.

It was a bit of a headache but it worked out well in the end. The main worry was to make sure there was no time period where we would not be insured.

Hope this helps.

Jan

Jan appreciate you and the other members sharing your experience's so it's best I leave it to next year before I move to another company.
Can I just add my thanks to you and the team for providing such a well informed website.
Can't imagine how I survived without it !!!!

Theboundary wrote:Jan appreciate you and the other members sharing your experience's so it's best I leave it to next year before I move to another company.
Can I just add my thanks to you and the team for providing such a well informed website.
Can't imagine how I survived without it !!!!

You're welcome. So glad you like it!

As for the insurance, at least while you are in Spain you can get all the information from the insurance companies, such as if they send out renewal prices by email and if they send out updated policy paperwork when it's renewed. Also if there is a time limit for cancellation, which theoretically there shouldn't be, and all the other information you may need when you finally do switch.

Have a good trip - Hope the weather is good.




Jan.

Bit of further advice to add play a bit of hard ball with these companies when they offer you a price. When Linea direct phoned us about house insurance the price they offered was good but told them I needed to think about phone me back in a week came down another 60 euros on the second phone call and they will provide you with copies in both English and Spanish of letter to cancel your old policy if you want it. I have done the same with car insurance this morning told them quote to expensive even though we had every intention of renewing with them got it down 30 euros ok not a massive amount but better in my bank account than theirs!! Quote we had from Sadabell was double Linea Direct for our car insurance.


Like you I find the forums invaluable over the years have had really good advice and must have saved us money etc as well. Now we live here I try to offer help/experiences think it us really good we can share all this information and knowledge. Even now still have to use it get advice etc as you say what would we do with out it.

Mary