Mate of mine recently took out central heating cover for £70/year – included free annual boiler service, free parts and labour on repairs, etc. I told him it was just a con to get £70 a year off him and they’d probably condemn his boiler but he was having none of it. Anyway this week his free annual boiler service cost him £500 – they found a gas ‘leak’ and cut him off. He had to have the gas piping between the meter and boiler redone on the outside of the house and it looks horrible. He was going to cancel the cover but they persuaded him somehow to keep paying – they’ll probably get him on the boiler next time!

Anybody else had similar experiences?

BG’s cover was throughly recommended to me, by ppl who rent out properties regularly, though I have a realitively new boiler & all new piping… Gas safety certificate was included in the price, so was a winner for me.

Who was the firm? I have used BG Homecare and they have been pretty good

In my experience if you have a good local plumber it’s not worth it.

If you don’t have the cover or know a plumber and your boiler breaks down just before Christmas, you’re screwed.

I’ve had the BG cover in the past and currently I am quids in ie stuff that has gone wrong has cost more to resolve than I paid. Just like any insurance though if you dont claim its expensive if you do then it becomes good value.

I wouldnt bother with it on a boiler less than 5 years old though.

£70 sounds allright though, our oil boiler us about that for an annual service anyway? If they’re reliable and turn up you’ve probably had your monies worth.

Depends entirely how much/little you trust the provider?

I paid the £165 flat repair fee from BG when my boiler broke down, and the engineer said I had won a watch due to the fact the parts (new main board) on the boiler cost over £300 anyway

I’m definitely quids in with BG Cover to date.

Depends how old your boiler is. I’ve just had Vaillant out to our boiler for the second time this year, each time they have replaced at least one part. With call outs at over £200 a time, I’m very much quids in all ready!

It’s like all insurance schemes. They are betting that you will not have on average £70 worth of “free” work done a year. You are betting that you will on average have more than £70 of “free” work done a year. I’d put £70 extra a year in ot a savings account personally.

yep, BGs base flexi 100 cover is similar, with a £50 fixed price call out.

Definatley quids in on mine.

If they find a leak they have to make it safe, if the pipe work is not covered then thats tough. Would you expect them to walk away from a leak??

Was with homeserve, had nothing but problems with them. Sent the same useless company out to fix the boiler 14 times. Ended up paying £300 to fix it ourselves and ending the homeserve cover. Now with an independent company who have been excellent. With two young kids, I wouldnt be without boiler cover.

as with most insurance, if you can afford an occaisonal one off hit when things go wrong, you dont need it.
Be careful of “free parts” as they will just make up the cost of parts in excessive labour costs, so you save nothing.
As said above, good local plumber/gas fitter is best.

I phoned up to cancel our BG cover, it was transferred over to us from the previous homeowner. They offered the cheaper flex option with a call out fee, went for that as they chase me to get the annual service done rather than me forgetting all about it. Plus it saves me chasing plumbers trying to get someone to look at it.

Never needed them to fix anything, called them out once but cancelled the visit as a bit of Googling revealed the CH pump was stuck, nothing a small hammer can’t sort out 🙂 Boiler is nearly 20 years old so not much to go wrong.

Worth noting that if they need to replace a major component of the system under the policy, other parts of the system may need to be brought up to current standards, and this you are liable to pay for.

I’m definitely quids in with BG Cover to date

+1 last call out alone was about £1000 worth of work/parts!

Tis a gamble. But considering I could source and replace 50% of the parts that fail myself legally cheaper than they’d charge for parts, that leaves £70 cover for 50% of my boiler, I’d rather risk it myself.

cheaper than they’d charge for parts

that’s the point with Scottish/British Gas though – all parts are covered too

“that’s the point with Scottish/British Gas though – all parts are covered too “

I meant if you _didn’t_ have cover. i.e. I can buy the parts online and fit them cheaper than I would pay if they were called out to fit them normally.

With cover £70 a year
Without cover – call them > 165 flat for example
Without cover – fix self > £50 PCB….

It’s only when you have to start interrupting the gas-side parts that you have to consider the price of calling a qualified chap to do the fitting for you, if you’re concerned by legality and incapable of identifying faults yourself.

fair play. Your point also illustrates why I was happy to have getting my entire heat exchanger changed without question 🙂