Just had my buildings and contents renewal and it has gone up by a whopping 28%! If I apply for a quote on-line as a new customer will it be cheaper? If so, has anyone tried haggling/reasoning with them over the phone or will I have to cancel and re-apply?

I’ve not got my details with me today so I can’t get a like-for-like quote.

yes cheaper as a new customer im afraid. when i explained this to them they even suggested for me to cancel and apply as a new customer. so i did 🙂

Cancel it, and like you say, get a new quote as a new customer…

It’s miles cheaper..

I couldn’t do this. I had one very small claim last year, but have protected no claims which was listed on my renewal policy. If I looked for a renewal stating my claim it was more than my renewal and there’s no option to put in your no claims bonus

Ring ’em then.

You can give it a go… when this happened to me I went online and M&S – or their new underwriter – had decided I now lived in a flood risk area so wouldn’t insure me at all. When I phoned them up no amount of quoting EA flood maps and authoritative evidence that I was not in a flood risk area would change their minds. So I dropped a bit of my cover to reduce the price – and resolved to look around ahead of time for next year – in fact this is good reminder as it will be coming up in Jan. Like others I have M&S cover cause of the £4k figure for individual items which means not listing bikes etc -but have a search cause there have been other threads where people have found equivalent deals – I’ll be looking for those..!

Cancel and get a new one – you can get £30 cashback from QuidCo as well.

As an aside to this, how are people finding m&s if they have bikes stored in a shed?

Bikes are covered in a shed I believe, I don’t think they even require gold standard locks

I’m in the same position mines jumped from £400 to £650.

Will be calling and moaning today. Had a claim 3 years ago which means I can’t apply online.

do bikes count as a collection when i get a quote?

bikes in a shed are OK, they paid out on mine

Will be calling and moaning today. Had a claim 3 years ago which means I can’t apply online.

Tell us how you got on. We’ve had a small claim recently too.

When I did £1500+ damage to my car a couple of years ago it only went up by about £50!

My claim was about 200quid total, I paid 100 excess, insurance went up around 100quid for the year

As I understand it a ‘collection’ refers to something that has more value as a collection than the individual pieces. So maybe if you have a five pence piece collection, from every year from 1980 to 2010 it would be worth more than just the 5P’s added up.

Crap example, you know what I mean though right?

yes I get it and yes cr@p example 😉 like a stamp collection
I just have an assortment then.
Nothing in the terms either FWIW on what this means
Reasonable value for my quote.
Cheers for help

just got my renewal through, gone up £4 a month, will be getting a quote online to compare.

I thought the 5p example was excellent.

Compare the new t&c’s as there have been a few changes such as working from home, then take out a new policy before phoning up to cancel the old one. This will ensure you don’t get caught out by flood risk or local crime starts etc.

I was told we wouldn’t get a ‘new’ policy with them now AXA underwrite M&S insurance. Our house had a subsidance claim back in the 80s and we’re not covered for it but the Coal Authority pick it up. Even so M&S will not cover so we’re kind of stuck with the policy we have.

ok so a 10 minute phone call has saved me £215, spoke with a lovely girl who said they would honour the online quotation (although when she calc’d it, it was £30 more than I had on my screen but I wasn’t going to argue)

renewal docs should be with me in 3-5 days.

looks like it was just an attempt at pulling a fast one charging me £250 more, which is a bit underhand, they are lucky the cover is good and the customer service is great or out of principle I might have gone else where.

Just tried M&S on line for contents only and away from house – £361. Currently paying £144, but bikes are only covered up to £500 (including x/c) and the M&S security requirements are not as excessive compared to some bike specific quotes.