Home insurance for 2 or 3 years rather than 1.

D

Des Pondent

Registered User
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302
Zurich are offering home insurance for 1, 2 or 3 years. In my case it is €400, €800 or €1,200.

The 1 year price is slightly dearer than others are quoting.

No discount for buying 2 or 3 years cover but no increase in premium for year 2 or 3.

I can afford to pay the 3 years up front without availing of their finance.

Any pro's or con's going for 3 years ?
 
Usually at renewal time if you go online and get a quote as a new customer the new quote will be less than the renewal quote. You would loose this advantage by paying for 3 years in advance.
 
My quote today as a new customer is €400. If I opted for only 1 year now, with inflation the way it is I think my quote as a new customer in a year's time would have to be a lot more than €400.

One possible downside to a 3 year policy is with rebuild costs rising rapidly, if I want to up my cover after a year or whatever, the charge could be high.
 
Okay so you are getting the new customer rate.
The only disadvantage I would see is that you cannot shop around for 3 years.
Often it is possible to get a lower quote from a different insurance company. Some companies lower their rates in order to increase their market share.
 
Des Pondent said:
If I opted for only 1 year now, with inflation the way it is I think my quote as a new customer in a year's time would have to be a lot more than €400.
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It's not a given.

Insurance prices have their very own specific dynamics and don't always move in line with overall inflation.

Red line is overall consumer prices, blue line is house insurance.

 
That's interesting NRC. With all that's going on in the world it is hard to imagine that downward home insurance trend continuing, but who knows.

Zurich left me a message to say they can do better if I give them a call back, I have another month before I have to renew so I will decide what way to go closer to renewal.
 
Hello,

Assume that you sign up with them for the 3 years, and pay your €1,200 on Day 1.

Assume that you then make a claim on your policy, a few months into Year 1.

Does this claim result in your premium increasing for Year 2 and Year 3 (with you then being asked for a further premium, to be paid), or is there any other potential cost for you, in the event of a claim?
 
Hello again,

Again, assuming that you sign up and pay for the 3 year period, what happens if you change your mind, or sell the property etc, say after 12 months / 23 months etc?

Are you able to get a partial refund, in respect of the remaining period ?
 
If your price is guaranteed for 3 years, I don’t think it could increase in the event of a claim, that's my understanding anyway;

Why MultiYear Insurance?​

With MultiYear Home Insurance, you simply choose how long you want your cover to last – either two or three years – and we’ll give you a guaranteed price over the term of the policy. Plus you don’t even have to pay the whole premium up front as we offer easy payment options with low deposit and APR. Our MultiYear Home Insurance product is available for owner occupied homes that are claims free for the last three years.

https://www.zurich.ie/home-insurance/multiyear/
 
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MrEarl said:
Again, assuming that you sign up and pay for the 3 year period, what happens if you change your mind, or sell the property etc, say after 12 months / 23 months etc?

Are you able to get a partial refund, in respect of the remaining period ?
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Will I receive a refund after I cancel my policy?​

Provided that no incident giving rise to a claim has occurred in the current period of insurance, you will be entitled to a proportionate return of the premium for the unexpired period of insurance. Where it applies, we will deduct an administration charge from any return of premium.

What will happen if I want to cancel my policy?​

You (the Consumer) can cancel your policy at any time by writing to us. We will cancel the policy on the date we receive your request in writing. In the case of motor insurance, we will cancel your policy from the date we receive the relevant certificate and disc of motor insurance. Please note that if you should cancel your policy a cancellation fee of €25 will apply for home insurance, €75 for motor insurance and €75 for farm protection insurance.


https://www.zurich.ie/terms-of-business/#cancel
 
Yes that looks good.
You could still shop around every year and if you found insurance for an amount greater than 25 euro less than Zurich you could cancel the policy and change insurer.
 
bstop said:
Usually at renewal time if you go online and get a quote as a new customer the new quote will be less than the renewal quote. You would loose this advantage by paying for 3 years in advance.
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That is being banned from 1st July and companies have already made changes
 
I availed of the three year option with Zurich. I shopped around diligently before choosing Zurich based on one year price. They extended extra discount based on having multiple policies with them (Life Insurance I think is my other policy). Not having to shop around for three years is a massive bonus for me.
 
cian8 said:
Not having to shop around for three years is a massive bonus for me.
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Every year at renewal I call up Zurich and they give me about a 10% discount off the quoted price no questions asked.

They 10% goes back on at next year's renewal and I do it again.
 
peemac said:
That is being banned from 1st July and companies have already made changes
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My understanding is that price-walking is being banned, but the practice of offering new customer discounts will still be allowed to promote switching and competition.
 
Leo said:
My understanding is that price-walking is being banned, but the practice of offering new customer discounts will still be allowed to promote switching and competition.
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Yep - seems that can still offer discounts for year 1 to entice you to become a customer. Makes sense
 
peemac said:
Yep - seems that can still offer discounts for year 1 to entice you to become a customer. Makes sense
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True, iIf it encourages more people to switch, they'll have to compete a little more for business.
 
Des Pondent said:
Zurich left me a message to say they can do better if I give them a call back, I have another month before I have to renew so I will decide what way to go closer to renewal.
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So I gave them a call back, they offered and I accepted €1,042 for the 3 years, down nearly €150 from the original quote.
 
NoRegretsCoyote said:
Every year at renewal I call up Zurich and they give me about a 10% discount off the quoted price no questions asked.

They 10% goes back on at next year's renewal and I do it again.
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If you do it for 10 years running you'll have the insurance for Zero cost at those 10% discounts.
 
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