Having taken a look at the attitudes of their home insurance customers Legal and General found that many prefer to throw broken items away rather than repair them.
Asked about electrical items like MP3 players and DVDs, 46 percent of those surveyed said they would throw it away if it stopped working. Slightly more worrying was the fact that 12 percent of people in the Legal and General study said they would throw an electrical item away if the fuse had blown.
On the one hand these results suggest we are throwing away perfectly serviceable items, though many small electrical items are very difficult to repair now, with manufacturers themselves recommending replacement rather than repair. Legal and General will usually replace electrical items that are claimed for on a home insurance policy since they follow the manufacturers guidelines.
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According to Tesco Finance the cost of not changing home insurance companies last year totalled GBP26 million.
The study found that almost two thirds of people remained with their existing insurance providers when it came to renewal time, even though almost half of them saw the cost increase over the previous year. For around 4 million of them the increase was more than the level of inflation, said a Tesco Finance spokesman, even though only a small number of these had increased their cover or made a claim.
The advice that comes out loud and clear from Tesco is that everyone should at least get a couple of alternative quotes at renewal time to make sure they are getting the best home insurance deal available.
Sainsburys Bank home insurance division has found that just short of 10 million people are thinking of planting trees in their gardens this year and would like to warn them about the threat of subsidence.
The main advice given by Sainsburys Bank is to select a tree that will be of a suitable size for the garden and also to plant it a good distance away from the house. If homeowners do not follow this advice they may find an increased risk of subsidence and the need for an insurance claim. Leylandii and Willow are two of the most troublesome trees it has been found.
A Sainsburys Bank spokesman revealed that home insurance claims for subsidence have cost British insurers over GBP700,000 per day over the last 5 years. It is therefore important to be aware of the risks before going ahead with planting a tree.
