Review: Post Office Home Insurance Review
By
Gordon Chi
In Summary
The Post Office is a trusted household brand, and its insurance is designed to support that reputation.
Its home insurance is well-regarded by professional bodies, but has experienced mixed reviews among customers – with its automatic renewal process being the main cause for complaint.
The Post Office maintain their competitiveness in home insurance partly through a policy of beating your existing insurer's renewal quote by at least £50.
They missed out on our title of Best Home Insurance - see who made it into our Top 10 Home insurance companies rankings.
Background to Post Office home insurance
To counterbalance the decline in post volumes, the Post Office has diversified its services over the past few decades, and has entered the insurance market as a result.
In addition to offering home insurance, the Post Office also provides cover for pets, life insurance, and offers further financial products such as mortgages and savings accounts.
The Post Office home insurance is administered by BISL Limited, which is part of BGL Group - the owners of Comparethemarket.com, Budget insurance, Beagle street and several other well-known insurance brands.
Overview of the cover provided by Post Office home policies
The Post Office has a single, core home insurance policy. Its key benefits include an extra 10% contents cover over Christmas, other religious festivals and even weddings (to cover the value of any gifts, food and so on you may have in the home), new for old on certain contents claims, and a 24-hour helpline run by UK-based contact centres.
Contents cover is set at £30,000 as standard, although you are able to select higher amounts if needed (the online form allows up to £99,000). Be aware that individual items are covered up to £1,500 automatically, with higher-value items needing to be declared for cover to be valid. Note that one exception is bicycles which are only protected up to £350.
Policyholders also have the option to take out additional cover, such as Home Assistance and Family Legal Protection up to £50,000, and full accidental damage cover.
Defaqto ratings consider the degree of cover provided by an insurance policy - this was one factor we looked at when defining our Top 10 Home Insurers. The Post Office didn't make it in, but you can see who did here.
How much does home insurance from Post Office cost?
Your home’s age, location, condition and level of cover required will all affect the cost of your premium, so it’s always best to get a quote from Post Office home insurance directly.
To help make your premium more affordable, Post Office offers to beat your renewal quote by at least £50 – refunding the difference if your rival quote comes in more expensive on a ‘like for like’ basis.
It’s worth remembering, though, that insurance is not just a question of cost. It’s important to make sure that your policy provides adequate cover as well as the right price, to protect you in the event of a claim.
You can check out the best home insurance providers and policies through our Top 10 Home insurance companies rankings.
What Post Office home insurance customers say
Customer review website Review Centre rates Post Office home insurance 1.2/5 stars from 29 reviews, with its automatic renewal process coming under fire from several reviewers. There have also been complaints about the cost of the policy.
Another review website, money.co.uk, gives the product a 3.7/5 star rating from 15 reviews, with 67% of customers describing Post Office home insurance as good. One customer describes the policy as ‘nice and cheap, but so is the customer service’.
We considered customer feedback as one input to our list of the Top 10 Home insurance companies.
What the expert reviews say
In 2015, Post Office was voted best direct home and contents insurance provider by Your Money magazine.
Post Office is also a recommended home insurance provider by industry body Which?, which gives it a 59% overall rating.
Home insurance from Post Office is rated 5/5 stars by financial review organisation, Defaqto.
We combined industry ratings with customer feedback when creating our Top 10 Home Insurance companies league table. Follow the link below in the 'What next' section.
