Linea Directa

[littleeak]

A few words of warning for anyone who has a home insurance policy with Linea Directa.

My son had his rucksack stolen yesterday while out. I rang LD this morning and was amazed to learn that we can't claim as the personal possessions were taken from outside the house!!
There's no mention of this being the case in the policy document.
The main concern of the customer service person was that we would be re-newing our policy when it expires in a couple of weeks!!! Yeah....... right!!
So if LD is your insurer, read the terms & conditions very carefully before renewal.

I'm now shopping round for new insurance, & will double check that fact, so if anyone can recommend a company?

[julian]

doesn´t sound so odd to me , I wouldn´t expect things to be covered against theft if they were stolen from outside the house , do your documents state that things stolen from outside the house would be covered ? did you ask for that coverage when you took on the insurance?

[Miro]

Maybe I'm being thick, but I thought home "contents" insurance only covered stuff actually in the home? Contents, i.e. contained in the home? I have insurance with LD too, but it never even occurred to me that anything lost or stolen outside my home would be covered by it. Be interesting to know if you find an alternative provider that does offer such cover.

[ajtg1952]

If you have an "all risks" policy then you should be covered.

[Jool]

Every spanish home insurance company I contacted stated that you had to specify items to cover on an all risks basis..........

[Campo Steve]

I can't back this up with any real evidence but I get the feeling that there have been so many claims over the past few months because of the exceptional rain over last winter that LD are enforcing the small print more vigourously.

As an example, I know several people that, in previous years, have suffered water penetration in their houses and their insurance companies have paid for redecorating, and in some cases, for remedial work. This year, because of the exceptionally high water table, we had water getting in at ground level. Whilst we showed the assessor that we have taken acton, at our expense, to prevent this happening again, LD are refusing to pay a mere €200 for decoration, even though we have cover for aesthetic damage. Their argument is that it was due to poor construction. They won't accept that it wouldn't have happened had it not been for the exceptional rain.

In the past I have been very happy with LD. They were great when a car ran into ours, they sorted everything out very quickly.

The water issue is now with their complaints department and they say I should hear from them in 3 days. I did point out to them that for the sake of €200 they could lose not only this business when it comes to renewal but also another house we were going to change to LD, plus the two cars we currntly have insured with them and a motorbike I was considering changing to them.

We'll see what happens.

Back to the original post about things stolen outside the home. Looking at my policy it states that it only covers contents stolen/damaged in the home. Goods stolen/ damaged in garages and outbuildings are excluded. It seems, therefore, that a rucksack stolen away from the home would not be covered either. Petty theft is also excluded, whatever the definition of petty theft is.

That begs the question, what sort of policy would one have to get to cover bags, cameras etc away from the house?

[Jool]

what sort of policy would one have to get to cover bags, cameras etc away from the house?

Same as in the UK - specified items for all risks cover normally up to a maximum value limit of any one item......I have all risks cover on certain items, and also for individual items above a certain value. I am sure Sid said on here that LD cut corners on their home insurance policy or rather I should say offer a product more limited than other companies, and indeed it seems they do on other policies as well, I have just changed to Mapfre and their policy is a lot clearer about what is covered and what is not etc.....

[Mowser]

My house policy with Santa Lucia covers items damaged or stolen away from home. It's an add-on.

My flat policy with Mapfre doesn't. The flat is rented out so it's simply insured for buildings & possessions belonging to me. If the renter wants to upgrade then fine, but the renter pays.

[littleeak]

My home contents insurance in the UK covered personal possessions taken from inside the home & out as standard, as does Intersure here in Spain. When I took out the insurance with DL no mention of 'extras' was made. I'm still trawling through other companies.

Put it down to experience I suppose.

[El Cid]

I am sure Sid said on here that LD cut corners on their home insurance policy or rather I should say offer a product more limited than other companies

That's right - you get what you pay for.

ALWAYS read the policy - at least with LD it is in English so there should be no excuses!

Sid

[Campo Steve]

I agree, I should read policies more carefully. But, to be honest, how many people can honestly say, hand on heart, they read every last word of a policies small print before buying it. Very few I would suggest.

One lesson to learn is the difference between policies in Spain and the UK.

Any contents policy I have had in the UK have all covered possessions away from home. Only the more expensive items need declaring separately. Many insurance experts advise that people taking out holiday insurance are paying too much as their possessions are normally covered under their household policies.

From what posters are saying here that is not the case in Spain.

[Mowser]

What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away.

[littleeak]

Sid said 'ALWAYS read the policy - at least with LD it is in English so there should be no excuses!'

LD has motor insurance policies in English but home insurance are only in Spanish.
We did read the policy (in Spanish) but there was no mention of personal possessions being excluded.

[julian]

it´s more important to see what is included than what is excluded.
linea directa home insurnace is clearly advertised as seguros de hogar a su medida.....
you decide what you want included and pay just for that coverage.

[Miro]

At the end of the day, we all take out insurance hoping that we never need it, and it only pays for itself if the worst happens. It's a gamble we take. When an unkown driver left a big dent in my car in a car park, it wasn't worth losing my no-claims bonus to fix it - it cost me €300, and anyway I have a €200 excess to keep the premium down, so it wasn't worth claiming. But it left me wondering why I bother with fully comp. With home contents insurance (the building itself is covered by the community) it seems to me that most insurers will find any way possible to avoid paying a claim, they're all as bad as each other, so I opted for LD this year simply because their policy was cheapest. I'm hoping of course to never need to make a claim, and don't expect them to pay out if I do, but I wouldn't feel comfortable having no cover at all, so regardless of what they supposedly cover or not, I just went for the cheapest available to give me some (very) basic peace of mind. In the past I had an extremely bad experience with Mapfre and would never trust them again, switched to Santa Lucia who were very nice for a few years - until I had a small claim which they refused, went to Estrella for a couple of years, who did nothing wrong other than charge more than LD! They're all lying cheating a***holes if you ask me.

[pietree]

Make sure you call your bank to make sure all direct debits to them are canceled, well that s if you don t want to renew it, otherwise they will take the money and renew it automatically, and refuse a refund.

This happened to another forum member who is a friend of mine

[Miro]

Happened to me with Mapfre. After making just one claim, they upped my premium as a result - by more than the amount of the claim. Really, why do we bother with insurance? Naturally, I cancelled the policy, but even though I had closed the account I originally paid them from, they still took the premium for another year from my new account. They had the number, because when they (rarely) do pay a claim, they won't send you a cheque, oh no, much too smart, they insist on your bank details to make a transfer. Once they have you account number, it's as good as theirs.

[Jool]

This is very interesting as I am thinking of changing car insurance from LD to Mapfre - had one claim with LD years ago, not my fault and they handled it very promptly and well even getting me half of my excess back from the other driver (who drove through a stop sign at me) so other than them increasing prices each year sometimes by a lot, I have not had a bad experience to be at the garage within 24 hours to do the insurance assessment is pretty good I think. It was authorised within a few days.

[Miro]

The last three consecutive years, LD have reduced my premium (albeit by only a few euros) even though I already have a full no claims bonus. I've been with them years now for the car; previously used RACC, who were complete barstewards when I changed - they point blank refused to give me a letter confirming how many years NCB I had, which LD had requested but kindly overlooked. The attitude of the staff at RACC was disgusting, I had a big row in their office in Malaga (near Corte Ingles). When I told the manager his staff were rude and lazy, he said "I know; it's hard to get good staff"; when I asked for the complaints book he smuggly told me since they are a members only "club" they are not obliged to have one. Ar5eholes.

[Mowser]

Jool

Every time it comes for a car renewal with LD, I always say I'm going to cancel as I've received a better price elsewhere. They always beat the price.