Shopping around for contents insurance

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Screagle
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Shopping around for contents insurance

Postby Screagle » Mon May 13, 2019 4:11 pm

So we've had the contents of our three-bed 1st floor flat covered by Allianz since purchasing the property outright back in 2004. As I recall it was arranged through our bank - Banco Popular. We are non-residents and don't rent the property out. It is solely for personal use, being family and occasionally friends and there have been no claims and any near misses we've dealt with ourselves.

The policy renews annually in December and is getting lumpy - 266,56 was the last direct debit. The building is insured by the community. One of the CONCEPTOS is for EDIFICACION A VALOR REPOSICION with a CAPITAL ASEGURADO of over 90.000 euro and MOBILIARIO PARTICULAR shy of 16.000. Cash and valuables either in or out of a safe are not covered which would be covered by our UK contents policy when we are on holiday i.e. travelling with valuables.

My question to the forum then is am I paying over the odds here as a consequences of my inertia or does this premium seem reasonable? If the former then any advice on how to get a better deal for cover tailored to our circumstances would be much appreciated!

Saludos

Miro
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Re: Shopping around for contents insurance

Postby Miro » Mon May 13, 2019 6:34 pm

As you would with your UK policy no doubt, why don't you start by simply getting a comparison quote from another company? You could for example try Linea Directa - they'll call you back (in the UK) and speak English. https://www.lineadirecta.com/te-llamamo ... o=http0602
Be aware that contents insurance in Spain is split into "continente" & "contenido" - roughly, the interior of th eproperty itself (walls, floors, ceilings etc.) & moveable contents (i.e. valuables, equipment etc.)
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elusive
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Re: Shopping around for contents insurance

Postby elusive » Mon May 13, 2019 6:55 pm

We pay around 80 euros for contents with linea. Dont have anything of expensive value .

Evelyn
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Re: Shopping around for contents insurance

Postby Evelyn » Mon May 13, 2019 8:38 pm

We use Caser Hogar worth a look.

Screagle
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Re: Shopping around for contents insurance

Postby Screagle » Tue May 14, 2019 10:40 am

All great advice here - thank you all very much. What actually prompted this was a cold call to my Spanish mobile from Santalucia Seguros yesterday. I wonder how much of a coincidence that I was in Spain?

Anyway, I'm going to follow up all suggestions here and if I spot a local insurance office and they look overstaffed I might drop in with my existing policy papers to liven things up! Also thanks to Miro for confirming the contents components being stuff you can take away and stuff you can't

My target is to reduce my current premium by at least half. I'll let you know how I get on.

Saludos

wollie
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Re: Shopping around for contents insurance

Postby wollie » Tue May 14, 2019 6:21 pm

Is it necessary to have insurance at all, i have not had house house insurance in Spain.
It may be a community rule?
I would expect apartment and contents be insured for this and i wonder if you insuring your property
twice.
Have a good look at the insurance document as everything on this...

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peteroldracer
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Re: Shopping around for contents insurance

Postby peteroldracer » Tue May 14, 2019 9:55 pm

My late ex-father-in-law, a contemporary of Harold Wilson, never had anything other than car insurance in his life. His theory was that any disaster was very unlikely to be major, that he always had or could lay his hands on some cash, and that over the years he had saved a fortune.
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Miro
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Re: Shopping around for contents insurance

Postby Miro » Tue May 14, 2019 10:29 pm

Wollie, the community insurance will only cover communal aspects of an apartment building, for example the roof or facade (which in reality will never be covered because any claim will be rejected on the grounds of lack of maintenance) and probably third party liability (in case someone trips down some communal steps - ditto on any claims!)
Insuring the interior of an apartment against damage (for example from water leaks) and the actual removable contents, i.e. personal possessions (against theft for example) is the sole responsibility of the individual owner.
Whether it's worth bothering or not is down to the individual too, of course. In Spain we paid around €150 for a 2/2 apartment.
Screagle, years ago we insured our hostal with Santa Lucia, after Mapfre let us down. Santa Lucia eventually let us down too. In fact, come to think of it, the only insurance companies that never let us down were the ones we never had any claims with :?
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spanish_lad
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Re: Shopping around for contents insurance

Postby spanish_lad » Wed May 15, 2019 7:12 am

would it be out of place to suggest looking at https://www.rastreator.com/ maybe ?
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Screagle
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Re: Shopping around for contents insurance

Postby Screagle » Wed May 15, 2019 5:38 pm

Great call, spanish_lad! It served up directseguros.es (AXA) as the cheapest at a competitive 72 EUR for the details I presented. Of course when I clicked on the web offer link it was busted. Anyway I'll be following up...

Saludos

wollie
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Re: Shopping around for contents insurance

Postby wollie » Thu May 16, 2019 9:01 am

Miro,

I know how these things work as i involver in a couple but not in Spain.
Because of this i am thinking the area was being covered as well.
The fact that it is now €70+ kinda bears this out...

jhonie99
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Re: Shopping around for contents insurance

Postby jhonie99 » Thu May 16, 2019 10:27 am

Screagle wrote:Great call, spanish_lad! It served up directseguros.es (AXA) as the cheapest at a competitive 72 EUR for the details I presented. Of course when I clicked on the web offer link it was busted. Anyway I'll be following up...

Saludos
Wouldn't touch them with a bargepole!!

We are currently in a long running dispute with them regards a claim. In other words they don't want to honour their legal responsibilities.

They're cheap for a reason.

Beachcomber
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Re: Shopping around for contents insurance

Postby Beachcomber » Thu May 16, 2019 12:18 pm

I totally disagree. We have been with AXA for over 25 years and they have paid three sizeable claims without question and are now in the process of taking legal action against the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros because they have rejected a claim we made for damage caused by torrential rain and the flooding of an abandoned Arroyo.

AXA is paying the cost of the action and have also refunded the Notary's fee for the power of attorney for legal representatives in court. So, far from not touching them with a barge pole I would highly recommend them.

markwilding
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Re: Shopping around for contents insurance

Postby markwilding » Thu May 16, 2019 3:33 pm

My first Spanish home policy was with AXA, then I had Liberty and this year I changed to one called Reale Seguros so it might be worth looking at them. The policy cannot be in English though.
No problem with any of them. The reason we changed each time was because my broker got the most competitive price.
Liberty wouldn’t budge so we changed.
You might find you get a discount in the first year but then the second year, it will go up 15% - 20%

Screagle
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Re: Shopping around for contents insurance

Postby Screagle » Thu May 16, 2019 7:51 pm

Hadn't thought of using a broker as I'm not expecting to pay much more than 80 euros per annum for the cover I'm looking for but it's a good suggestion none the less. Just realised that an insurance broker in spanish is a corredor de seguros / mediación / correduría and there's a few of these in town so might be worth a chat.

It also reminds me of our first insurance quote nearly 15 years from Ocaso (?) which included an initial set up fee of about 50% of the first year's premium which was I'm assuming a kick back to our introducing estate agent. To avoid this I went for my current policy brokered by Banco Popular with no set up fee. Given how much I've been paying over the odds for this policy for 15 years it's really surprising they were bought by Santander for one euro!

Saludos


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