If you have a British Gas Homecare policy you have probably noticed that its price goes up for each annual renewal, even if you haven’t made any claims during the year.
If you have made one or two claims then you are likely to be shocked when the annual renewal statement is sent to you. It will probably have increased by 10 percent or more!
British Gas seem to have a sneaky way of gradually reclaiming the costs of your callouts – creeping up the cost of your insurance year by year, so you are in effect, repaying them over the next few years.
This all came to roost with us recently, as our Homecare 4 plan is coming up for renewal at the end of the month.
I was shocked to learn that the cost of the policy had increased dramatically and that was without any callouts during the year!
I thought we were living in a low inflation era, so how can that price increase be justified. In fact, the price had risen so much that I was seriously thinking of cancelling the policy.
So using my best-complaining tactics, it was time to hit the phone, with the view to leaving British Gas Homecare services for good.
Something unexpected occurred
I explained my concerns to the customer services agent and she said straight away, and with almost no persuasion from me, that she would see what she could do.
Her first offer was to put us on a £50 excess, which meant that we would pay the first £50 of any call out cost, and in return, receive pretty significant price reductions to our policy costs.
I wasn’t too keen on that as it would only take a couple of callouts during the year to wipe out any savings and probably cost us more in the end. So I turned that down.
“Ok, she said”, I’ll give you a discount and not change anything with your policy. Music to my ears.
So that was that. I banished any thoughts about abandoning our Homecare 4 policy and we are now waiting for the renewal documents to arrive in the post.
The balance between cost versus benefit had switched back to British Gas cover being the best option, at least for the next year.
The moral of the story is…
So the moral of this story is that if you are unhappy with the costs of your Britsh Gas Homecare policy, phone their customer service department and ask for a discount!
Obviously, your circumstances may be different from ours, and we have been a Homecare customer for a long time, but you should definitely see what they can do for you.
If you have any success, we’d be delighted to hear from you in the comments below.
Correction.Count on one hand the number of call out I have had during my membership
Hello.
I have just received my home care 2 bill which has been increased by £88.24p. By my calculation it has been increased by a whopping 50% plus . (2021 £253.76./ 2022 £342.00).
I have been a customer for approx: 50 years and can count on one had the number of times during my membership. In my 91st year my pension increase was 3.1%. How can British Gas justify this increase?
Thank you for your message. It might be worth trying to phone them to say that you are cancelling your membership as their charges are rising so much. It is likely, but not definite, that they will offer you a discount to retain you as a customer. Good luck, I hope this strategy succeeds in lowering your costs.