Monthly Boiler Care Plans

[Kainz]

Homeserve just quoted me £367 for a renewal in September Given I'm paying £160 at the moment, they can do one. Our Valiant is about 8yrs old so I'm likely to just not bother with any insurance though I shall look around I suppose.

 

[robj20]

I can't decide what to do now.

First year the service was free, but now year two I'd have to pay. Don't even know what it costs.
Do that every year for another 9 years to keep the warranty or put that money in an account and use it if and when the boiler needs fixing?

 

[MG42Maniac]

We moved into our new house last June. Our boiler is now indicating a service is due. It's an Ideal Logic Code ESP1 38kW Combination Boiler Not sure if it's a decent one? Wondering if it is worth paying monthly for protection and just being done with it?

 

[bremen1874]

I can't decide what to do now.

First year the service was free, but now year two I'd have to pay. Don't even know what it costs.
Do that every year for another 9 years to keep the warranty or put that money in an account and use it if and when the boiler needs fixing?

IIRC I pay about £60 for the annual service on my Combi boiler.

 

[Semple]

We moved into our new house last June. Our boiler is now indicating a service is due. It's an Ideal Logic Code ESP1 38kW Combination Boiler Not sure if it's a decent one? Wondering if it is worth paying monthly for protection and just being done with it?

It all comes down to your idea of risk.

You could insure and protect yourself from all eventualities in your home, but that would likely be costing you a small fortune each month, and nothing may ever happen.

Ideally it's a case of if something breaks (in this case a boiler) could you easily afford for call outs + repairs?

It's no real different than buying breakdown cover for your car. You don't necessarily need it, but you'd end up paying a fair bit if you had to be recovered to a garage.

 

[Building Candy]

Im with british gas and paying about £15 a month, this gives me an anual boiler service too, so once you take the cost of that out of it its not a lot to be covered for the year. Also when he did the service last year the foam seal round the front of the boiler fell apart, he got me a new seal and fitted it the next and didnt charge me anything.

 

[ristac]

We pay £65 a year for a service, we use the same guy who also comes out at short notice in an emergency. We’ve no insurance and we’ve had a few bills ranging from £150 to £30 for replacement parts on a 9 year old Vailliant. Probably a total of £250 over those 9 years (excluding service fees)

If a boiler goes wrong what’s the most expensive part to replace? I just don’t understand £40+ a month insurance plans

 

[R3X]

Hard choice and asked the same question a while back, you can either put the 20 quid in a jar each month away or towards a decent care service.

I opted for the care service since our boiler does have issues time to time and its nice to know your small monthly fee goes towards a certified gas engineer and any parts included rather then coughing up £100 per hour for an engineer and then £200-300 bob on the replacement parts.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

think it depends a lot on the age and quality of your boiler....

if you got a 20 year old boiler then it might be worth it
otherwise for a year or 2 old boiler I don't see the point, just wasting money really.

that would be wrong IMO.

first of all new boilers for their warranty to work you need to have it serviced every year which is usually part of a care plan.

so i would say if it's in warranty then have a plan in place which includes servicing. after that stop it and just pay for repairs until it's knackered then buy a new one.

my boiler is 20 years old. i've had it serviced for free once and the guy cut our gas off because wife mentioned a smell of gas at the meter. turned out their was a leak before the meter. he fixed that but said there could also be an additional leak in the home (which was BS) he just wanted money off us. i got my own guy to turn it back on for like £20 or £40 who is certified.

i in future won't bother with anything other than servicing when in warranty then not bother. i might change the whole system next time round too. heating a water tank twice every day isn't really worth it IMO for our little usage.

 

[pepp77]

I pay the £7.60 monthly plan from 24/7 for the boiler - this does include an annual boiler service. I have an excess for call outs and so far I have had to call them out twice to fix two separate leaks. Both times part was replaced and the system left working. I could pay more with no excess, but decided having a small excess was worth it (for me).

 

[Basher]

I think the cost of your cover seem excessive - yes. British Gas upped my plan by £20 last month but a phone call got it down to £29.. Just told them i was going elsewhere.





.. but who really does this? £25pm for level 3 heating plan is a no brainier IMO.

I've had cover ever since I brought my new born baby from hospital to a freezing cold house in December and a broken down boiler. Ringing round for an emergency plumber was a nightmare.. Took 1 week to get someone round to fix and my wife had to go to her mothers.

I have probably called them out at least once a year since. The only time I didn't have one was when we had a new boiler installed and we we covered free for three years anyway. Last year we had a big break down which would have cost a fortune and it was back up and running inside 24 hours..

Looking back, I have most likely had my moneys worth. Some will probably never use but the peace of mind that you can get someone round quick and not worry about the expense is worth it.. British Gas upped my plan by £20 but a phone call got it down to £29..

People are odd.. Willing to pay £50 pm for an iphone or smartphone but question essentials.

Out of interest, have you had to call BG round for an emergency? How fast were they to respond?

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Out of interest, have you had to call BG round for an emergency? How fast were they to respond?

I have, many times.

Normally next day.. We had a slight leak last winter, was all sorted easily inside 24 hours..

 

[sparkymark75]

The other day my heating system was tripping the electrics so I ended up signing up to the BG homecare package - 17 pounds a month for 12 months = 204 quid. The next day I booked a guy to come round who fixed the issue and serviced the boiler which would have cost similar amounts of money from a local guy however I now have 12 months of cover if something goes wrong. I'll cancel towards the end of the year but I've no idea how they make money!!

I didn't think they covered faults occurring in the first 14 days to stop people doing this exact thing?

 

[Matthew.M]

I have this with BG for £20 a month, mainly for convenience.

It's great. The pump went last year, booked an engineer through their app, he turned up at exactly the time specified and fixed it very quickly.

Far better than ringing around and trying to nail a plumber down. I can never get tradesmen in quickly.

 

[Syla5]

I took out BG cover after our boiler sprung a leak. You don't have to have cover before your initial problem and it still works out beneficial to sign up to the cover when you first get a problem and then keep if for the year.

My plan is to let the cover lapse until we have a problem again and then resign up, best of both situation, only pay for cover when something actually goes wrong, but have the piece of mind that BG actually offer this and its cost effective.

 

[norm]

I was looking at boiler cover the other day and BG are offering boiler and controls cover only for £2.50/month with £100 excess, seems very cheap what's the catch?

 

[LeeUK]

The problem with British Gas plans is if they can't get a manufacturer part they will condem your boiler even though parts are available through other suppliers. Best just saving the £20/month yourself and putting the lump sum saved towards a local indie heating engineer to fix your boiler if and when it breaks.

 

[Abyss]

People are odd.. Willing to pay £50 pm for an iphone or smartphone but question essentials.

Seems a very odd perspective to have. Central heating insurance certainly isn't an essential, having working central heating is though. It's not like people generally have a heating problem and just don't fix it. The conversation is purely about people's risk profile of either insuring against that risk or paying outright if it goes wrong.

Like others have said I don't insure things that I don't have to and can afford to replace outright. Given the going rate on here seems to be about £29 per month, and I'd expect 10-15 years out of a boiler I'd be paying £3.5k - £5k in insurance. If I had an old unreliable system it'd be a better investment to replace it / put the money away ready for a replacement than pay £40-£50 a month to insure it.

 

[robj20]

Think in going to stick with servicing it while the warranty is there but as soon as that ends I'm not bothering with servicing or these plans.

 

[blueboy2001]

Boiler Service Plans are only worth paying if you want the peace of mind, or false sense of security.

Instead, look at adding Home Emergency Cover to your Home Insurance. Costs me £50 a year, 24/7 helpline for any plumbing/electrical/structural emergency and they pay the first £1000 of any costs.