British Gas Homecare plans

[enaid]

Anyone got one?
Are they actually worth the money?

The reason I am asking is my dad has one (cause he would rather have peace of mind than money in the bank, I don't blame him tbh at 83).
Anyway his renewal is £353.48 paid upfront by DD.
Now last year on his annual check the guy tried to charge my dad just under £1000 I think it was, for a power flush.
My dad had said he had had this done before, so on reading the T&C's it states the first one you pay for the rest are free or covered by the plan.
I had a massive row over a few days with BG and eventually the job was done FOC. (there is a thread soley about these power flush things OTR by the way).
Now I have ticked the form for a new boiler and cavity wall insulation to be installed for him under the government keep warm scheme. Hopefully he will get a new boiler.
So I need to know from anyone out there if you think that this £353.48 is a good deal (it seems a lot to me).
There is a lot of reading in their T&C's and I have been through them, but after last years performance it has put me off a tad (and I do hate BG lol)
So any thoughts, comments or past experiences with this sort of plan most welcome, thanks Enaid x

[Paule]

Re: British Gas Homecare plans

I did read that if they thought it was uneconnomical to repair the product, they had a clause where they could cancel the policy and return your payments.
So if it looks like a costly repair they will just cancel your policy and give you back your money, which leaves you no better off, but save sthem money

Not sure if it was BG or not, but i read it in one of these T&Cs.

Go through the T&C carefully

[Emerald]

Re: British Gas Homecare plans

Nope they are not a good deal, your father would be better off putting the £353 in a seperate account and keeeping it for any emergencies, and to pay for the yearly service.

[WendyB]

Re: British Gas Homecare plans

I've got central heating cover and kitchen appliance cover with BG and have always found it very good tbh. Altogether my policy is £520 ay ear, but so far I have had a new tumble dryer, new microwave and £187.50 towards a new freezer out of them. All within the last 12 months. With the kitchen appliances they will refund premiums paid if the item is not repairable. However if it is repairable but uneconomical to repair they will give you the money for a new one. Not sure how that works with boilers though.

BUT I pay monthly by d/d, not all up front. Could you ask BG to give him this option of oayment instead of paying all upfront? Then at least he could leave his money in his bank not theirs. Cos if he just keeps the £353 in a separate account and cancels the cover, it probably wouldn't be nearly enough to pay up if things go wrong, callout charges alone would take at least £90 per call, plus labour and parts and the £353 could be taken up in one minor breakdown.

[enaid]

Re: British Gas Homecare plans

Thanks for your comments, I have had a good google and a read up. Too be honest there are more good comments for BG than bad in the articles i read.
I am going to try chase up this Warm Front and see if he is going to get a new boiler.
Also in that care plan his drains are covered as well and that can be a massive expense if anything goes wrong.
So I think I will tell him to pay it at least then he has peace of mind and if anything goes wrong and he has trouble with BG then they will have trouble with me again LOL.

[Amy]

Re: British Gas Homecare plans

We used to have BG 3* cover in our old house. At various times there was a baby in the house, followed by another baby and a toddler and invariably every Autumn the boiler wouldn't work.

Old people and people with young children get priority and when we had to call them out they were excellent. There was only one time that they couldn't fix the problem that day and the three of us (as it was then) had to sleep in one bedroom with a fan heater. BG arrived first thing the following morning apologising profusely and fixed the problem.

We had drains cover too (and used it).

We don't really need the cover now as we have a new boiler and the children are older, but I would imagine for an old person it's one less thing for them to worry about and they fret about anything and everything.

[RLJ]

Re: British Gas Homecare plans

i,ve got bg200 cover which was carried over from our old house. The system in our new bungalow was 10 years old approx. So far we have had a new pump, new 2 way valve complete new timing system new printed circuit board in the boiler plus the security of if anything goes wrong in the central heating system which to be honest there can't be much left will be fixed within 24 hours. i think i'ts ok apart from today when i had booked an annual service betwwen 8am -1pm took half a day off work wich turned into a day off work and the engineer arrived at 5pm but i think i have had my money's worth
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oh and if i can just add this. When an engineer called on the last visit we asked him to take his shoes off because we did'nt want him to walk through the house on our new carpets to check the radiators.(reasonable i thought) He refused on health and safety grounds. So we had words and he left without checking them.