Home insurance Customer satisfaction
Customer experience is key when buying home insurance
Customer experience is key when it comes to choosing the best contents and buildings insurance policy. Between November 2012 and April 2013 we asked an online panel of 11,661 Which? members about their home insurance. Paying for a policy is one thing; how queries and claims get are dealt with is another.
Which? continues to survey members on a regular basis to establish their levels of overall customer and claims satisfaction.
How to read the table
The table identifies the top insurers as ranked according to their customer satisfaction. Companies that achieve the highest scores are those that Which? readers are most likely to recommend to a friend or family member.
Price is a factor (as you’re unlikely to recommend an insurer that's expensive and increases premiums year-on-year for no good reason), but ease of getting a quote is among the other important factors.
Clearly new entrants to the buildings insurance market or niche insurers won't have collated enough responses from our survey respondents, but many of the main insurers feature.
| Home insurance customer satisfaction | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Insurer | Customer service | Dealing with queries | Transparency of charges/penalties | Value | Customer score |
| NFU Mutual |  | | |  | 82% |
| Frizzell | | | | | 80% |
| Hiscox | | | | | 77% |
| John Lewis Insurance | | | | | 75% |
| Ecclesiastical | | | |  | 72% |
| LV= | | | | | 72% |
| The Co-operative Insurance | | | | | 68% |
| Marks and Spencer Bank | | | | | 68% |
| Age UK | | | | | 67% |
| UIA | | | | | 67% |
| RIAS | | | | | 65% |
| Endsleigh | | | | | 64% |
| Insure4Retirement | | | | | 63% |
| Saga | | | | | 62% |
| Shelas' Wheels | | | | | 60% |
| Nationwide BS | | | | | 60% |
| Tesco Bank | | | | | 60% |
| Prudential | | |  | | 60% |
| Swinton | | | | | 59% |
| Post Office | - | - | | | 59% |
| Sainsbury's Bank | | | | | 59% |
| Ageas | | | | | 59% |
| Direct Line | | | | | 58% |
| Privilege | | | | | 57% |
| Bradford and Bingley | | - | | | 57% |
| Castle Cover | | | | | 57% |
| Swiftcover | - | - | | | 56% |
| Esure | | | | | 56% |
| The AA Insurance | | | | | 56% |
| RSA | | | | | 55% |
| Legal and General | | | | | 55% |
| NatWest | | | | | 55% |
| Lloyds TSB | | | | | 55% |
| Churchill | | | | | 55% |
| More Th>N | | | | | 54% |
| Aviva | | | | | 53% |
| Royal Bank of Scotland | | - | | | 53% |
| HSBC | | - | | | 52% |
| Towergate Home and Project | | - | | | 52% |
| Barclays | | | | | 51% |
| AXA Insurance | | | | | 51% |
| Halifax | | | | | 49% |
| Zurich | | | | | 48% |
| Allianz Insurance | | - | | | 47% |
| Bank of Scotland | - | - | | | 45% |
| Santander | | | | | 44% |
| Budget Insurance Services | - | - | - | | 40% |
Table Notes
Star ratings and Customer scores are based on an online survey of 11,661 Which? Connect community members in November 2012 and April 2013. Customer score is calculated using a combination of overall satisfaction and how likely members are to recommend the provider to a friend. '-' represents where we have insufficient sample size to generate a star rating.
Sample Sizes: NFU Mutual (420), Frizzell (147), Hiscox (162), John Lewis (743), LV= (1,118), Ecclesiastical (97), UIA (Insurance) Ltd (60), Marks & Spencer (305), The Co-operative Insurance (135), Age UK (75), Insure4Retirement (208), RIAS (475), Saga (846), Endsleigh (50), Nationwide BS (356), Sainsbury's Bank (117), Direct Line (527), Sheilas' Wheels (128), Post Office Ltd (39), NatWest (111), Castle Cover (153), Swinton (172), Prudential (115), Swiftcover.com (46), Royal Bank of Scotland (55), Esure (162), Tesco Bank (154), Churchill (344), Lloyds TSB (279), More Than (244), HSBC (37), Legal & General (212), Bradford & Bingley (50), Privilege (84), RSA (147), The AA (231), Barclays (177), Ageas (61), Aviva (553), Towergate Home and Protect (44), AXA (273), Halifax (383), Zurich (98), Allianz (49), Santander (107), Bank of Scotland (35), Budget Insurance Services (31)
- Need help choosing insurance? - Call the Which? Money Helpline
- Thinking about buildings insurance? Take a look at our guide
- Find out which providers we rated best for customer satisfaction