Just as we approach deepest winter and the temperature plummets, it is Murphy’s law that this will be the time of year that our old boiler will decide to give up and stop working. Oh yes. This is exactly what happened to us and I know it’s happened to lots of our friends and families over the years too. You never hear of anyone complaining of a broken boiler in summer, do you?
I would love to tell you that this was no problem, we had boiler insurance and our boiler was quickly repaired (or replaced), but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. For us, insurance is one of those things that when we can afford it we buy it. However, when we review our monthly outgoings and yet again need to make more cuts, the optional insurances we pay for are cancelled to save on our monthly outgoings. We tell ourselves that we will start a new policy when our finances pick up, but we’re still waiting for that financial “boom” to happen…
I think it can depend on your circumstances, which insurances you choose to take out. Personally, I think you have to think of priorities- for me, my home, car, central heating, cooking appliances, washing appliances, computer and phone are important to me (I’m talking “material things” here, of course, family, friends and health come first). Obviously, if you’re a driver you legally have to have car insurance and home insurance is often a condition of your mortgage. I need to have my washing machine and tumble dryer working otherwise keeping up with the washing for six people becomes nigh impossible. However, Dave is very practical and great at fixing things so he keeps these white goods working for us so we wouldn’t save any money by insuring them.
One thing he isn’t qualified to do is fix gas boilers; and that brings us to boiler insurance. Most weeks I get flyers posted from the energy companies trying to convince me that it makes sense to opt for monthly instalments of boiler insurance. However, when your boiler is old and dated (as ours is) then we could be throwing money at a boiler that will need to be replaced soon anyway.
Other boiler finance companies suggest that it makes more sense to pay monthly and buy a new energy efficient boiler. They claim that making this investment can produce long term savings as you can also increase the energy efficiency of your home and save the cost on heating bills (one advantage of our broken boiler was a very low gas bill for that month). A new boiler can save up to 1200kg of CO² a year, so it’s also far better for the environment. By choosing finance for a new boiler, you can pay for a new boiler within three years with up to seven years warranty on parts.
Summing up, I think that if you already have a new boiler, and want assurance then you could consider boiler insurance. If you have an old boiler that you need to replace then boiler finance may make more sense for you.
Now that the storms have passed, the heavy rain is here and next will be the big freeze (oh I hope we have snow and can sledge on the mountains again!) then now is the perfect time to consider having a boiler fixed, serviced or replaced.
(Meanwhile, if you’re reading this as you currently have a poorly boiler that abides to The law of Murphy then keep warm with blankets, dressing gowns, hot drinks and buy or borrow a portable heater while you wait for your new boiler.)
Would you or do you, insure your boiler or would you prefer to invest in a new one?
