My Saga home insurance increased by 554%: JEFF PRESTRIDGE investigates
- Saga believes Nina is now at high risk and wants to increase her annual premiums
Nina Stratford saw her annual home insurance quote increase by more than 500%
Nina Stratford was late to acting. It was only after a career as a health and beauty journalist and a bit of enjoyable amateur dramatics that she decided, aged 50, to undertake a postgraduate course in film, TV and radio at the East 15 Acting School, University of Essex. .
A career as a professional actor beckoned.
Now that she is 68, she has no regrets. Nina has had some notable acting successes, starring as the President of the United States in Simon Cox’s 2019 film Invasion Planet Earth.
She is a regular fashion guest presenter on shopping channel QVC, is a voice-over artist and is about to enter the world of TV presenting.
Nina admits she’s not quite in the same league as some female actors her age – like Whoopi Goldberg and Imelda Staunton.
But it doesn’t bother her at all. She earns a decent income from her work, plays tennis with friends and is satisfied with her lot. She is not a homeowner but instead rents a one-bedroom apartment in Buckinghamshire.
However, it seems that her career is now going to work against her when it comes to the home insurance she has had with Saga since October 2022.
Saga believes she is now at high risk and wants to push her annual premiums through the proverbial roof.
In general, actors often have a hard time with home insurers because they are given the impression that they are in the public eye and often do not perform.
As a result, their belongings and contents can attract the attention of criminals, leading to claims that insurers then have to pay (after policyholders have paid the deductible).
I am all for banks doing their utmost to protect customers from scammers.
So while I welcome the Treasury’s new rules allowing banks to defer suspicious payments for 72 hours while they investigate whether they are fraudulent or not, it is crucial that they are not exploited by the banking industry.
A few days ago a dear friend told me about the difficulties she was having in distributing the last proceeds from her late mother’s estate.
Although she understood why her bank, Santander, was asking questions about five-figure payments to the will’s three other beneficiaries, she was a little confused when the bank later challenged her about payments she made to ensure the money that she had inherited was wisely preserved.
Despite the fact that they were right to check that the payments were legitimate, it had no right to then ask her why she transferred money to Nationwide (the simple answers: it offers better savings rates and it has a presence in the city where she lives (unlike Santander) while she does not want to have money above the safety net of £85,000 at any financial institution).
Protecting customers against fraud is in all our interests, both banks and consumers).
But banks should not use the proposed 72-hour shield as an excuse to ask all customers who make large (legitimate) withdrawals why they are transferring them to a competitor.
It’s none of their business.
Two years ago, Saga was relaxed about her profession as an actor and charged her just over £42 for the content.
A year later the price rose to £66 – Nina paid despite the 57 per cent premium increase.
Last month, just before she received her renewal premium, Nina was contacted by Saga’s insurers.
They wanted to know what field she was in (film, TV, theater), whether her property had been vacant for a long time because of her work, whether she was high-profile, and whether she appeared on news media.
Since Saga knew she was an actor all along, the questions threw her for a loop. But she answered them all: “in all three areas,” “potential,” “I’m not famous,” and “no,” respectively.
The answers appear to have upset the insurers, because a few days later she received her renewal premium.
For the same level of cover, Saga now wanted to charge her £434, a whopping 554 per cent increase.
To put this into perspective, comparison website Go Compare says the average home insurance premium is rising by 32 percent per year.
“I was furious and, quite frankly, insulted,” Nina told me last week.
‘I’m not a West End star. I am only one of the 98 percent of actors who make a living by supplementing their work with alternative sources of income such as voice-overs and presenting.’
She called Saga to complain. It in turn spoke to its insurers, who were unwilling to explain the 554 percent increase.
Annoyed, Nina has now found alternative cover for about the same price as last year.
In recent months, many readers have complained about the steep premium increases that Saga (allegedly a friend of the over-50s) has tried to get them to pay when their policies renew.
While few have been as large in percentage terms as Nina’s, they confirm that Saga (laden with debt) is struggling to remain a competitive force in the insurance space (it offers auto, travel and health coverage as well as home insurance) .
It was therefore no surprise to learn last week that it is in discussions with European insurer Ageas about divesting parts of its insurance activities.
The sooner this happens, the better – for the reputation of the Saga brand and for the policyholders who still have to follow Nina and jump ship.
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