Quantcast
Menu
Save, make, understand money

Insurance

Is buying insurance on your Christmas day ‘to do’ list?

adamlewis
Written By:
adamlewis
Posted:
Updated:
22/12/2016

In addition to unwrapping presents, eating huge amounts of food and enjoying time with the family, many Brits will set aside time to shop around for, and possibly buy, home and car insurance on Christmas day.

Perhaps fed up with the Snowman or Frozen on constant repeat, statistics from the AA showed that on Christmas day last year its systems dealt with a quarter of a million insurance quotes.

Some 234,000 were online quotes for car insurance, rising to 283,000 on Boxing Day. Meanwhile home insurance quotes ran at over 23,000 on Christmas and 33,000 on Boxing day. However just 90 people actually followed through and bought a policy on Christmas day.

Meanwhile with ‘Storm Barbara’ set to hit norther parts of the UK on Christmas day, insurers – including the AA and its panel of insurers- will have staff available to assist with any emergency home and motor insurance claims.

The AA’s Ian Crowder said: “Storm force winds and heavy rain has the potential to cause damage to buildings as well as lead to flooding and felled trees and wind-blown debris on the roads.  It seems to be a case of battening down the hatches over the holiday so it might be safest to avoid travelling.”

On the roadside the AA does have contingency plans, with hundreds of volunteer patrols on call to assist. Last year it attended 2,800 car breakdowns on Christmas day.

With burglaries peaking at Christmas the AA is also urging families to keep their homes secure over the festive period.

“Sadly, Christmas can present rich pickings for thieves who are often after car keys as well as anything that’s easy to steal,” says Crowder, pointing out that the AA increases its home insurance contents cover by 20% for 30 days either side of Christmas.

“Keys are the weakest link in the security chain – so keep them out of sight and certainly not on a hall table where they could be ‘fished’ using pole and hook, through the letterbox.  And if you’re going out for a post-turkey walk, weather permitting, make sure doors and windows are locked.”