Self-storage has become a booming industry in the UK in recent years, with the Self Storage Association UK estimating that there are now over 1,430 self-storage sites in the UK.
Used to store furniture and belongings that you don’t have space for at home, for keeping your possessions safe while renovating, at university, or travelling, and even used by businesses to store excess stock, archives and equipment, many people nowadays will find themselves in need of a storage facility at some point.
If you’ve stored your items in a professional storage facility in the past, it’s likely that you will have been offered a storage insurance policy alongside your storage contract.
With storage insurance being a mandatory requirement for many storage facilities, many people decide to purchase their policy in-house for convenience.
These storage insurance policies will cover the cost of the belongings you store against incidents such as theft, natural disasters, leaking pipes, and more.
However, Telegraph Money has recently revealed that customers who buy their storage contents insurance directly via their storage firm could be paying an average of three times more than they could get through a third party insurance provider.
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ProInsight Results
We commissioned ProInsight to mystery shop at 166 self-storage branches in the UK, covering 70 different firms in total. Shockingly, in all instances bar one, the mystery shoppers were quoted higher prices for storage insurance than they could find elsewhere.
Self-storage firms often use a preferred insurer or broker that will provide storage insurance to their customers, and ProInsight revealed in their results to Telegraph Money that the five largest self-storage companies (Safestore, Big Yellow Self Storage, Access Self Storage, Shurgard Self Storage, and Lok’nStore) all quote higher insurance costs than customers can find via other insurance providers.
One of our Surewise.com Directors, Richard Hannan, commented on the research results to say “We were amazed to find that storage companies were charging an average of three times more for the same or very similar policies.
“Some of the prices that were being charged were highly alarming and in fact, we struggled to find a single self-storage company that was selling insurance for less than their online competitors.”
Ian Hughes of Consumer Intelligence commented on the results, saying:
“Paying for insurance when you arrange your storage might be the most convenient option, but it isn’t always the best value.”
You can read the full article on Telegraph Money here
What Can We Learn From This?
The results of ProInsight’s research make it clear that convenience can cost you, and that taking the time to research your options before you buy can help you make massive savings on your insurance policy.
We constantly compare our rates against those of our competitors to ensure we are staying competitive with market prices and continue to offer the highest level of cover available.
If you’ve been looking at storing your belongings, make sure you get the best value storage insurance policy possible and get a quote below.
