The British Gas HomeCare plans are starting to become expensive

Filed Under Finance

I’ve long thought that the British Gas service care products, which provide breakdown cover for domestic central heating, plumbing and electrical systems, have been excellent value for money.

Earlier this year, our boiler started leaking and then broke down. One call to British Gas and they arrived later that day to try and fix it. Unfortunately for British Gas, the boiler required parts and labour costing £900 to get it running again. We weren’t charged a penny for this - it was all covered by our £19.75 per month service charge.

Of course boilers don’t break down like this every year - or at least I hope they don’t - however as our complete central heating system and drains are covered by this service charge, I’ve always felt that it is superb value for money.

I might be changing my mind now though.

I have just received a notification from British Gas that the monthly costs of their HomeCare 400 package (which also includes cover for all the electrics in the house) is increasing from £23.75 to £28.15 per month. This is a rise of £4.40 per month (£52.80 per year).

So now the British Gas HomeCare 400 package will cost £337.80 per year. That is starting to feel expensive as you can get a lot of work from a local tradesman for that cost, and only when you need it, as opposed to paying regardless.

There are other providers of home breakdown cover. Directline offer a similar Home Response 24 service, for example. I haven’t asked them for a quote yet, so I don’t know what they charge, but it might be worth finding out.

I’ll stick with the British Gas HomeCare 400 service for a while, but if they raise the costs like this again, then I’ll definitely look elsewhere or even consider taking a chance without maintenance cover - although I wouldn’t take that decision lightly.

British Gas should be careful when making such large price increases. They may start losing valuable long term customers.