In common with many other institutions within the financial sector, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group is likely to remain tainted for a long time by the fallout from the so-called credit crunch. Nevertheless, it is a very large and longstanding organisation, having been founded in 1727 and with a reported 40 million customers worldwide, 25 million of them in the UK alone. It also has more than 40 well known brands, including the Royal Bank of Scotland itself plus the NatWest Bank. More relevant here, its insurance brands include Direct Line, Churchill and Privilege as well as Green Flag for breakdown cover, making it the second largest insurance provider in the UK.
RBS has the usual range of insurance, with cover provided by UK Insurance Ltd, which is part of the group. Life insurance includes guaranteed protection for those aged 50-75. Home insurance comes as Standard or Elite versions, with set limits for cover so you don’t have to value everything. There’s also an emergency help line, accidental damage cover and the option to pay by instalments with no interest added.
Car insurance provides a courtesy car, guaranteed repairs and a high level of cover for audio equipment. Travel insurance is supplemented by other services you’d expect from a bank, such as holiday money, international payments and currency accounts.
Be alert for special offers, which in the past have included 12 months home cover for the price of 9 and 12 months car insurance for the price of 11. Of course, the latter is really just an 8% discount … doesn’t sound as appealing when you do the math that way. But if you’re a Royalties customer (meaning you’ve got one of their paid for current accounts), there’s likely to be an extra month’s free cover thrown in as a bonus. In the case of travel insurance, annual cover is included as part of a Royalties account so check if you already have a free policy in place before applying.
One potential fly in the ointment is that the group announced in 2009 that it was considering selling off its insurance businesses such as Churchill, Direct Line and Privilege — although they’ve said that before in 2008. The hope is that this would raise around £7 billion and help to offset around £28 billion in losses arising from bad debts.
Chief Executive Stephen Hester has reportedly been keen to hang on to Churchill and Direct Line since between them they contribute around £1 billion in pre-tax profits each year. An alternative might be to sell the group’s 4.3% stake in Bank of China, which could raise £1.5 billion. Whatever happens, of course, existing policies will continue as before and there are unlikely to be changes in the short term, so policy-holders and those seeking cover have no reason to be concerned.
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