In a nutshell if it can go wrong it will go wrong. The benefits of being so bad is that encourages people to spend more time researching and getting a better more comprehensive cover for a better price. Customer services none existant. Value for money. Not really at all.

We were cold called several years ago by Towergate to let them take over our insurance needs. As they advertise in many magazines within our business sector and their website presence looked professional we decided to allow them to handle our insurance. The five star ratings on their website lead you to believe they are an excellent company to deal with until you realise you will not see a single mention of how they handle claims. This is because when you are unfortunate enough to make a claim that is when you find they are totally incompetent - except at hiding the 1 star reviews! It turned out in our case that while acting as our agents they had not passed on our insurance requirements to the insurers. When needing to claim under the “all risks” section on our policy, which according to Towergate was active, the insurer AXA had no knowledge of it and therefore denied the claim. In Towergates opionion their failure to do due diligence was just tough and we were out of pocket by over £3000! My advice to anyone is never to use a broker. Deal directly with the insurers, that way you and they know what is insured. It may be more work however we have paid Towergate over £30k in premiums over the last 8 years and it looks like we may not have been covered for anything during that time. Do not touch this company with a bargepole even if they give you insurance for free. I feel Towergate have tsken our money without a single thought as to the ramifications of their incompetence and yet again it is a lesson learned not to purchase anything from a cold caller. Hang up, do your research, then buy your insurance from a reputable insurer - not a broker!

I am treasurer of a local social club, and we have the usual bar and Club premises insurance. We got this from a local broker who was subsequently taken over by TOWERGATE insurance brokers, a larger national group. Their introductory letter proclaimed the good news. Reality is very different. Instead of the helpful local company, we now have to deal with an understaffed CALL CENTRE situated over 200 miles away, horendous queues and staff who are cant be understood. Over a week to respond to an email, even though it was marked urgent, and all they said was, "you need to talk to the insurance company not the broker". The insurance broker is NIG insurance who said I need to go through the broker. I contacted NIG ten days ago and still have had no response to a simple request for information on how to proceed with a claim. These people are parasites - take a commision to arrange the insurance and provide absolutely appalling service - will never use them again.