Is Santander a Good Insurance Company?

verified information

verificator-profile-picture-profile-picture

Information verified by  Adeline Harmant

Our articles are written by experts in their fields (finance, trading, insurance etc.) whose signatures you will see at the beginning and at the end of each article. They are also systematically reviewed and corrected before each publication, and updated regularly.

Discover the methodology
author-profile-picture
Alexandre Desoutter updated on July 27, 2020

You are considering buying an insurance policy at Santander and are wondering if Santander is the best insurer for you?

You've come to the right place!

In the below guide you’ll find everything you need to know about Santander: expert and consumers reviews, insurance policies detailed, recommendation, contact and much more.

Stay tuned!

Good to know

Safe's mission is to help anyone trying to get the best value for money deal on personal insurance making the right decision. We've analyzed over 1000 insurance companies and contracts. You will find below our independent and neutral rating and evaluation for Santander.

Who is Santander?

Santander is a spanish retail and commercial bank specialized in providing financial and commercial banking services to people. The company now also offers insurance products such as home, travel, car, van and life insurance along with banking products.

What are the main insurance policies available at Santander?

Let's discover below main insurance policies offered by Santander.

Safe overall rateOur reviews
Car insurance Get to know more
Travel insurance Get to know more
Home insurance Get to know more
Life insurance Get to know more
Santander insurance policies

Santander expert and consumers reviews: Defaqto, TrustPilot

Santander is regularly audited by Defaqto expert rating. Defaqto ranks each company as well as policies with scores of 1 to 5 stars. Cover details, admin fees, value for money, claim and complaint process and more are analyzed and weighted.

Consumers, on the other hand, can write down their opinions on independent websites such as TrustPilot, Reevoo or Reviews which give great insights on claim process and refund as well as customer service at Santander.

Defaqto
Car insurance

3

Home insurance

Everyday: 3 stars
Premier: 5 stars

Santander expert and customers reviews

Is Santander a good car insurance company?

3,7 Safe overall rating for Santander car insurance

Santander offers 3 levels of cover available for their car insurance policy: Comprehensive, Thirdy Party, Fire & Theft and Third Party Only.

Regardless of the cover you choose, you get an inclusive EU travel cover that is equal to the cover you have in the UK.
Santander's Car Insurance is administered by Budget Insurance, an insurance company thats offers car, van, life and home insurance covers.

We would advise you to request for detailed policy documents before you signing up with them so as to be aware of the things you should expect while being insured by them.

In addition to typical car insurance coverage choices, Santander offers, among other options:

Breakdown cover

Santander Insurance offers 5 levels of Breakdown Cover that is provided by RAC (An automative repair service that they've partnered with to carry out their Breakdown Services to clients):

  • Roadside Cover: this covers breakdown services within the UK more than 1/4 mile from your home address. They don't charge you any call-out fee.
  • Roadside and Recovery Cover: this inlcudes roadside breakdown services within the UK a 1/4 mile from your home address, and local recovery of the vehicle and 8 passengers including the driver to a single destination.
  • Roadside, Recovery and At Home Cover: this covers the benefits you get with Roadside and Recover Cover along with Breakdown assistance if your car breaks down at your home address or within 1/4 miles from your home address.
  • Roaside, Recovery, At Home and Onward Travel: this covers all of the benefits that come with the Roadside, Recovery and At Home Cover as well as alternative transport or overnight accomodation should they not be able to repair your vehicle at the roadside.
    Roadside, Recovery, At Home, Onward Travel and Europe: this cover consists of the benefits you get with the Roadside Recovery At Home and Onward Travel as well as breakdown assistance while traveling in Europe.

Windscreen cover

  • Windscreen cover is included as a standard in the comprehensive policy and is not available as an optional extra addition.
  • It covers unlimited repair or replacement of windows, windscreen, rear window and standard roof provided that you get them fixed at Santander's approved repairers. If not, then the limit would be £150.

Motor legal protection

Up to £100,000 to cover for legal costs and expenses when pursuing for compensation after an incident that wasn't your fault.

Personal injury policy

Up to £10,000 per incident.

Besides main car insurance coverage, you can also get extra car insurance options at Santander. Get to know more, read our complete review on Santander car insurance.

Is Santander a good travel insurance company?

4 Safe overall rating for Santander travel insurance

Santander Travel Insurance is arranged, administered and underwritten by Chubb European Group SE which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.Even though the company has a low customer satisfaction rate on Trust Pilot, it is important to note that it has mostly been focusing on banking and therefore, most of the reviews left on Trust Pilot are from their banking customers. Unfortunately, Santander doesn't have a Defaqto rating which may make it much harder for one to decided on whether to get insured by them or not.

For your own peace of mind, we would recommend well known travel insurance companies that have a high customer satisafaction rate as well as a high Defaqto rating such as RAC Travel Insurance and Staysure Travel Insurance.

For single and annual multi-trip cover, age and maximum number of days limits at Santander are:

Main travel insurance policiesAvailable at Santander
Santander maximum number of days limit

Single Trip: Up to 365 days
Annual Multi Trip: 31 to 62 days per trip

Santander age limit

Single Trip: 74 years
Annual Multi Trip: 74 years

Travel insurance policies available at Santander

You will find Santander cover details (compensations, deductibles, extras etc.) for single and annual multi-trip policies in our review.

Besides main travel insurance policies, Santander also provides extra cover such as:

  • backpackers travel insurance
  • long stay travel insurance
  • winter sports cover
  • golf cover
  • cover for business trips
  • cruise gear
  • gadget cover

Specific Optional Insurance Covers available are:

  • Excess waiver
  • Trip duration extension
  • Hazardous activities extension.

>> MORE: read our complete review on Santander travel insurance.

Is Santander a good home insurance company?

4,4 Safe overall rating for Santander home insurance

Santander offers two levels of protection for both building and contents insurance: Essential, rated 3 stars by Defaqto and Premier, rated 5 stars.
The Everyday level of cover is basic and provides cover for up to £500k for building insurance and £50k for contents insurance. You can choose the excess you'd like to pay in case of claim for both Everyday and Premier level of cover. Accidental damage, family legal protection and personal possessions covers are available as extras in both levels of cover.

The company offers interesting value for money deals offering affordable rates and cashbacks if you pay your premium through Santander accounts.

Santander building insurance

You will find below building main insurance details for the Everyday home insurance cover at Santander:

  • Maximum sum insured for your property: Everyday: £500 000 / Premier: Unlimited
  • Owner's liability: Everyday: £2M / Premier: £2M
  • Alternative emergency accomodation: Everyday: £25 000 / Premier: Unlimited
  • Period of home's unoccupancy cover: 60 days
  • Trace and access: Everyday: £2500 / Premier: £5000
  • Keys cover: Everyday: £250 / Premier: Unlimited
  • Subsidence excess: £1000 for both policies

Alongside building insurance, you can get additional cover such as:

Home building insurance extras
Home emergency
  • Optional extra
  • Up to £1000 per call out
Boiler cover
  • Part of the home emergency cover
Family legal protection
  • Optional extra
  • Up to £50 000 for expert lawyers fees
Santander building insurance extras

Santander contents insurance

You will find below contents insurance details for the Everyday home insurance cover at Santander:

  • Maximum sum insured for your contents: Everyday: £50 000 / Premier: Unlimited
  • Alternative emergency accomodation: Everyday: £25 000 / Premier: Unlimited
  • Single item limit: Everyday: £2500 / Premier: £2500
  • Contents in the open: Everyday: £500 / Premier: £1000
  • Contents in outbuildings: Everyday: up to contents sum insured / Premier: unlimited
  • Money / credit card kept at home: Everyday: £500 / Premier: £500 / Not stated
  • Items temporarily removed from home: Everyday: £10 000 / Premier: £10 000

Alongside contents insurance, you can get additional cover such as:

Home contents insurance extras
Accidental damage cover
  • Optional extra
  • up to contents sum insured for Everyday cover
  • unlimited cover with Premier plan
Personal possessions cover
  • Available as extra for both policies Everyday and premier
  • Minimum sum insured £1,000 and maximum sum insured £15,000
  • Single item limit is £2,500 or up to the unspecified personal belongings sum insured,
  • Up to sum insured limit for personal possessions kept in a car
Mobile cover
  • Available as extra
  • Only covers phones, not phone calls
Bike cover
  • Available as extra
  • Choice of limit based on the highest value cycle (minimum £300)
Santander contents insurance extras

Standard excess to report a claim at Santander is Everyday: £200 - £500 / Premier: £100 - £500.

You will find exhaustive cover details, administration fees, contacts etc. on Santander home insurance on our review below.

>> MORE: read our complete review on Santander home insurance.

Is Santander a good life insurance company?

3,6 Safe overall rating for Santander home insurance

Santander life insurance was established in 2010 through a combination of Abbey National plc and parts of Bradford & Bingley plc, with Alliance & Leicester merging into the bank soon after its creation. Their life insurance services are underwritten by Aviva which is one of the most trusted insurance companies. Santander offers three different life policies: Santander Life Insurance (increasing and decreasing), Critical illness cover and Over 50s Life Insurance (which can also be called the Whole-of-life cover). Their critical illness cover is designed only to protect you from falling critically ill only and will not pay out in the event of death. As the insurance policies are managed by Aviva, their financial capability to pay out claims is high and their service is recommended.

In summary, here are the main features you need to know when taking out life insurance with Santander.

Life insurance criteria
Minimum age18 years
Maximum age 89 years
Pay-outNot Stated
Extras

A life insurance calculator is available on the website.

Terminal illnessYes
Santander life insurance in a nutshell

You will find everything you need to know on Santander life insurance in our review.

>> MORE: read our complete review on Santander life insurance.


Santander discount codes, promos and vouchers

Discounts and promo codes available
Car insurance
  • Santander offers 10% cashback on the first year's premium to 1|2|3 World, Santander Select and Santander Private (Santander's other products)
  • NCD available and will likely increase for every year you drive without having any claims.
Travel insurance

They do not mention any discounts on their website.

Home insurance
  • Discount on premium if paid from Santander current accounts
  • 2% cashbacks if you pay by Direct Debit from your 123 Santander Current Account.
Life insurance

Cashback is offered to policyholders every month

Santander discounts codes and promos

How to contact Santander?

Find out how to contact and log in to Santander on our contact page.

Did you like this article?
author-profile-picture/
Alexandre Desoutter
hellosafe-logo
hellosafe-logo

Alexandre Desoutter has been working as editor-in-chief and head of press relations at HelloSafe since June 2020. A graduate of Sciences Po Grenoble, he worked as a journalist for several years in French media, and continues to collaborate as a as a contributor to several publications.

In this sense, his role leads him to carry out steering and support work with all HelloSafe editors and contributors so that the editorial line defined by the company is fully respected. and declined through the texts published daily on our platforms.

As such, Alexandre is responsible for implementing and maintaining the strictest journalistic standards within the HelloSafe editorial staff, in order to guarantee the most accurate, up-to-date information on our platforms. and expert as possible. Alexandre has in particular undertaken for two years now the implementation of a system of systematic double-checking of all the articles published within the HelloSafe ecosystem, able to guarantee the highest quality of information.