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John Lewis: Home insurance reviews

Name: Home insurance
Rating: 2.57 (76 reviews)

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2.07

Based on 76 reviews, last reviewed 11th Dec 2025

No new 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

33% increase in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

32%

2 star

56%

Latest highest rating:

5

Excellent and responsive insurer. Excellent and responsive insurer. We had a massively leakage causing 1000s of pounds worth of damage. JL ensured the work was completed promptly and t... Read more Reviewed on: 4th March 2025

Latest lowest rating:

1

John Lewis at war with customers? I have been insured with John Lewis for endless number of years. I have just realised they have overrated the premium on the Buildings. They are now... Read more Reviewed on: 11th December 2025

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About this product

You can apply for a John Lewis Money home insurance policy online.

Choose from Bronze, Silver and Gold policies, with £50,000 minimum protection when you buy contents cover. There’s no fee to change your insurance policy and no extra charge if you want to pay monthly.

John Lewis Money home insurance reviews help you find out what it’s really like to be a customer. If you’ve used John Lewis Money before, you can also leave a review and share your experience.

John Lewis Home insurance reviews (76)

Review of the John Lewis, Home insurance:

BE WARNED: JL HOME INSURANCE IS NOT CUSTOMER FRIENDLY

BE WARNED: JL HOME INSURANCE CLAIMS PROCESS IS NOT CUSTOMER FRIENDLY AND DOES NOT LIVE UP TO THE PERCEPTION OF THE JOHN LEWIS BRAND! I purchased Home Insurance from John Lewis in 2022, which was recently renewed. I took the "Add-Ons" of Premium Contents cover and Building cover, believing the online marketing which stated this would provide maximum cover for our belongings in the event of accidental damage. Last week my wife accidentally dropped her mobile phone when trying to open our front door. She took her phone to Apple, who inspected it and gave her a quote for repairs. All under £500. I knew our policy had a £250 excess so any claim would, in effect, be reduced by this amount. So, with this in mind, I went online to make a claim for accidental damage with John Lewis, and that is where the issues began. If you are expecting the traditional "no quibbles, customer-centric approach" from John Lewis, then you are in for disappointment. The online claims portal doesn't work. I tried many times to raise a claim online, and the portal (provided by a third party) just did not pick up my policy details and failed. So I picked up the phone and waited 30mins before speaking to someone. They explained a very straightforward process: 1) Send photos of the damaged phone, 2) Send details of the repaid quote from Apple, and 3) Send the original purchase receipt. I duly sent all these documents and photos in as instructed. The damage is very clear for anyone to see - it was not minor scratches, but a clearly broken glass back on the phone and one of the camera lenses smashed. The next day, as advised by JL, I called back to check on the status of my claim. I was then told there was a completely different process and that, actually, JL require inspection of all gadgets by their own third-party repair and replacement service provider - who they assured me over the phone was "fully authorised by Apple" and therefore, any repairs would not invalidate the warranty or reduce the value of the phone with Apple. However, I was now told this third party would have to arrange for the collection of my phone, send it to their centre for inspection, and then would make a decision on whether the phone could be repaired or whether that was not "economically viable". This is despite Apple already providing a written assessment that the phone could be repaired for a reasonable fee. Apparently, the JL third party is more adept than Apple at assessing repairs to their own products..... "How long will this take?" I ask - it could be up to a week before I hear whether the phone can be repaired. "What if they say it cannot be repaired?" - well they will recommend a "reasonable" replacement. "What is a reasonable replacement?" - a phone of equal value to the value the third party determines your phone is now worth. So, basically, the JL Home Insurance policy with Premium Contents Covers is no such thing when it comes to accidental damage. It is actually a repair and replacement service disguised as Insurance. It is a clever way of minimising the financial payout to you as a customer by getting a third party to undervalue your items, tell you repairs are not economically viable, and then offer you a cheap replacement which will cost them less than just paying out on the policy. As I say, be warned, taking out the policy is very simple - but when you come to claim, be under no illusion, the JL Home Insurance policy is just as awful in terms of customer service as many other policies that don't live up to the marketing hype or brand promise. Reviewed on: 11th August 2023

Home is safe & secure!

New to John Lewis and so far it was the easiest to setup, communication with their team is incredible and very satisfied with the pricing & cover I have for my home. Reviewed on: 15th August 2022

Terrible customer service

Following accidental damage to a PC and being told it was irreparable we decided to claim on our home insurance - immediately passed to Royal Sun Alliance so no dealings with John Lewis - long wait for responses, constantly having to follow up on the claim ourselves, finally 4 weeks after initial contact they suggested a substandard replacement - it has taken them over a month to do this and it took me 5 minutes to find the current replacement model. Unnecessarily difficult to claim for the cost of the insurance and sub-standard provision of support Reviewed on: 9th August 2022

Terrible customer service and communication

I had to update my card details for the monthly home insurance payment. There is nowhere to do this online but I am glad as I then found out it was impossible to talk to anyone - tried phoning, callback, live chat, email. Nothing. I then complained and cancelled my policy. I did get a call back about this and the agent was untrained and unsure how to handle the call. Glad I found out before any claim had to be made. Reviewed on: 8th June 2022

Ultimate insurance scam: rack in premium deny claims

My laptop got a screen crack after being carried in my backpack. Because I couldn't tell which exact step broke the laptop the claim for accidental damaged got denied twice. The second I said by email that I had it fixed because I needed to use it, they said they agreed to have their experts to look at the damage to assess if it was accidental. Reviewed on: 20th May 2022

Did not care - did not get involved

All singing John Lewis Home Insurance. We were immediately passed on to the underwriters (Royal Sun Alliance) for 19 months of frustrating hell and John Lewis refused to discuss any of it or answer any questions as if it was nothing to do with them. They were still taking our money each month but they are NOT the actual insurers and John Lewis service and quality and honesty means nothing on their home insurance contract. Reviewed on: 2nd May 2022

Terrible claims service - inexperienced staff

Terrible service from John Lewis specialist home emergency cover. Left without heating and hot water for 5+ days John Lewis Engineer who visited said boiler was beyond economic repair over 15 years old and needed £1200+ of parts. Our independent engineer fixed boiler for £480 and advised the advice we were given was totally incorrect ! Boiler is not over 15 years old as there’s a factory sticker dating the day it left the factory which is much less than 15 years ago I’m so disappointed in this service - not what I expect for a £900 annual premium! Complaint acknowledged and been advised I’ll have a response within 8 weeks..... Reviewed on: 24th February 2022

It's outrageous that you are unable to cancel your subscription renewal online

It's ridiculous that they make it as hard as possible to cancel your renewal. After being on hold for 15 minutes, the call centre agent even confirmed that there is no way to cancel the policy online and you have to do it over the phone. If they're as scandalous with their claims as they are with their basic business practices, I would avoid. Reviewed on: 20th February 2022

'Premium' level buildngs home insurance is appalling

We have a relatively small claim for building damage to an untanked cellar. It has been 8 months and despite it being a simple new plasterdboard, skim and repaint job they have not managed to organise it. I am so glad we are not dealing with a huge claim for serious damage as they are incompetent and ineffectual as they are not really involved. They charge high fees using the JL brand but it is underwritten by RSA (Royal Sun Alliance) who subcontract their work to BVS ( Building validation solution) who subcontract their work to MA Assist who subcontract the work to whoever they can muster up in the world of cheap builders. Laughably the assessor claimed that just two of four walls of a cellar, filled like a swimming pool by a burst pipe , were damaged. The whole process has been ridled with incompetence like this. They are worthy of an investigation by the FSA and I wouldn't be surprised if they soon feature on the TV show that names and shames companies like this! Reviewed on: 19th November 2021

so far so good...

This is in part a comment on 2 recent reviews. Mike's experience below is known as "price walking". They've all been doing it. I've had the exact same experience with Direct Line. Switched to John Lewis just today. Better policy for less than half the renewal quote. Let's hope that the FCA's long-awaited new rules stop penalising loyalty... As to Stefan Phillips's lament about the policy wording for theft - whoever you talked to didn't know what they were talking about. Nobody's home insurance works like that. Just to be sure, I asked the question today. It turns out that JL's theft coverage is just like everybody else's. They all specify that the house should not be unoccupied for more than x consecutive days. Typically 30 or 60 days. Unless your grocery shopping trips take longer than the x days, you should be fine. Reviewed on: 11th September 2021

Do not renew your home insurance with John Lewis

We have been with John Lewis home insurance for the past 4 years, we received our renewal quote of £722.04. This showed an increase on the previous year. We made an enquiry on a comparison site and received exactly the same cover with a lower excess figure for £298.32 this was with Nationwide Building Society. We then discovered the policy was underwritten by RSA which is the same company that under wrote the John Lewis policy. Moreover paying by monthly direct debit incurs zero interest with Nationwide and 21.1% interest with John Lewis. My summary is: A massive rip-off don't use John Lewis for home insurance. Reviewed on: 26th July 2021

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