Karen Ann Catlow, Karen Anns

Karen Ann started working with GSI Insurance in 2016 when she and Oliver met at a local networking group. Karen Ann had asked him to quote on a rather complicated home insurance policy.

What Karen Ann was having difficulty with was the fact that they live in an unusual building; a Coach House with four individual garages below. She’d been struggling to get the right level of cover to satisfy certain requirements laid out by the Leaseholder of the grounds.

With Karen Ann and her Husband owning the house and one of the four garages below (but not the other three), they needed to make sure certain criteria were met with their policy to be able to pass it on to the Leaseholder.

They needed to cover their own home and garage but also the buildings insurance needed to cover the whole building including the three garages owned by other people.

They now have a policy that covers their building insurance for the house and four garages and a contents policy for just their own home and garage. Karen Ann tells us that she’d been with another company for several years before meeting Oliver and their costs just kept going up because of the nature of the building.

More recently, Karen Ann and her Husband discovered that NHBC also needed them to satisfy certain requirements too. They needed to contact the owners of the other three garages in advance of their annual renewal relating to their buildings insurance but didn’t want to share the details of their own contents insurance for obvious reasons.

The couple now have one policy for their buildings insurance that they were able to share with the other owners (ticking the NHBC boxes) and then a second, separate policy for their contents insurance. Karen Ann is keen to add that Oliver handled all this for her, it made no difference to the price of the policy (i.e. no unnecessary admin fees) and it has satisfied the contract with the Leaseholder and NHBC. When Karen Ann first started working with gsi insurance, the cost of the policy was cheaper than their previous insurer and the price has not increased significantly since. 

Karen Ann’s next policy to consider was her motor insurance. She and her Husband now have both their cars and a van insured with gsi insurance.

Unfortunately, Karen Ann was involved in an accident in 2019 on the Motorway when she was travelling in her car and she had to make a claim on her car insurance. Karen Ann was travelling in the fast lane and was hit by a bus (the Bus Driver was at fault) and the rear end of her car was smashed in.

Oliver at gsi insurance was the first person Karen Ann rang (after her husband) and he was (in Karen Ann’s words) “fantastic; he helped and advised with everything and he even spoke to the Bus Driver at the scene of the accident and got his insurance details for me!  The damage to the back of my car was quite severe but I managed to drive to Newcastle in it. I was in a bit of shock and being involved in an accident in the fast lane of the motorway was horrible. Oliver made it all better and so much easier to deal with….” 

Next on the agenda? Karen Ann’s Business Insurance; she needed a public liability policy to cover her for her craft business and a number of events she attends throughout the year. She recently qualified as a trained dog walker and also offers this service alongside her main craft business. 

As this service was a new area of the business for Karen Ann, Oliver was able to simply add this to her existing policy without the need to take out a new, separate policy. This was all arranged with a simple phone call, quoted and agreed. The additional quote was reasonable and everything is now on one policy for her.

“I think the single biggest worry I had about my insurance cover before I met gsi insurance was relating to the complicated home buildings insurance I needed to put in place. Not only has that worry gone away now, when it reared it’s head again when I found something in some small print and they helped me to work out and then achieve what we needed.”

“It is the peace of mind that I get from using gsi insurance to organise all my personal and business insurance; I know I have the right cover and (for example) all the boxes are ticked (for NHBC for example).”

When we asked Karen Ann if she’d recommend gsi insurance to others her reply was:

“What wouldn’t I say? They are friendly and helpful in addressing whatever issues you have, and what you need to be covered properly in the appropriate area.”

You get your own, dedicated Account Manager and they will adjust the quotes as many times as necessary until you get what you want and (more importantly) need. They take the time to discuss and understand your needs.”

“Don’t hesitate, talk to them and work with them. they are really good! I would recommend them whole heartedly; that must be obvious though as I have all my policies with them!”