Search
  1. Home
  2. Business Insurance
  3. Aviva Business Insurance Review
Published 22 March 2023

Aviva Business Insurance Review

Find out more about Aviva business insurance, including its features and pros and cons, in our review.

Many or all of the products and brands we review are from our partners who compensate us. This may influence which products we write about and the product we choose in our ‘promotion’. However it doesn’t influence our reviews. Our opinions are our own.

Aviva business insurance: at a glance

Aviva offers business insurance to hundreds of trades and professions. You can choose core cover and then add other types of cover to that, depending on the risks you want to protect against.

You can log in to an online account to view policy documents and quotes, and there are dedicated customer services phone lines for claims and queries. You can buy online if your business has less than 10 employees, or through a broker if your team is bigger than that.

Promotion

Aviva Business Insurance

  • Maximum Cover Amounts
    Public Liability: £5m | Employers Liability: £10m | Professional Indemnity: £2m
Apply Now

Always check terms & conditions for suitability before applying.

Learn more about how we bring you our review.

Aviva business insurance pros and cons

Pros

  • You can make a claim over the phone.
  • There is an annual or monthly premiums option, with no interest on monthly payments for some cover.
  • There is phone support for policy management.
  • You can buy your policy, and save and retrieve quotes online.

Cons

  • You can’t make a claim or manage your policy online.
  • You can’t shop by specific trade or profession.
  • You can’t call customer services after 5pm on weekdays, or on weekends.

These pros and cons are based on a survey of UK business owners on what they found important when selecting a range of business products, conducted by NerdWallet in December 2022.

Aviva business insurance key features

Aviva business insurance full review

Aviva is a well-known UK insurer, offering a core range of business insurance and a UK-based claims team. You can build your own policy to match the risks your business faces, though you must have public liability insurance, buildings insurance or contents insurance before you can get any other types of business cover.

Find out more about Aviva business insurance – including how it measures up to key priorities of business owners, according to our NerdWallet survey.

H2: What types of business insurance does Aviva offer?

You can buy liability, vehicle and property insurance for your business with Aviva. This includes:

As well as liability cover, you can buy:

Aviva also offers employee private health insurance and workplace pension plans.

You can choose optional extras, such as accidental damage for contents insurance, depending on the protection you need and the premium you can afford. 

Aviva business insurance features

Here are some of the main features of Aviva business insurance. We’ve also considered what business owners said was most important to them in our NerdWallet survey. 

Professions and trades covered 

Aviva covers a large number of professions. You can choose your type of work from a dropdown list when you get a quote online. 

If you can’t see a good fit for you, you can call Aviva to check whether your industry is covered. Some professions, such as beauticians, tradespeople, retailers, offices and surgeries, can have specific risks included in the policy.  

If you’re looking for help in assessing your business’s risks and you’re clear about the extra cost, Aviva also offers separate risk management services through its network of partners.

Payment options 

You can pay your business insurance premiums either annually or monthly. Having this choice was key for a number of business owners in our survey, with the option to pay monthly the second most important factor and annual payment not far behind in fourth. 

Online policy management 

Aviva offers an online business insurance account to access your policies, or to save and retrieve quotes. After you apply, quotes are valid for 30 days. 

Once covered, you will need to call customer services to make most changes to your policy. Web-based policy management was the third most important factor in our survey.  

Phone support 

You call customer services about your cover or to get a quote. Lines are open Monday to Friday 9am-5pm, and 10am-4pm on public holidays.

In our survey, being able to call customer services to make policy changes was ranked eighth in importance, with most seeing the self-service, online route as a higher priority. Even so, a conversation with customer services is still an important route for some, and self-service is not always possible for certain changes. 

Making a claim 

You can make a claim over the phone with Aviva’s UK call centre. There are different lines to choose from, depending on the type of cover you’re claiming against. General hours are 9am-5pm on weekdays, though some claims lines, such as buildings and contents cover, business income insurance and vehicle insurance, are open 24/7.

In our survey, being able to make a claim online was important for nearly half of business owners, and was the top ranking factor. So be aware that this doesn’t appear to be an option here, with the possible exception of landlord insurance.  

Customer reviews

Aviva has 4.4 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot, based on over 27,000 reviews (as of 7 March 2023).

Bear in mind that these reviews aren’t exclusively about business insurance. 

Can you shop by profession with Aviva?

Aviva details its insurance by the type of cover rather than by the specific trade. There is dedicated information if you need self-employed insurance, though not everyone who is self-employed needs the same cover. 

For some specific trades, such as beauticians, hairdressers, retail and tradespeople, tailored cover for everyday risks are also available. But the website doesn’t provide a shop-by-trade option, as some other insurers do. 

In our NerdWallet survey, being able to shop by industry was only ranked seventh out of 10 in importance, so for most this may not be an issue. 

How to choose the right business insurance

The cover types you choose need to address the risks your business faces. There is a wide choice available, but some businesses might need the following cover to be able to operate:

If you’re not sure which types of cover you need, you could contact an independent business insurance broker. Membership and trade bodies may also help you work out the minimum level of cover you need.  

How to get Aviva business insurance

You can get a quote for Aviva business insurance online or by phone. If you have more than nine employees, you can only buy through a broker.

You can add or remove the cover you need as you go through the quotation process. You will need to supply information about your business, including contact details, previous claims, the nature of your business and where you operate, along with how many employees you have.

Once you have a quote, you can apply online or over the phone if you’re happy with the price and cover features. You may also want to compare the quote details with other providers. 

How to save money on Aviva business insurance

If you’re planning to pay monthly premiums for liability cover, you won’t be charged interest, which might appeal if breaking up payments helps you to budget but you don’t want to pay more. Some types of cover also includes access to a free legal and tax helpline. 

Review methodology

At NerdWallet Ltd UK we base our reviews on the results of surveys we conduct to understand what key product features are important to those who use them, and align them to the product we review.

Product details reflect the information that was available at that time but may have changed since. We strive to give you a review on as many products as possible but it is likely there are others available that we have not reviewed. The review is our opinion, but it does not constitute advice, recommendation or suitability of your financial circumstances.

You can view our review methodology here.

About the Author

Holly Bennett

Holly champions clear, jargon-free writing. She’s been creating finance content for leading organisations for over 10 years.

Read More
Back To Top