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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.
Aviva Business Insurance
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Maximum Cover AmountsPublic Liability: £5m | Employers Liability: £10m | Professional Indemnity: £2m
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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
- Dedicated claims phone lines, some 24/7
- Online portal for managing your policy
- Monthly and annual premiums available
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:
- Public liability insurance (up to £5 million): This covers legal fees and compensation costs if members of the public (including clients or visitors) are injured or their property is lost or damaged and your business is at fault. It can include a level of product liability insurance, depending on your trade.
- Employers’ liability insurance (£10 million): This covers legal and compensation costs if a permanent or temporary employee becomes injured or ill due to their work and makes a successful claim against your business.
- Professional indemnity insurance (up to £2 million): This is cover for legal and compensation costs if a client makes a successful claim for negligence against your business. This is not available as an add-on if it’s compulsory cover for your profession, such if you are an accountant or architect.
- Business income insurance (up to £1 million): Also called business interruption insurance, this helps cover lost income after an unexpected event until your business is back up and running (for up to three years).
As well as liability cover, you can buy:
- Business vehicle and van insurance: This is cover for a vehicle that is used for work purposes (beyond commuting). It’s split into cover for sole traders, where the vehicle is in your own name, or company cover, for a vehicle registered in the company name.
- Buildings insurance: If you own your business premises (outright or with a mortgage), this covers the cost of rebuilding it if it is damage by fire, flood or storm, for example.
- Contents insurance: This is cover for your business belongings if they are stolen or damaged. You can add electronic equipment insurance for when you take belongings out and about.
- Tools, stock and business equipment: Designed for homeworkers, freelancers and tradespeople, this covers loss, accidental damage and theft of your essential business equipment and stock, including if stolen from a vehicle.
- Landlord insurance (unlimited): This covers loss or damage to your building and contents after an unexpected event, such as a fire, at your rented property. You can buy combined or separate buildings and contents cover.
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:
- You need employers’ liability insurance by law if you employ anyone in the UK who isn’t close family. However, if you employ family and your business is a limited company, you will still need it.
- Professional indemnity insurance is required by governing bodies or regulators for some professions, such as solicitors and accountants.
- You may need to have a specific level of public liability insurance to carry out some work, including government contracts.
- If you use a vehicle for work (other than commuting), you must have motor insurance and should consider business car insurance or commercial vehicle insurance.
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 UK, we base our reviews and our ‘Best’ pages on the results of surveys we undertook about what was important to people who use these products. This allows us to look at products impartially of any commercial arrangements we have and fairly rate the products on the same set of criteria.
Best means our ‘Best’ and is based only on what products we have aligned to our surveys, which form the basis of our reviews and ratings. This means that there will be other products on the market that we have not included in our ‘Best’ pages. Best does not mean it’s best for you, nor does it mean the ‘cheapest’.
Our reviews may display lenders’ rates. This additional information has not been included in our evaluations but is still very important when choosing a product. Rates offered can depend on circumstances, amount and term. Always check details before proceeding with any financial product.
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 there will be products not included on the market. The review is our opinion, but it does not constitute advice, recommendation or suitability for your financial circumstances.
You can view our full review methodology here.
