Alarm quotes come with a vocabulary of their own: grades, ARCs, URNs, bells-only, keyholder response. None of it is complicated once explained, and understanding it stops you paying for things you do not need or missing the one thing your insurer wants.
Grades
Intruder alarm systems in the UK are designed to the European standard EN 50131, which sets four grades. Grade 1 is the lowest and is rarely installed. Grade 2 covers most homes and small shops: it assumes an intruder with some knowledge and basic tools. Grade 3 is for higher-risk commercial premises and assumes a more determined, better equipped attacker. Grade 4 is for very high risk sites. The grade affects the detectors, the control panel, the tamper protection and the power backup, so it affects the price. Your insurer may specify a grade. If they do not, a Grade 2 system is the usual starting point for a home.
Bells-only
A bells-only system does what it says. When it triggers, the bell box sounds and strobes and nothing else happens. It relies on someone hearing it and acting. For many homes that is enough, and it is the cheapest to run because there is no monitoring charge. Modern panels can also send a notification to your phone, which fills part of the gap without a monitoring contract.
Monitored
A monitored system sends a signal to an alarm receiving centre, an ARC, which is staffed around the clock. What the ARC does next depends on the contract. Keyholder response means they phone the people on your list. Police response means they can call the police directly, but only if the system has a unique reference number, a URN, issued by the police. To get a URN the system has to be installed and maintained by a company certified by one of the inspectorates the police recognise, and the alarm has to be a confirmed activation, meaning two detectors have triggered, not one. Repeated false alarms lose the URN.
Monitored systems need a signalling path, usually a combination of broadband and mobile network so one failure does not silence the alarm. They also need a maintenance contract with regular visits, more frequent than a bells-only system.
What SSAIB means
SSAIB is a UKAS-accredited certification body for the security industry. It inspects installers: their systems, their paperwork, their engineers and a sample of their installations, every year. NSI is the other inspectorate the police and insurers recognise. An alarm installed by a certified company comes with a certificate of conformity that says which standard and grade it was installed to. Insurers often ask for exactly this. The certification belongs to the company, not the product, so a good panel fitted by an uncertified installer does not count.
What insurers ask
Check your policy for alarm conditions. Common ones are: the system must be installed to a named standard and grade, by an NSI or SSAIB certified company; it must have a maintenance contract; it must be set whenever the premises are unattended; and for monitored systems, a certain level of response. Some commercial policies offer a discount for a monitored alarm and some require one above a stock value. If the alarm is a condition of the policy and it was not set when you were burgled, the claim can fail.
Wired or wireless
Wireless systems suit finished homes, listed buildings and anywhere cabling is hard. Batteries need changing every few years and the panel will tell you when. Wired systems suit new builds, large sites and places with a lot of electrical interference. Both can meet Grade 2 and Grade 3. A good installer will tell you which fits your building rather than which they prefer to sell.
Before you sign
Ask for the grade, the standard, the certification body and the maintenance terms in writing. Ask who holds the engineer codes and what happens if you change company. Ask what the system will do at three in the morning when it goes off, step by step. If the answers are clear, you are probably talking to the right people.