How much insurance do I need?

Question

I need to get contents insurance for the flat I am renting, but I just dont know how much I need to take out. There are so many extras that the companies keep asking me for, like cover for your ipod and phone when you are out side of the house, and extra cover for your computer, cover for if your freezer defrosts itself blah blah blah...I cant really afford to cover myself for every possibility, but I dont know what is essential, and the companies I call keep saying that they cant advise me, I have to tell them what I need. Can anyone help? Please? :o(

Answer 1

The agent can't advise you because they can't make the decision for you. In other words, they don't want to be responsible (i.e. get blamed by you) if you have a loss and you end up being UNDERinsured.

My suggestion would be to ask yourself one question: If you had to go out and repurchase everything you own, how much would it cost you??? (At the current price you would buy it for, not what you may have paid for your belongings when first purchased.)

I'm not referring to small items such as socks, toilet paper, shampoo. I'm referring to larger items, such as furniture (bed/couch/tables), appliances (coffee pot, washer/dryer, tv), clothing, computer. If you had to buy everything again, what would that cost you....approximately?

Depending on the insurance company, they may offer you an additional "rider" for the policy. For example, jewelry may only be covered up to $500, but on a rider the limit is much higher. Same for computers. You may have to supply an estimate for the item, so be prepared to obtain one if asked.

I would photograph your contents and store them in a fire safe box with other valuable documents. These may be needed in the event you have a loss.

Answer 2

Brokers do not want you to be underinsured as then your claim would not be paid out in full if you had one. Also it is not easy to guess the amount of items you have as you may have 300 dvds at £10.00 each or not own a piece of electrical equipment.

It is always best to overinsure than under but not ridiculously. What you have to do is tip your house upside down and everything that falls out is contents. So you go out for the evening come back and there has been a fire. Everything is either burnt, smoke damaged or waterlogged. Your clothes, shoes, dvds, cds, dvd player, tv, microwave, pots, pans, cuttlery, crockery all gone. on a new for old basis how much. go through an Argos book or similar with a calculator and add up. Clothes and linen always have an allowance off for wear and tear. get your figure and then add a cushion say a couple of thousand. On a decent policy money and credit cards in the home and frozen food should be covered. if they are optional think it through. How much is in the freezer, Bear in mind most excesses will be £50.00 and if you don't have more than that in there don't bother but don't forget Christmas. (that is when it will go!) Murphy's law.

Cover away from the home is important if you carry items like yourmobile but again remember there may be an excess. Do you go to the gym or get changed at work and have a locker? How much could you lose if it was stolen?

Think about all these things and then call a broker. one thing I would strongly recommend if you take nothing else is Accidental Damage cover. on contents it is about 65 - 70% of all claims.

Good luck

Answer 3

Imagine worst case scenario e.g. house totally destroyed while all contents are in it. Add up the cost of everything that you couldn't afford to replace yourself and that's how much cover you need. For optional extras e.g. personal possesions, garden cover, freezer contents etc then decide whether you could afford to cover these costs yourself. That will give you the minimum level of cover. Anything above that would just be a case of whether you consider yourself to be a higher risk than average. Hope that helps...

Answer 4

If youre renting a flat your tenancy probably says you have to cover fixtures and fittings, which is a basic policy. Almost all of these give you about 20 or 30k of cover including valuables. It can cost about 50 quid more to have valuables covered for outside the home. I pay £300 a year for contents and valuables outside loss in London which is about normal.

The sales people can be incredibly ignorant about the policies they sell, I suspect theyre on commission and hope your going to ask for a sum to be insured thats higher than you need. its quite odd and actually a lot simpler to do it online where you can just list the basic policies and choose one.

Answer 5

Write down a list of the contents of your house. Then decide what the replacement value of each item would be.

Then choose which items are most valuable to you and edit the list. Give it to a broker and not directly to an insurance company. Then the insurance broker will get the best price for on the market.

Answer 6

GO TO A BROKER AND ADVISE THEM OF WHAT YOU NEED TO INSURE. THE MINIMUM POLICY IS 15,000 AND CAN GO UP TO AS MUCH AS YOU NEED ANYTHING OVER 2000 IN VALUE TELL THEM AS THESE MAY NEED TO BE SPECIFIED ON THE POLICY, BUT THE PERSON DOING YOU POLICY DOES NOT GET ANY EXTRA THE MORE YOU INSURE. SO DO IT FOR WHAT COVERS YOUR NEEDS
IF YOU HAVE CHILDREN THE DO ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE COVER IF NOT THE THE BASIC NEW FOR OLD WILL GIVE YOU FREE AD ON TV HIFI COMPUTERS STUFF LIKE THAT

Answer 7

I'm a broker ... But in Canada... If you're in Europe, the only thing I can suggest is making a list of absolutely everything you own and keeping in a fire-safe place. You wouldn't believe how many people are up to 50% underinsured...

Answer 8

Extras add up and if you think about the deductibles, it's really not worth insuring everything. Unless you are keeping really expensive Rolex or gem stones in your flat, I wouldn't worry about the extra coverage. Just go with the basic.

Answer 9

fill online quote and see what the results come up with, they are quite straight forward
http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-1768315-10426166

Answer 10

contact the nearest dealer