Advice re contents insurance

gilly41

Hi
I have just had a quote through Topcash with Zurich for £228 for buildings and contents- this, with the £90 cashback I would get back through the site would be a saving of £52 for this years policy. However, I would be insured for £40,000 contents with this cover and with Frizzell(who with have been with for a couple of years) I have up to £125,000 for contents. I have absolutely no idea how much we would need to cover all contents!! Does £40,000 seem enough? We only live in a small 3 bedroomed house and I dont have a lot of expensive items.
Thanks for any advice
xx

Porker

sounds like plenty to me, if you havent chosen the £40k limit, and they have either estimated it or just given it, then youre well covered -probably over insured in fact, but at that level, and if youre happy with the other aspects of the policy, you dont need to worry about it. In my opinion, of course...

HTH!

ArchieB_2

Zurich have a quality product and I am in the midst of changing to this from HSBC.

Porker is right, £40k is fine (unless you have the odd £5k sofa, £10K sideboard tucked away). Frizell would rate your premium on nearer £30k and they then say you have £125k cover to ensure you have no risk of being underinsured. They limit the maximum value for single items, thus they know that it is physically not possible to stuff £125k of contents into a (typical) 3 bed house.

B

pennymakespounds

i'd looked at the zurich deal as well... just ok with the £40k contents .... my problem is the maximum £250k for the buildings insurance ... (can't recall if it was £250k as rebuild cost or as sales value ) .. neither were quite enough for me.

ArchieB_2

If you have a house with a rebuild cost of £250K then £40k would be completely out for your contents (unless you have no items in the house or the house is a special build that costs a lot more than average to build?).

My house is worth nearly £180K and rebuild is £70k. Insurers ask for the rbuild cost as a rule.

skywalkerbm

Hi.

Can you explain how you are getting £90 back through ?topcash.

My insurance is due for renewal next month and I'd like to save as much as possible.

Cheers

Luke

easynotec3

Contents insurance is usually on a new for old basis (check this) so to work out how much your contents should be insured for, go through every room in the house and work out if you had to replace everything as new, how much would it cost you. Include carpets, curtains, DVD's. CD's,Toys, Games etc. Don;t include things like bathroom suites and fitted kitchens as these are usually classed under the buildings section

innovate

skywalkerbm wrote:

Hi.

Can you explain how you are getting £90 back through ?topcash.

My insurance is due for renewal next month and I'd like to save as much as possible.

Cheers

Luke

Luke, all you do is sign up via TopCashBack instead of signing up directly on the Zurich website.

To be sure that this works as expected, though, you should delete your cookies before you buy via a cashback site - otherwise somebody who you don't even know might cash in! You can use Ccleaner to do this, or if you are reticent about it (it's ok, lots of MSEers use it with no problems), delete your cookies manually.

Deleting cookies isn't specific to Zurich - just a generally good idea if you order via a cashback site.

innovate

There was a suggestion on another thread on how to get not just £90, but £180 cashback........I am not sure this works, but you can't loose anything trying it - sign up separately, via TopCashBack, for buildings and for contents. May be do each of the policies in different names - one hubby, one wife?

I can't try it myself, because I had already signed up for the combined deal before I saw that thread :rolleyes:

As to what Zurich offer:

I think (personal opinion) their terms are at least as good as those of other insurers.

You can modify your cover sums to your requirements.

£40K or £50K contents cover seems more than adequate to me for possessions in an average 3-bedroom house (check what other insurers include as a 'default'). If you have any expensive items, list them separately.

Premiums will of course go up if you deviate from the proposed average cover.

For buildings insurance, you don't cover the market price of your house, but the rebuild cost - which in the majority of cases is considerably lower than the market value. £250K rebuild cost appears very adequate for a 3-bed house, anywhere in the UK.

Take guidance from Martin's article about home insurance - it contains everything apart from the suggestion about using a cashback site to place your order (cashback deals come and go).