When does a group of items become a collection?

BigTezza

Sorry if I'm putting this in the wrong place.

I'm in the process of renewing my Buildings and Contents insurance. While checking through my renewal notice I spotted a comment about the limit "on any one item or collection" being £2500.

Does anybody have any experience of claims involving things like CDs or DVDs and similar? When does a group of items become a collection? 2? 5? 50? 500??

I probably have over £2500's worth of CDs alone which one might assume is a collection as there are several hundred of them but if they all got nicked or ruined would they be covered? If the insurer refused as the value exceeds the 'collection' figure what's to stop me saying to the insurer "Well you might call them a collection but I call them individual CDs"??

Thanks in advance.

Amanita_2

The only answer worth anything is from your insurer. I would ring them and just ask.

Also their definition may vary from another insurer. It is always dangerous to assume or generalise when it comes to insurance cover.

mattymoo

Interesting question. I've never underwritten household insurance but I'd like to know the answer.

dacouch

It depends on the Insurers wording. Typically it is defined in the Valuables / High Risk Section (You can read the definition under the definition of words in a policy).

Here is the relevent wording from Direct Line

Valuables: jewellery, watches, furs, items or sets or collections of
gold, silver or other precious metals, works of art, sets of stamps,
coins or medals all belonging to you or any member of your family.

Direct Line use a fairly standard wording which basically defines groups of stamp, coins and medals as a collection (Along with groups of precious metals). Under this definition your CD collection would not be classed as a collection.

Some Insurers do include a lose catch all of "and any other collections" in this case the poster might have to declare the CDs but again it would depend on the Insurer so it would be best to check with the Insurer.

The wordings / definition can vary from Insurer to Insurer so check with the Insurer.

If you had an extremely large collection of CDs especially if indivual CDs are valuable these could possible cause a probelm eg if they were valued totally at over £5000 as this could possibly be seen as a material fact that needed to be declared.

The simple answer for the Poster is to check with their Insurer

JoolzS

It's a collection when you declare it to be one on your insurance forms. If you don't declare it then be prepared for your insurance company to pay out the smallest payment they can get away with. If your collection is worth a lot to you, then insure it as such.

Julie

BigTezza

Thanks one and all for taking the time to reply. Why do I have this nasty feeling that my renewal premium is about to go in to orbit?? And there was me thinking that insurance was there to provide you with piece of mind and to make your life easier. How stupid of me. I'll be interested to hear their definition and to see it on paper. No doubt it will be as clear as an MP's expenses form.

While I'm here - as far as the Contents cover is concerned why is there this 50K+ chasm? I went around with a clipboard totting the value of everything up before I took out a previous policy and the latest adjusted figure puts it just shy of £60K. When using the search engines and speaking to insurers this past week they have all offered up to £50K to begin with but as soon as I mentioned what was advised on my renewal for Contents their quotes go ballistic. I think Direct Line and Aviva were worst with the latter trying to stripe me for over £400pa whereas my existing renewal is now £223 post haggling.

I just don't geddit.

dacouch

tezza who are you insured with?

BigTezza

My insurance comes though Direct Choice but I think the actual insurer is Prestige Underwriting. Does that mean each could have a different opinion on what a collection is??

There must be thousands of people out there with CD collections larger than mine where there are simply a large number of items involved but no individual CD with a high value. Years ago now Direct Line simply refused to insure me because of my collection!! I dare say they've changed. It's just a normal collection, no CDs made of papyrus or platinum!!

If I mention it to my existing insurer and the premium gets silly then it'll get silly with loads of other insurers I guess PLUS I cross that £50K no-go zone as well.

:mad:

dacouch

I can't look the policy wording for Direct Choice / Prestige Underwriting up, as they don't publish them online.

If you get your policy booklet out and look in the first few pages it will have a page called "Definition of Words". Have a look at this under the words "Collection" (I doubt it will be there), "High Risk Items" or "Valuables". It will explain their definition and what collections they regard as high risk / valuables (Its generally stamp, coin or medal collections but may be wider).

It is best you check with your Insurers and take a note of the persons name and the date / time of the call.

The reason that the premiums with Direct Line and Norwich Union / Aviva are going through the roof when you change the contents to £60000 is because you have selected the two companies that are giving "Free" or "Half Price" Contents cover if you also take building cover with them at the moment. If your contents does not fit their normal criteria then I assume they are charging the normal price for it so in effect your not getting all or part of the "Free / Half Price Contents". Try with some other companies

BigTezza

Thanks for the advice - insurance is a black art isn't it!!

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that once you use GoCompare etc to get some quotes you (well I certainly have) then get people calling you every 15 minutes offering to put you through to other insurers they've found or agents from the companies mentioned in your list of quotations start calling you.

I just had one do that 10 mins ago as a result of me using GoCompare and it was rather interesting. For a start it was from Insure4Retirement which (if you read their website) suggests it's for over 50's only and I'm not quite that old yet!

I questioned the agent about this collection issue and I was told that it would be noted on their records that I had brought it up but unless the collection exceeded the total sum insured then it wouldn't be a problem.

Bizarrely, after my last post, they offered me contents insurance up to £100K and unlimited buildings cover, 50 quid excess on both, both with accidental damage included and although the GoCompare figure was £202 the agent quoted me £190. For a 3 bed semi?? I'm wary of the £100K cover bearing in mind the 50K+ jump in premiums so I've asked for all the details in writing. If it's kosher and they haven't made any mistake in my details that's over £30 less than I'm being quoted by my current insurer and £40 cheaper than I paid last year. Hmm.

What makes me even more curious/suspicious is that I was told the insurance came through Prestige and was underwritten by Axa - which would appear to be the same people mentioned on my existing insurer's renewal quote?!?

They don't make it easy for you do they?!

dacouch

Prestige is a product name for a policy Axa offer to Mid Net Clients (Mid Net clients are in effect middle class people with more contents than the average customer). The policy has quite high inner limits and is reasonably priced.

The only problem is Axa can be pretty hit and miss on customer service / claims service