Home Contents Insurance - Madly Expensive?!

Owlish

Hello - I'm hoping someone may have some ideas I can try to see if I can bring the quotes I'm getting for our contents insurance down. We don't have much stuff (and all our computers / cameras / electrical stuff are insured on a separate business policy) but it's coming out very pricey. I suspect the main sticking point is my ring, which was valued at quite a bit more than we paid for it.

These are the vague details:
- 3 bedroom private rented flat in London (part furnished)
- couple living together
- occupied all day
- no flooding / problems

I reckon our contents is an absolute maximum replacement value of £35k - we don't really have any valuables! My ring is worth another £6.5k on top of that and obviously I want to have this insured indoors and out. The only other thing that's important is our camping gear (worth c.£1k ish) and that needs to be covered too. We don't mind agreeing to a higher excess but most companies are still asking for a premium (paid annually) of £500+ :mad:

Any ideas?

glider3560

You could try getting quotes for home insurance that doesn't cover the ring, then find specialist insurance for the ring elsewhere. A lot of the mainstream insurance companies don't want to cover a risk like this (an expensive ring) on standard home insurance policies.

debtfreein4years

ive got my contents insurance for 120ish, paying just under £11 a month through lloyds tsb. for that i get 50K of cover and accidental damage with an excess of £150. one of my rings is worth around the same as yours and thats on the policy.

it does depend on the area where you live as i found out when i was with direct line. rang them up to change address and was told my premium was doubling due to the new address.

Rikki

I find Marks & Spencer home-insurance good value when insuring expensive jewellery and other items away from home. Might be worth getting a quote.

John Lewis www.greenbee.com/home-insurance is also worth a try.

Edinburghlass_2

Try MoreThan via Quidco for £70 cashback. They will cover you for listed items worth over £1500 away from home that you name on the policy.

Owlish

M&S were over £1k, amazingly!!!

I've just been (via confused.com) in touch with Home Insurer who quoted me with Zurich (our old insurer - who'd quoted £506 for renewal) £275 for exactly the same policy!!! I can't believe that!!

I've gone with this Zurich policy from Home Insurer and will go and cancel my old policy now. I can't believe what a scam that is!!!

Thanks for the advice - if I hadn't found this I'd have definitely gone for the specialist insurer. I'll keep that in mind for when they try to double my premium next year!!!

Rikki

Wow! M&S have always been among the best quotes I get.

Glad you got it all sorted and a good deal too. :T

Kavanne

it's the jewellery that is causing your premium hike.

i would also recommend green bee, as their single item limit is 10k

glider3560

Owlish wrote: »

M&S were over £1k, amazingly!!!

I've just been (via confused.com) in touch with Home Insurer who quoted me with Zurich (our old insurer - who'd quoted £506 for renewal) £275 for exactly the same policy!!! I can't believe that!!

I've gone with this Zurich policy from Home Insurer and will go and cancel my old policy now. I can't believe what a scam that is!!!

Zurich offer some huge discounts to brokers, hence the massive difference in premium.

lisyloo

No connection but I tried More Than last night as they are doing free contents cover plus £70 quidco cashback.
I was quoted £355 for £400K buildings and £75K contents (plus accidental damage to contents and personal possesions, bicycle cover and only £50 excess). I did not include legal cover or accidental damage to buildings but you could of course add those on.
When I added on £10K worth of jewelry (2 items) it went up to £490.
So £135 for £10K worth but that also includes out of the house cover.

This seems very reasonable to me and the figures above do not include the £70 cashback.

They also give you free contents next years if you don't claim but I'd obviously renew that next years and not assume it's the best.

Of course a certain amount is down to postcode, so your quote might be higher if the area you live in has a much higher claim rate, but generally it struck me as a good one to go for.

cdixon1041k

Glider is right. Get some more quotes.

Chris