Contents Insurance only?

Ally

I have been looking to get contents insurance, but most the sites I find seem to offer home & contents. Is there anywhere that does contents only? I seem to be looking in all the wrong places, having never searched for this product before, am not really sure what to do, how to do it, what to list, the price I paid for goods or current value etc etc Is there a guide somewhere to help?

I tried confused.com, but there was no option to list jewellery I wear while I'm out, as not all individual peices are worth £1k or more

TIAA

Astaroth

All insurers that I know that do "home" also do contents only. The valuation should be on current value to purchase new if you are going for a new for old policy - plus add some extra for contingency.

Each insurer will have a set maximum that they will pay both for the "contents" (the stuff in your house) and the "personal possessions" (the stuff you take out the house) - anything below this does not have to be mentioned as it is blanket covered, anything above has to be listed. Most insurers have fairly high limits so with my contents insurance I have £7,500 of cover for items outside of the house and as the single item limit is £2,000 the only thing I had to list was the misses engagement ring

savvy

Hey Ally, I only get contents insurance and have no problem getting that. This year I went with Zurich through the Greasy Palm link and got £34.50 rebate :j

dunstonh

Ally, I think you need to seek advice from someone that can advise on home insurance (mortgage broker or IFA).

It appears that you dont appear to understand what you do and dont need covered or which things are covered under the different options. This isnt anything to be ashamed of as it isnt your job. However, based on what you have said so far, you could end up paying too much for cover or not having items covered that you believe are.

There isnt a lot of difference between a independent general insurance adviser's pricing and the best out there so cost isnt really an issue there.

Astaroth

Or an insurance broker who should be more knowledgable on insurance than a mortgage broker

rollergirl1507

I have my home contents with tesco home insurance and they ask about items over certain amount worth taking a look

dunstonh

Astaroth wrote:

Or an insurance broker who should be more knowledgable on insurance than a mortgage broker

The problem is that with the revised classification of advice levels, there are hardly any brokers left at consumer level. Most brokers are no longer technically brokers but intermediaries to the brokers.

I can quote around 40 companies but I am not a broker anymore since the reclassification. Yet I do exactly the same now as I did in the past (albeit with a lot more paperwork).

An Independent mortgage broker with a whole of market general insurance advice classification should be as good as anyone else with that level of classification. Indeed, they may do it better due to the level of business they do in that area.

I have my home contents with tesco home insurance and they ask about items over certain amount worth taking a look

The reason some companies ask about values is that they will not accept items over a certain amount without them being specified. Some items they wont accept at all. Misunderstanding what this area means and giving incorrect information could invalidate the insurance policy in the event of a claim. For example, saying you have no high risk items above £1500 when you have. An insurer could refuse payout on any claim if they found out that was incorrect.

Ally is interested in insuring personal possessions with a value under £1000 and needs a provider that will do that (which is most with the optional personal possessions cover selected). However, she may want the more valuable individual pieces listed on the policy and not all providers would do that.

Ally

Thanks guys for all your help (sorry! Thanks button has vanished!!).

OK, so, do I add up all the value of the 'personal possessions' ? And also, there is no need to list them individually as they are not worth more than £1000 individually? And does the same apply for the 'contents'? Then the total sum is the value I need insurance for? Hope that makes sense!

Also, when you claim - for the new for old thingy - do you need the receipts? 'cos my jewellery (the most important), well, I don't have receipts for them as they were gifts from OH and kids ... and ... well, OH is carp with keeping receipts and important stuff like that :rolleyes: I have little cards for some of them, detailing the diamond size, type of gold etc and one which has value for insurance purposes - we also have some of OH's mother jewellery, which to us is priceless like her wedding ring - what would we do for sucj items? Actually, I checked earlier and there are quite a few things I don't have receipts for anymore ... and the print on some of them has faded! :eek: Is that really bad???

Thanks again all

ps. Sav, I'm sure I read somewhere that someone got £60+ rebate for zurich insurance! :eek: think it may have been TCB!

Astaroth

You need proof of ownership and proof of what it is/ was. The easiest way of doing that is to have receipts but insurance companies have to be reasonable about it and do not expect people to have houses full of receipts for every single thing they own. For the majority of items things like manuals, photos of the item in situ in your home and boxes items came in will be acceptable. Obviously the more expensive the item, particularly if it may be considered (and without wanting to sound rude to anyone) disproportionately so to everything else, the more proof they would want. If you do have any very expensive items of jewellary which your husband has bought you it may be worth getting a jeweller to do a valuation and specification for them as it is difficult from the other methods to confirm things like stone size/ quality and gold quality.

For PP - add up the total of all the items you are likely to have out the home with the family at any one time and this is the level of cover you should go for - if all are under the specified item limit then you dont need to do any more.

For Contents do the same but remember to include the items which you do take out the house too as PP insured items wouldnt be covered whilst in the home. Again if they are all under the specified item limit then no need to worry about the individual prices.

There are some insurance companies out there that will provide "unlimited" cover on contents which makes life easier as it is then only the PP that you need to concern yourself about estimating. I personally have almost always found the quotes to be very expensive and thats even considering the fact that I have a high contents sum insured requirement for the size of property I am in