Do I need contents insurance?

teraspawn

My contents insurance expired the other day and I'm in two minds as to whether or not to get a new policy.

I am a student about to start a postgraduate Masters degree. I live in a rented 2-bedroom flat with my partner, who is a systems engineer (i.e. not a student). Most of the things we own have great sentimental value, but very few of them have great monetary value. All of our computers are second-hand or scavenged from skips. We have a couple of big-ticket items that would be expensive to replace.

I have enough money in my savings to buy back anything that gets lost or stolen. I have had insurance for the last couple of years because Endsleigh only wanted £20 for it, but I've never had to claim. Now my quote is more expensive and I'm not sure it really covers all of my stuff. I've tried having a look on price comparison sites and all of the quotes are over £100 a year. It seems like a big expense for something I may never need.

What should I be looking for in a contents insurance policy? Are there great benefits to having one as opposed to just having the cash on hand?

p00hsticks

Is it a furnished flat ? Whose responsibility would it be to replace the furniture if there was a fire, for example ?

teraspawn

It's a furnished flat. I will read my contract again but I'm pretty sure the landlord would have to replace the furniture.

claire16c

I dont have contents insurance either because we hardly have anything worth nicking! We live in a rented house too.

Our tv is great but got it for a bargain on ebay, 1 laptop is so old its probably worth about a tenner and this laptop is probably the only thing worth a bit more, but it still a couple of years old. Even the furniture is from ebay, relatives etc. Like you said most stuff is just sentimental. The only thing I am thinking about getting insured is our engagement/wedding rings, but on a specific jewellery insurance, because home contents insurance doesnt cover the value anyway so would be pointless to get it just for that, and as we wear them all the time, Im more concerned about getting it incase I lost them/they were stolen outside the house.

What you could do, is just save the amount of money you would be paying for insurance into a savings account instead, if the worst were to happen and you needed to buy a new computer or something.

I used to have contents insurance with Endsleigh when I was a student too, but that was because obviously living in halls with lots of other people your things are more liable to getting stolen I guess, and I had a new laptop, new printer, new everything! But not anymore!

InsideInsurance

claire16c wrote: »

The only thing I am thinking about getting insured is our engagement/wedding rings, but on a specific jewellery insurance, because home contents insurance doesnt cover the value anyway so would be pointless to get it just for that, and as we wear them all the time, Im more concerned about getting it incase I lost them/they were stolen outside the house.

I would double check your quotes there, Personal Possessions cover would cover your jewellary outside of the home for all risks and unless you have something exceptionally expensive home insurance certainly is enough. Our previous policy with Axa covered unspecified items up to £10,000 for a single item and from memory the cap for a specified item was in the region of £30,000.... is your engagement ring really worth more than that?

When I did quotes for jewellary -v- home insurance the full home insurance was only about £25 more than insuring just the jewellary and for me getting £50,000 of cover for contents for £25 was worth while. The only downside would be the £100 xs the home insurance has that jewellary didnt.

Remember when valuing your property it is at new prices not current. So even if you buy a secondhand iMac for £300 its insurance value is going to be £1000 as that is the lowest price of a new iMac.