Proud of Myself - Home Insurance

michael1983l

Just got myself a cracking deal. I have just taken out buildings and contents insurance with the RAC through Quidco of course.

£95,000 rebuild cover
£15000 Contents
£50 excess

Not only that I got free roadside assistance
and £60 cashback off quidco

The policy was only £240 in total :j

loracan1

Do those amounts cover the full cost of rebuild and contents? They seem rather low.

lisyloo

Sounds quite a lot if you only have £15K contents.
Sounds very low cover. Are you sure those amounts are correct.

InsideInsurance

Exceptionally low cover for contents. You have buildings insurance and so evidently not renting. Even a 1 bed flat auto calculator puts contents at an average of £25-35,000.... need to remember that everything has to be valued as new even if you have bought it second hand or been given it etc

michael1983l

Yes the amounts are correct. We do not have a lot of contents in the house as we are struggling financially. No point in insuring something you don't have right?

As for the price, I thought I had a good deal. Maybe thats why I am skint

FlameCloud

From experience, things which people forget when valuing contents-

Cloths
Shoes
Toiletries
Alcohol
Carpets/Laminate flooring
Sofas
Kitchen crocery/cutlery/pans/knives
Utilities- washing machines, dishwashers etc.

£15K is very low- have you done a full value at risk?

michael1983l

We have a very small house, maybe including clothes it is a bit low. But at least I am covered for a large chunk of the contents. As for the rebuild I have a mate who's a builder and he estimated that price.

TSx

Remember that if you make a claim and your under insured (say you have £20k of contents rather than £15k) they can reduce the settlement proportionately (in my example, they may only pay 75% of any claim).

Some insurers may also void policies in these circumstances.

loracan1

FlameCloud wrote: »

From experience, things which people forget when valuing contents-

Cloths
Shoes
Toiletries
Alcohol
Carpets/Laminate flooring
Sofas
Kitchen crocery/cutlery/pans/knives
Utilities- washing machines, dishwashers etc.

£15K is very low- have you done a full value at risk?

As above - imagine if the house burnt down and you had to replace absolutely everything, from teaspoons, books, tables to expensive tvs - it mounts up. When I first got my own house the contents were estimated at 20,000. The cover now is a blanket 40,000/50,000, and whilst I don't consider us to have much of value there's 20 years of cds and quite a few video games in there.

And, as someone else has pointed out insurers can take a dim view of being under-insured.

mikey72

FlameCloud wrote: »

From experience, things which people forget when valuing contents-

Cloths
Shoes
Toiletries
Alcohol
Carpets/Laminate flooring
Sofas
Kitchen crocery/cutlery/pans/knives
Utilities- washing machines, dishwashers etc.

£15K is very low- have you done a full value at risk?

How much alcohol and toiletries do people have to make a difference of £1000 to their contents cover?

We went mad and spent £38 on wine at the weekend, and a two for one on shampoo!

InsideInsurance

Many people have at least a couple of bottles of spirits in the cabinate and between two adults at least a few perfumes/ aftershaves etc. It wont add up to £10,000 but when your TSI is only £15,000 it could all together add up to a material proportion.

Whilst you may decide that you dont care if you lost that bottle of spirits as they've been there for a decade the issue is that the insurer will declare you as underinsured and therefore reduce EVERY claim by the same proportion