Home insurance

manilow1

Hi

I had jewellery stolen, and claimed it on my home insurance. Two weeks ago they came back, they have now valued the item at £1.5k.

They have agreed to pay out in full and their jewellery valuers offered to make and send me item to that value. As i believe jewellery to be a personal choice and not something a company can really pick for you unlike replacing say a TV, phone etc i said i wasnt overly happy with that. They agreed to send me instead jewellery vouchers that i could use at a range of high street jewellers. I am awaiting those now.

The fact is that at the moment with xmas approaching etc, replacing this item is not my priority. Money is very tight and while i would like to replace the items, my main priority would be to that later. My question i guess is do i have any right to ask the insurance company to pay out on the value of the claim instead rather than in vouchers? Or even in standard high street vouchers rather than those restricted to jewellers. I could then deal with my higher priority short term needs and look at replacing my jewellery (a luxury item) at a later date?

InsideInsurance

You can ask for a cash settlement but the insurers are entitled to reduce the cash by the percentage discount that they would normally get from their suppliers (generally in the 30% ballpark).

"High street" vouchers arent common but if there is another store or group (eg Currys/ Dixons) that you are interested in then the insurer may be willing to offer something close to the full settlement figure for them given that they will also get discounts from them. Obviously depends on the store... halfords, currys, comet, jessops etc are evidently all good bets, Oasis, Next, Hobbs etc are much less likely.

_Andy_

You could always sell the vouchers on Ebay