Contents insurance - taking items outside

Daisies

I'm just checking through ready for renewing my buildings/contents insurance. I'm getting annoyed with being asked whether I have any "high value" items, I select "yes", but then usually am not asked for details if it's less than £1500 (sometimes £2000). I don't own anything worth more than £500 so I don't need a minimum of £2000 for one item!

Does anyone know of any insurer that would insure a single item at below £500 value? (That to me is "high value"!). I need to make sure my laptop is covered when it's out of the house (I use it for work), but it's four years old and probably worth £300ish. It seems stupid to end up with a load of cover that is far in excess of what I need.

tom188

how much would it cost to replace it though? £300 or £1500?

dunstonh

single article limit tends to refer to the maximum value per item. Not minimum.

Does anyone know of any insurer that would insure a single item at below £500 value? (That to me is "high value"!).

It may be high value to you but it isnt i'm afraid. This would just be captured under the overal limit for high risk items with no need to specify it with most providers.

It seems stupid to end up with a load of cover that is far in excess of what I need.

If you are going with a bedroom rated policy, then you dont specify the sum assureds. It doesnt mean you will get £2000 in the event of a claim. It means the insurance company is willing to accept upto £2000 on that policy. Bedroom rated plans do tend to have higher values but its cheaper for the providers to deal with it that way then spend hours on paperwork in each case listing small value items.

If you dont like the bedroom rated plans then you can still pick up a sum assured based plan and specify levels for everything but you will probably find it more expensive. Typically, they are only used nowadays for people who cannot fit the limits on the bedroom rated plans or have non-standard issues to overcome.

impy78

You need to take out personal effects/personal posessions cover on your policy. You may or may not need to specify the laptop, as some companies make you specify it regardless of value.

High risk items does not cover items outside of the house: high risk items denotes how much of the total policy will be paid out for items which are most likely to be stolen/broken.

EG: I have say £65k contents policy of which £18k is high risk items. My insurance company will only pay £18k of that £60k towards items such as tvs, hifi, laptops, pcs, cds dvds etc etc.

Daisies

Thanks folks!
I'm still a bit confused. I'm finding it maddening as so many policies seem to have a fixed minimum for contents cover - I don't own nearly that much stuff. I think it's because it's a 3 bedroom house, but there's only me in it and I don't own much - whereas the assumption they're making is that it's several people living here with brand new TVs etc! But it looks like it's probably cheaper to have that much cover than get something tailored to more of a level of what I actually have?!

And I'm confused about the personal possessions cover - at the moment my laptop is covered outside the house on the contents insurance, and also supposedly on a "new for old" basis - so I should only need £300 of cover for it as that's what it's worth? And something at that level doesn't seem to need to be declared on anything...

impy78

Daisies wrote: »

Thanks folks!
I'm still a bit confused. I'm finding it maddening as so many policies seem to have a fixed minimum for contents cover - I don't own nearly that much stuff. I think it's because it's a 3 bedroom house, but there's only me in it and I don't own much - whereas the assumption they're making is that it's several people living here with brand new TVs etc! But it looks like it's probably cheaper to have that much cover than get something tailored to more of a level of what I actually have?!

And I'm confused about the personal possessions cover - at the moment my laptop is covered outside the house on the contents insurance, and also supposedly on a "new for old" basis - so I should only need £300 of cover for it as that's what it's worth? And something at that level doesn't seem to need to be declared on anything...

In order for your laptop to be covered out side the house you must have personal posessions. Cover away from the home isn't the same thing - it only covers your items in a another buildiing IE at work, and even then it must be locked away.

Daisies

impy78 wrote: »

In order for your laptop to be covered out side the house you must have personal posessions. Cover away from the home isn't the same thing - it only covers your items in a another buildiing IE at work, and even then it must be locked away.

Thanks Impy. But how come laptops are included on the list for cover away from home? I mean, if it's at work it's somewhere where no one can get access to it (due to security at work) or locked in the boot of my car (and that's only when travelling, I carry it with me and don't leave the laptop in a car park).