Contents Insurance: Blanket vs. Specified?

Willeh

Hi guys, need some advice please on the following.

I'm currently in the process of renewing my nan's contents insurance and to be very honest, I'm quite tempted to just get a blanket cover of around £75 000 - £100 000. But, I know laziness does no favors and was wondering how this differs to specifying each high priced (>£2000) item individually if (touchwood) you end up having to make a claim?

Thanks in advance

Will

rs65

Overall sum insured and individual items limit are two separate things.

You need a total sum insured that is adequate for all contents and an adequate single item limit (or specify any items over that limit).

kingstreet

You can buy bedroom-rated cover which has a flat sum insured designed to cover everything, although you may wish to use the personal possessions add-on for things of high value to be covered away from home.

Such cover can have a sum insured of £40,000, £50,000 or more. Some insurers also offer unlimited cover.

If you use a "normal" product, where you select the sum insured, you pay a premium based on that sum insured, so over-estimating will mean higher cost.

A bedroom-rated policy may be better value, if you can't quantify the amount of cover needed.

InsideInsurance

Blanket is fine however tends to be slightly better value for those with higher than average contents.

As has been said, you still need to look at the single item limit and specify anything thats over that. Some insurers have a very high limit (Axa is £10,000) and so it may be simpler but again high limits = better value for those with higher values

The other considerations are the normal, Personal Possessions or not, Accidental Damage or not, Matching Sets or not etc

*Scarlett

Maybe have a look at a contents calculator

http://www.legalandgeneral.com/insurance/insurance-products/home-insurance/contents-calculator/contents-calculator.html

http://www.directline.com/home-insurance/buyers-guides/contents-calculator.htm

Are there a lot of higher value items? Policies will vary for cover levels with these and you would need to specify items from a certain value (no matter what your total contents cover is).