Home Contents Insurance and those High Risk Items

JohnnyFind_2

Recently the renewal quote for my home contents insurance came through from Sainsbury's Bank (5+ years no claims), which is underwritten by the Halifax.

I couldn't find a cheaper price on Confused, so I thought I would 'Challenge Churchill'. The quote was wildly higher than my current provider. When this is the case, they did keep to their promotional promise and offered to undercut my renewal price by a pound. Although understandably they weren't too keen :rotfl: But really why bother?

Then I remembered Barclay's £50 switch offer, so I thought it was worth checking with them direct. Their annual policy, when paid up front, was still twice the cost of my current provider. They can also match a quote up to the value of a £100, but taking the £50 offer into account, it still would have left me out of pocket :mad:

Anyway they did ask me what my total cover was, and after scanning my summary document I discovered it wasn't actually stated anywhere.

When I phoned Sainsbury's to double check, I was informed that the total amount was unlimited. Great I thought, but then I found out that the maximum for "high risk" items was only £7500.

Hold on a minute, if someone was to break into my property, the items they would naturally take would be "high risk" i.e. jewelery, electrical items...as these are often the most expensive and easiest to lift. I also discovered that they only cover each individual high risk item up to the value of £1500.

I was starting to think that the reason my policy was so cheap, was because I was under insured. So I decided to check over companies and after many searches I discovered that this practice was actually typical. The total value insured varies somewhat but the £7500 for high risk items and £1500 per each high risk item, really seems to be the standard practice.

Not good if you have a plasma tv or a high spec pc for instance. I think home insurers are ripping people off, they offer good cover for fire or weather damage but nowhere near adequate cover in the event of a burglary on their standard policies.

I have temporarily amended my renewal cover to have a total high risk items to the value of £12500 (+£50) and removed personal possession cover outside of the property (-£60). Sadly though my policy can only be set to cover individual items for £1500; as it's an old policy

Money supermarket throws a few good quotes up, but they all seem to fail on the 'high risk' item cover too.

I really could do with some help and advice on this matter, any advice would be appreciated ... :money:

bouncydog1

Not sure that I would delete cover for personal possessions cover outside of the home - these may be defined as "items worn, used or carried" so if for instance, you were robbed (I sincerely hope you won't be) your insurance is unlikely to pay out if items of jewellery etc were stolen.

tigzem

Normally high risk items are defined in the policy wording as "Jewellery/Watches/Antiques/Works of Art/Items made of precious metals/Furs/Photographic Eqpt/Telescopes/Collectors Items/Pictures/Collections of stamps/coins.

So your TV's/Stereos/PC's etc, whilst are high value are not included under the High Risk items...

You would need to check the definition with the insurance company you are with to ensure that TV's etc are not classed as "High Risk"

HTH

FlameCloud

Under the standard St Andrews MOR policy (which the Sainsburies one is a direct copy) TV's and Computers are High Risk items, so the article limits are applicable.

How, exactly, are they ripping you off? The policy booklet clearly states the limits and you can see them before you buy the policy. It is your own fault for not reading the limits.

silverfoxuk

If you want higher than £1.5k per high value item there are home contents insurance policies out there that would cater for your. For example, Marks & Spencer Home Insurance will cover up to £4k per high value item.

http://www6.marksandspencer.com/pages/default.asp?PageId=MI&Product=HI

Another provider who springs to mind for higher value cover is Hiscox

http://www.hiscoxonline.com

You could also try Which? who I think recently reviewed the home insurance market.

As always, read the policy docs before you buy.

JohnnyFind_2

It states on the Marks & Spencer web site that 90% of households are under insured, I obviously was one of them.

It's true I have only myself to blame, but in my defence I took that previous policy out in my early twenties when I had other priorities

I have now moved over to M&S standard contents cover at £145, which is pretty reasonable.