House contents insurance - newbie question

StuieUK34

hi all,
Unsure of whether to do anything or just accept its nailed..... and no idea how the insurance stuff works to be honest!!

I got contents only cover, which includes accidental damage.
Got a laptop (not a fancy one, cost £700 4 years ago, so worth about 50p in todays standards!)...
Fell out my hands while walking up stairs, doh
Now wont turn on, so I suspect I damaged the motherboard or where the connectors are that make it all work, etc etc..
Battery has life and charger works, just the laptop aint working...

I don't have my receipt, plus it was bought 2nd hand.
I have 1yrs NCB on home insurance, and excess is £50.

I'm tempted to claim on the insurance as I feel that's what I pay for, but worry when I hear that people get stung heavily in there renewal quote the following year (say I pay £100 premium, then I lose my NCB and next years premium would be £300) ?????? and from reading other posts, some insurers are hell bent on seeing receipts ???

Is it a straight forward process on claiming (in general), or shall I just accept i'm a numpty for dropping it in the first place !

InsideInsurance

It is generally a straight forward process to claim, for things like laptops its normally a case that they appoint their approved repairer who arrange to collect your laptop. They assess the damage -v- the circumstances and assuming it all stacks up they either repair it or get an equivalent model. You pay them the excess and then they give it to you.

As to if a claim is worth it, do some dummy quotes and see what the figures come out at with or without the claim and then factor that in for 5 years.

Generally a such a small claim it wouldnt be worth while and insurance is much more for the fire that burns half your house down or the thief that steals all your electronics etc

StuieUK34

sounds fair enough, am guessing if they repaired the laptop (which I would prefer!), that would still count as a claim in terms of loss...

Oh well, will forget that option, i'll stick with etch-a-sketch in future!

InsideInsurance

StuieUK34 wrote: »

am guessing if they repaired the laptop (which I would prefer!), that would still count as a claim in terms of loss...

It counts as an incident irrespective of if you tell them or not, technically speaking but most would "forget" to inform their insurers or prospective new insurers if they didnt make a claim.

It counts as a claim if you instruct them to look into the matter for you even if the net result was that they ended up not paying anything out.

*Scarlett

I would agree that it is worth doing some dummy quotes including the claim.

Although the laptop is several years old I would presume you have "new for old" cover so if they cannot repair it the insurer should replace it with an equivalent new model.

As you only have 1 years no claims discount anyway, you're not losing too much by way of this. Just be aware that any future claims within 3 years could have a more drastic impact - more than 2 claims in 3 years makes you unattractive to future insurers.

You don't neccessarily have to have a receipt - just proof of ownership and as you still have the damaged item this should not be a problem.

This is a relatively small amount and your excess fee is not too high.

How much would it cost you to replace this with an equivalent laptop? If this is an amount that you are willing to pay yourself (maybe look at it as an upgrade!) then don't claim. If not then pursue it with your insurance - after all that's what you're paying it for.

sithemadmonkey

Double-check what level of accidental damage cover you have on your policy - some will have separate cover for portable electronics, which you may not have. Worth checking before phoning the insurer up.