Home contents insurance PAID

Susan1942

Last weekend I had a bit of a leak from my hot water cylinder and whilst waiting on a plumber was putting towels in and out of the cupboard to soak up the leak I then noticed that the diamond in my Solitaire ring was missing I was very fortunate in that I found the stone
I took the ring to a jewellers to have it repaired and the stone replaced Cost £285
This am I wondered whether my insurance would cover the cost of this. Called them and am happy to say that it does minus the £50 excess The claim was settled on the phone and a cheque in the post to me. Just glad that I thought to ask the question.
Sue

InsideInsurance

Susan1942 wrote: »

Last weekend I had a bit of a leak from my hot water cylinder and whilst waiting on a plumber was putting towels in and out of the cupboard to soak up the leak I then noticed that the diamond in my Solitaire ring was missing I was very fortunate in that I found the stone
I took the ring to a jewellers to have it repaired and the stone replaced Cost £285
This am I wondered whether my insurance would cover the cost of this. Called them and am happy to say that it does minus the £50 excess The claim was settled on the phone and a cheque in the post to me. Just glad that I thought to ask the question.
Sue

And how much does your insurance go up by for the next 5 years given you've both had a claim and lost your no claims discount now?

Susan1942

I have not found it a problem in the past I don't have a no claims bonus for contents insurance My building insurance is through the Freeholder as I live in a leasehold apartment . There is a Master Policy and I have had to have roof repairs on my part of the building due to storm damage and had to claim on that policy for redecoratoin due to damage from water ingress. No one has ever said not to make a claim. I have all risk cover accidental cover and legal cover as part of my household insurance so pay an extra premium for this. I don't see a problem here
My Daughter who works as a Liability Adjuster has been happy with any claims I have made and has never advised me against doing so.

Sue

InsideInsurance

Susan1942 wrote: »

I have not found it a problem in the past I don't have a no claims bonus for contents insurance

Hopefully you find the same.

Doing a quick dummy quote with Axa it shows that over the 5 years it'd add approximately £327 with an extra £101.50 in year one.

The main risk however is that these things are compounded so having 1 claim makes a small difference, having 2 claims has more than double the impact of 1 claim

Susan1942

That isn't so with me as I have had a claim in the past couple of years when carpets and chair had to be cleaned due to an accident a visitor had whilst staying with me When I got the firm out to look at it they advised me to make a claim on my insurance as cleaning might not be all that was required in this instance Fortunately although there was soakage through to the base of the chair specialised treatment dealt with the problem and no further action was required. I use the company for normal cleaning of my furniture and carpets. The premium did not go up as a result of this It remained the same as for the previous year. This was 2 1/2 years ago.
Sue

InsideInsurance

And as I say, hopefully it will be the same again for you.

Certainly the majority of insurers start increasing your premium from the very first claim and so low value claims are not economical to make as you end up paying more in additional premium than the claim was for.

Its just a word of caution for others who read this and think about making a low value claim

Susan1942

Thanks for your advice I do appreciate it and will keep it in mind
I have been happy to stay with the same insurance company as I am sometimes away for prolonged holidays and most companies will not cover you for this . Means when renewal comes around I am not having to go to another company and say oh I have had this or that claim.

Regards Sue

Susan1942

Further to the last comment My house contents policy is due for renewal on the 18th Oct To date I don't have a quote from my current insurer RIAS I did however have a telephone call from a company called Insure for Retirement on Tuesday They wanted to quote me and I agreed to this I informed them on the recent claim I made in July They did say that I would not receive any no claims discount
What they offered was an increase to £100,000 from £50,000 with my current insurer the excess was £100 rather than £50 They do cover me for up 60 consecutive days away from home
All other cover was as the current policy with some increase in the amount for all risk cover single item to £2000 from £1500
They quoted me £113. 60 which practically the same as RIAS last year paid £114 30 Should I ask my current insurer for a quote or simply accept this one The policy is underwritten by AXA so am happy with this There was a lot of pressure to accept this and I did say that I would but no payment will be taken until the 18th October I do have a 14 day cancellation so wondered what others thought I have got the 60 day cover which is very important to me Santander wanted to quote me but their quote is £151 so a lot more Many thanks Sue

Quentin

Did you inform them about your current loss (the repair cost for the diamond), and all other claims over the period of history they wanted to know about?

InsideInsurance

Have you done your own shopping around? Doesnt take long to put all your details and claims etc into Confused.com or another aggregator to get a range of values back.

If £50k is comfortably sufficient then there is no benefit in having a £100k limit. It sounds like both are blanket policies and so the upper limit is hardly used in the pricing calculation

*Scarlett

If £50k will cover your contents and you don't have any valuables over £1.5k then there is no advantage to go for the other policy.

You will probably get a renewal price from your current insurer soon or you could give them a call.

If it is more than the other quote bear in mind the excess fee as this will usually have an impact on the price.

The other thing to consider is that you have had a positive outcome when you claimed with your current company.

Good customer service might be worth a few extra £s on the premium (as long as it is not extortionate)!