Calculating Contents Insurance Advice

DepositSaver

Hi
My contents insurance is up for renewal in mid March and I am starting to look at quotes with other insurers. I currently have John Lewis Plus cover which covers up £75000. I chose this as they partly due to needing cover for a low risk of ground/surface water flooding, and partly due to the limit of £75000 as I know this would easily cover the value of my contents.

I am now torn between going for another similar "up to £xxxxx" (i.e. an amount safely more than I own) or unlimited cover policy, or actually calculating the value of my belongings and getting cover for that specific amount. Last time I did a rough calculation to check I didn't own anything close to £75000 worth of things, but I have to confess I lost the will to live when trying to count every last pair of socks and item of makeup, and trying to work out how much things like Russian matryoshka dolls (purchased in Russia and not the same as any available here or online) would cost to replace.

So my questions are:
- does everyone really list every single item they own and price it up? If so how long does it take you? Hours? Days? I have a one bedroom flat so would hope not to take as long as someone in a 3 bed house. Does anyone have any tips for doing this while preserving my sanity?

- Do I really need to check the current replacement cost of every CD and book I own? I have rather a lot of both...Would I be ok just counting how many CDs I have, and multiplying by the average cost of a CD on Amazon for example?

- How do you work out replacement costs for things that are essentially irreplaceable? I have my Russian dolls and a small number of other souvenir items from abroad. They are part of the contents of the flat, but I would never be able to buy the exact same items again, hence I would consider them irreplaceable. Do I just find costs for something as similar as possible?

Thank you in advance

InsideInsurance

I am sure some do it for EVERYTHING but they will be in the minority. The majority just do a random number hence why there are so many people that have issues with under insurance.

Personally, I list all the things like furniture, electronics, jewelry etc separately and then group things like CDs and use an average price similar to what you suggest though would more likely use high street prices rather than the cheapest price you can find online.

Of course if you maintain the spreadsheet through the year as you buy/ sell/ throw away things it makes it much easier at insurance time to then do the sums. It also can help to give things a "type" as different insurers have different definitions for inner limits so some use "valuables" meaning just your traditional jewelry, art, gold etc but others use "high risk" and add in AV equipment, computers etc.

For anything that is "irreplacable" then there are a number of options such as nearest current model, original price paid, last known list price etc. Personally our holiday purchases either fall into a more normal category or are tat and so just get pulled into the contingency added on.

DepositSaver

Thanks InsideInsurance. I think I need to start a spreadsheet....At least I then only have to update it through the year rather than start calculating from scratch. I do have one from when I bought the flat last year listing all the things I bought new then and their costs so I at least have a (small) start. I guess most of my clothes can be done using average prices for a pair of jeans/t-shirt/jumper/whatever. Marking things as valuables or high risk is a good idea.

dacouch

Inside gives very good advice.

If you have ever had a major claim such as a fire or flood you will find having an inventory or even a basic inventory makes dealing with the claim much easier for you and the Insurer.

You'll be amazed at how much of your stuff you forget to claim for when asked to detail them on a claim.

I recommend you keep a copy of your spreadsheet off site eg on a work computer or the cloud or simply email yourself a copy to a hotmail etc account as the spreadsheet is useless if it's on your computer which was destroyed in a fire.

If you do not have the time to do an inventory, a basic way of doing this is to walk around your house filming each room and opening each drawer etc etc.

Incidently I've had a large fire at my home so speak from experience

InsideInsurance

DepositSaver wrote: »

Thanks InsideInsurance. I think I need to start a spreadsheet....At least I then only have to update it through the year rather than start calculating from scratch. I do have one from when I bought the flat last year listing all the things I bought new then and their costs so I at least have a (small) start. I guess most of my clothes can be done using average prices for a pair of jeans/t-shirt/jumper/whatever. Marking things as valuables or high risk is a good idea.

Clothes typically are covered on an indemnity basis rather than new for old so are slightly less important to do unless you have a wardrobe full of Prada or Huntsman

I mark things more granular than simply high risk or not (ie jewelry, art, electronics, AV etc) as then you can easily recut the data to deal with differing companies requirements or to answer the occasional question they may ask about maximum single item of jewelry etc.