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Laptop and house insurance

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  • MalMonroe
    MalMonroe Posts: 5,783 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Darling daughter is on a Graphic design Master Degree course and needs & uses a pretty good MacBook. 
    She's genuinely split water on it and despite drying in bags of rice etc it's goosed.
    She NEEDS it but can't afford to replace it.
    She lives with her mum, not me.
    I've said to claim on the mums house insurance, the mum is concerned it'll whack up next years premium.
    A new one is probably about £2000
    Surely this is exactly what house contents insurance is for.

    And if the insurance premium went up a lot (57% I read somewhere) surely shopping around for a new insurer would negate this somewhat .?

    Should she try and claim or save up ( could take months)?
    Hi, my contents insurance doesn't include having to pay an excess and it does cover laptops and computers, etc. It's from Aviva and I'm a council tenant and only pay 98 pence per week for it - I expect your daughter's mum has better insurance than that  and I think it's the best idea to claim. Your daughter will definitely be needing a replacement. She'd have to have a good look at all the Ts and Cs.

    With Aviva I recently had to claim for a new TV as I accidentally damaged mine. It was no problem. Nobody even had to come to do the loss adjusting thing, we had to simply make a small video (on a mobile, nothing complicated) of the damage, explaining what had happened and complete a form online then send it all off online. I was even able to buy a new TV before the insurance payout was granted but of course that was much cheaper than a MacBook.

    My premiums haven't risen at all - and I've had three claims in the last ten years - but all insurance companies are different I guess. Maybe it's because my insurance is for tenants that premiums are so low and we don't have to pay an excess or increased premiums? I don't know but I do appreciate it. 

    This - "And if the insurance premium went up a lot (57% I read somewhere) surely shopping around for a new insurer would negate this somewhat .?" wouldn't work because there's a database called CUE which all insurance companies refer to when they receive insurance applications, so changing to a different insurer wouldn't help as any insurer can check for previous claims and adjust prices accordingly, if they wish.

    https://www.experian.co.uk/business-products/claims-underwriting-exchange

    There doesn't seem to be much point having contents insurance if no claims are going to be made - in your daughter's case I think the price of the item damaged warrants a claim.

    Accidental damage can happen to anything in the home, at any time. As I discovered with my TV. 
    Please note - taken from the Forum Rules and amended for my own personal use (with thanks) : It is up to you to investigate, check, double-check and check yet again before you make any decisions or take any action based on any information you glean from any of my posts. Although I do carry out careful research before posting and never intend to mislead or supply out-of-date or incorrect information, please do not rely 100% on what you are reading. Verify everything in order to protect yourself as you are responsible for any action you consequently take.
  • DullGreyGuy
    DullGreyGuy Posts: 18,613 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited 24 January at 5:59PM
    I'm not sure tbh, it may have been a named item, I hope so.
    It doesn't necessarily need to be, it all depends on the policy. My M&S policy has a £10,000 limit on undeclared single items and so even a maxed out Mac Studio would be covered without having to be declared. 

    Other policies have single item limits of £750 or special terms on Laptops and so would need to be declared.

    Genius Bar is a waste of time. Even if they were willing to do anything, it would cost more than a new ones. Macs are designed to be impossible to repair economically.
    Have had 2 screen replacements and 1 battery done and it was far from "impossible" and all were vastly cheaper than buying a new device. 

    Like ultra thin laptops from other companies, and now even more so with the new "system on a chip" M series, the main issue is that CPU, memory etc is all soldered to the motherboard and so where with a desktop computer you'd just pull out the dead ram module and replace just it with these laptops its the whole board that has to be replaced. This isnt unique to Apple when it comes to laptops! 
    Newer models have the battery as part of the top of the case, along with the keyboard and speakers. It's a terrible design.
    Not according to https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+14-Inch+2021+Battery+Replacement/150895, they are not part of the case and can be replaced independently of the case.
  • KxMx
    KxMx Posts: 11,158 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I also have a low cost policy (£2.56 a month) designed for social housing tenants, but laptops are a specific exclusion so aren't covered.
  • I am currently going through the exact same situation , A macbook accidentally damaged . I have gone through the house . I have had to pay the £250 excess and its currently with Apple being repaired.

    My only real gripe is that when setting my insurance up it asked if i had any items over £1000 as they need to be itemized , for some reason i chose to list this machine even though it cost £899. Had i not done that i was told my claim would have been rejected . 
  • DullGreyGuy
    DullGreyGuy Posts: 18,613 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    My only real gripe is that when setting my insurance up it asked if i had any items over £1000 as they need to be itemized , for some reason i chose to list this machine even though it cost £899. Had i not done that i was told my claim would have been rejected . 
    By the sounds of it you are talking about the issue of New for Old?

    The declared value should be what it would cost today to buy a new replacement... if you buy something secondhand or refurbished etc then almost certainly it needs to be declared at a higher value but similarly with the current inflation items are getting more expensive and so any item may cost more new than what was paid originally (less so with tech unless its newish)
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