Sensible amount to insure contents for?

Claremac

It's the dreaded house insurance renewal and my building and contents renewal with Liverpool Victoria is £474 which seemed a lot. As we are moving in about a month I checked with them whether we should cover the new house between exchange and completion which we should. He then gave me an annual quote while I was on the phone for the new house for £769.:eek: This looks as if it is because it's a higher flood risk and we are moving in to a town from a less built-up area. What with higher mortgage, higher council tax and now higher insurance it has concentrated my mind wonderfully on trying to get a cheaper quote.

I am trying the screenscrapers recommended by Martin for home insurance but I don't know what is a sensible amount to put in for Contents insurance. My current insureres just say "up to £125,000". I obviously got it wrong as I only got one quote and that was for £1400:eek: :eek: :eek: We have a 3 bedroom semi soon to be a detached (not blowing up next door, just moving to a detached) with all the usual tech stuff like TVs, DVD Recorder and cameras, Nintendos that you probably associate with Mum, Dad and 2 kids. Can anyone suggest what I should put in? Thanks.

impy78

Claremac wrote: »

It's the dreaded house insurance renewal and my building and contents renewal with Liverpool Victoria is £474 which seemed a lot. As we are moving in about a month I checked with them whether we should cover the new house between exchange and completion which we should. He then gave me an annual quote while I was on the phone for the new house for £769.:eek: This looks as if it is because it's a higher flood risk and we are moving in to a town from a less built-up area. What with higher mortgage, higher council tax and now higher insurance it has concentrated my mind wonderfully on trying to get a cheaper quote.

I am trying the screenscrapers recommended by Martin for home insurance but I don't know what is a sensible amount to put in for Contents insurance. My current insureres just say "up to £125,000". I obviously got it wrong as I only got one quote and that was for £1400:eek: :eek: :eek: We have a 3 bedroom semi soon to be a detached (not blowing up next door, just moving to a detached) with all the usual tech stuff like TVs, DVD Recorder and cameras, Nintendos that you probably associate with Mum, Dad and 2 kids. Can anyone suggest what I should put in? Thanks.

Liverpool Victoria do a flat rate policy, where everyone with the same amount of bedrooms get sthe same amount of cover.

In the event of a claim you would not actually get that much, just how much their assessor calculated your contents were worth.

What you need to do is to go around your home and try and assess the amount you need yourself, don't scrimp on anything, but it shoudl come out lower than that.

The association of British Insurers website should help on the rebuild cost of your home (unless you have been given one of those by your mortgage lender)

http://www.abi.org.uk/

ormus

ive just renewed my 3 bed semi for 229 with direct line. for buildings and contents!
contents is the minimum 15k. (we have no children at home now).

ps.
the halifax quote was 239 quid.

impy78

Be wary of just insuring your contents for the minimum, as in the event of a claim, if the loss adjustor think that you have underinsured your property, he will deduct the percentage you are underinsured for from the payout..

EG:

You insure your contents for £40k and your house is totally destroyed, burned to the ground

The loss adjustor thinks it should be £50k

You will only get a payout for £32k

So it is important you don't underestimate this!!

lisyloo

£125K sounds like an awful lot.

I'd say that most people go for about £40K.
I've got a large "executive" house and I've got £80K.

Sorry not to be very specific but I'd say somewhere between £40K and £80K depending on what you've got.

Bear in mind that contents would include everything that's not nailed down, so things like carpets, appliances etc. would all be included as well as all your clothes, jewelry etc.

Personally I'd rather pay a bit extra to be over-insured than under-insured.

£125K does sound massive though unless you live in some kind of mansion.

Badger_Lady

There are some websites that will calculate this for you, but I don't trust them at all. The best one I've found is on Tesco, but it's not quick and easy:

http://www.tescofinance.com/personal/finance/insurance/homeins/home_calc.jsp

FlameCloud

impy78 wrote: »

Be wary of just insuring your contents for the minimum, as in the event of a claim, if the loss adjustor think that you have underinsured your property, he will deduct the percentage you are underinsured for from the payout..

EG:

You insure your contents for £40k and your house is totally destroyed, burned to the ground

The loss adjustor thinks it should be £50k

You will only get a payout for £32k

So it is important you don't underestimate this!!

I think you've actually hit upon the one time an average wouldnt apply (a total loss)