Contents Insurance: The Ultimate Guide in March 2024
There are many different insurance policies that you can find out there. At first, it can seem unclear, and the amount of information out there about different options can put people off doing any research, taking their time and finding a deal that’s right for them. This is a big shame because a suitable policy can have many benefits. Contents Insurance can soothe fears and anxieties about things that might go wrong, it can save you money in the long term, and the short term doesn’t have to break the bank, and often they can be tailored to the needs of your situation.
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Contents Insurance: What is it?
So, what exactly is contents insurance?
Here we’re going to look more specifically at contents insurance and what makes it so appealing to many people who enjoy the comfort of knowing their belongings are protected. This is one form of home insurance that is there to cover the expense of replacing your possessions if something happens to them, such as if they’re stolen, damaged or destroyed. Some people choose to buy it as a lone policy. Still, it can also be acquired alongside buildings insurance as part of a combined home insurance policy that will have a broader remit. The combined package will likely reduce the necessary admin compared to getting the two policies separately.
You might be wondering then, what kind of things does contents insurance cover? An easy way to put it is that your typical home contents insurance is there to cover your personal belongings. An excellent way to differentiate between your personal belongings and your property more generally is whether you’d be able to take it with you if you moved. The chances are that you can’t take permanent light fixtures or piping from your home to a new place if you move, and these kinds of things indeed do not fall under home contents insurance.
However, stuff you’ve brought to the house that you’d be able to remove if you moved, such as furniture, rugs, or electronics, would come under the remit of most home contents insurance policies. It depends on the exact terms of your deal, but most policies will also cover the contents in your garage or shed on the property, not just in the main building you live in. However, it is always worth checking what your provider’s terms are, as there’s nothing worse than being caught out because you assumed that you never got round to double-checking.
Contents Insurance: is it Worthwhile?
There are some potential situations in that you’ll have to take out extra cover or get an add-on to be protected against. Accidental damage is one such example of the type of circumstance that your bread and butter contents insurance won’t necessarily typically cover. However, there are many situations that most core home contents insurance policies will cover. This includes:
Water and fire damage,
Storms,
Vandalism,
Explosions,
Lightning,
Falling trees,
Other natural disasters,
and theft.
It is probably theft that is the most commonly claimed situation. It is not only good to know that you won’t be hugely out of pocket should some steal from your house, but it can also potentially give some people an extra little bit of peace of mind if they need to go away from home for a prolonged period for any reason. The idea of theft happening whilst you’re away isn’t lovely, but it’s certainly nice to know that you do have that layer of protection there should the worst come to the worst and theft does occur.
Contents Insurance: Cost
You’ll probably be wondering what the cost is of all these great benefits that come with having contents insurance. Luckily, contents insurance is very affordable for most people and more than makes an eligible purchase worth it.
According to data from comparethemarket.com, as of 2021, “10% of people could achieve a quote of £37.68 per year for their contents home insurance” whilst “51% of people could achieve a quote of £56.88 per year for their contents home insurance”.
A few different factors will affect what kind of price range you’re looking at exactly, but considering the contents of your home could easily be worth £1000s of pounds, any price under £100 is going to look very reasonable to most people. Two factors will be the primary influences on the price range of offers open to you. The first of these is the value of your possessions. If you have an array of expensive art that you’re hoping your insurer will reimburse you for should something happen to it and it becomes damaged or missing, then your insurer is going to expect you to pay more annually.
On the other hand, if you live more minimally, your insurer will be less worried about paying out large sums on claims and be far more flexible with prices, probably providing you with much cheaper offers. The second factor will be your history of making insurance claims. If you have never made a claim, insurers will look at your record to encourage you to stay away from precarious situations and do all you can to look after your things. From their analytical point of view, this suggests they’ll be less likely to find themselves having to fork out for a claim from you since you don’t tend to make them.
On the other hand, if your things have a history of getting lost or damaged, then an insurer will be more reluctant to provide you with insurance. They are more likely to view you as a customer that they may have to end up paying out for and, due to this logic, are likely to ask you to pay more annually to have your belongings covered.
Whatever situation you find yourself in, you are probably still keen not to ever have to pay any more than you need to for your contents insurance. There are a few things that you can do that should make sure you’re not overpaying for the protection of your contents. Comparison websites are a buyer’s best friend. The best sites out there will get you on the right path by just taking some simple details from you, showing you what options are out there that could suit your situation, and then giving you a side-by-side breakdown of the pricing structures available.
This way, you can make sure that the deal you’re getting is the best one out there, and you’re not essentially giving money away to the wrong company whilst another insurer sits there offering the same cover for a lower price.
You can also probably save yourself some money if you combine your contents insurance with your buildings insurance. This does presume that you have buildings insurance, which is unlikely to apply to most tenants but will be of interest to almost everyone who’s taken out a mortgage and many others who own their property. Most insurers will discount you if you get the two policies together rather than buying them separately. This does mean you can’t mix and match between two different insurers, but in most cases, you will still find that combining the two at one insurer will come to a cheaper total than adding the price of two low-cost singular options together.
Contents Insurance – To Conclude
The main thing is that you take your time and do your research. Most insurance companies will happily take the time to talk through their terms with you, and taking advantage of this can put you in a position where you’re informed, protected, and save yourself some money.
Either way, you will find the right option for you out there if you only take the time to look for it and sort yourself out with the right policy tailored to your needs.
Find out more about the importance of insurance here .
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Ally Cox is a dedicated Copywriter and Blogger for CompareYourBusinessCosts.co.uk. In under two years, the platform achieved the esteemed accolade of ‘Website of the Year’. Since its award-winning debut, Ally has been instrumental in fostering organic growth for the website, expanding its offerings to encompass comparisons across a diverse range of over 20 products to help serve all your business needs.