Contents insurance advice.

Hi guys,

After the breakin yesterday, made me amp up a few issues around the house.

I have a few good ideas where to stash Ipad and like so it deters theives.

Also had an insurance quote to upgrade our expired insurance

Rang Youi insurance and they seemed really good, covers my card collection as well.

$40,000 contents insurance including cards, carpets etc fire, flood, water damge(burst pipe etc) malicious damage, arson, theft

and can take items like iphone and partners blackberry away from home too, still covered if lost or stolen.

Got quoted $32.06 payable monthly with a $400 excess.

Anyone here with youi had claims or highly recommend any other insurance companies?

Thanks

Brett

Hey Brett, you'd be surprised how (not so) far $40k would take you. Don't forget every single item in that house of yours.

From cuttlery an crockery to your scruds and socks! The Mrs' clothes alone would take a few $k to replace! Some policies don't include plaster on your walls as part of the house, and only as contents too!

I think mine's around $80-$100k or something. There's just so much in the house that people don't realise would need to be covered.

Side note, Youi alright to deal with then? I hear them advertised on the Radio down here a lot, and wouldnt mind comparing them with our current RACT policy.


Re: break-ins, one thing that people should also note, and that's something that's never replaceable, photos! So many memories can be lost if someone steals your computer! Keep them on a safe/secure external HDD some where, especially when going out of the house.

Thanks mate, for the advice. Yeah might look at upping to 50-60K.

Was only a difference of a couple of $$ per month on the premium so not bad. Youi were very good, prompt and had good service.

No worries. I've probably under-estimated ours too, but it's a common theme for people to do.

You list EVERYTHING and work out what it'd cost if you had to re-buy them all. Give or take.

WoobieZarz said:

No worries. I've probably under-estimated ours too, but it's a common theme for people to do.

You list EVERYTHING and work out what it'd cost if you had to re-buy them all. Give or take.

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haha yer, I know half my games got delivered to melbourne. I think I insured them for 10K from memory (as I calculated what it would cost to replace factoring rarity), Delivery people charged an arm and a leg to get them here haha. Lucky I left half of them behind.

be careful under insuring.
There have been cases were someone has had contents insured for say 50k and when the assessors evaluate they work out you actually had 100k of stuff they will turn around and say you were only 50% insured therefore only pay half of your insured amount.
There was a huge discussion on this on whirlpool forums a little while back that went into all the ins and outs of insurance.
Insurance companies work a lot on averages, for example they would have an average figure for contents value for 3 bedroom homes with 2 adults and 2 kids and would work from that in the event of a total loss if they suspected under insurance.

what i mean is if you were insured for 50k and your house burnt down, thy would then look at that average if the average was 90k you may have issues. You need to remember insurance companies will do everything they can to get out of paying even small amounts so imagine what they would do when you are talking large amounts!

Really? So if you under-value, you not only lose out initially, but they slap you again?? So if we're 50% under-valuing ourselves for say $100k, they're only going to pay 50% of that ($50k)???

WOAH, might pay me to ring RACT tonight, make sure I understand.

I was under the impression that if we set ours at say $100k, and we under-value it, then we lose out. Or if we over-value it, we make a win?

if you over value you get what you lost haha. ASSHOELS I KNOW.

if you undervalue in theory you shoudl get the amount you valued for. But some do jsut that. If you 50% undervalue you get 50% of what was lost.

ADELAIDE CHILLI SOURCE said:

be careful under insuring.
There have been cases were someone has had contents insured for say 50k and when the assessors evaluate they work out you actually had 100k of stuff they will turn around and say you were only 50% insured therefore only pay half of your insured amount.
There was a huge discussion on this on whirlpool forums a little while back that went into all the ins and outs of insurance.
Insurance companies work a lot on averages, for example they would have an average figure for contents value for 3 bedroom homes with 2 adults and 2 kids and would work from that in the event of a total loss if they suspected under insurance.

what i mean is if you were insured for 50k and your house burnt down, thy would then look at that average if the average was 90k you may have issues. You need to remember insurance companies will do everything they can to get out of paying even small amounts so imagine what they would do when you are talking large amounts!

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You are spot in with the Under Insurance thing, however i don't think it is that cut and dry. What i mean is that there is some sort of onus of proof required from either party when a claim is disputed. For example, an insurance company would have to clearly demonstrate that the insured DID NOT make a reasonable estimate on the value.

If you as the customer can provide some sort of indication that you indeed did try your best to value the contents accurately and in now way deceived them, then you should still get the full amount of your claim.


Also, from memory (going back a few years now) the figure is 80%. If you are less than 80% insured they can go down the under insured route. I believe if you are within 80% it is an acceptable margin for error.

In saying that, because of how many items are covered under a contents policy, the under insurance issue very rarely comes up because of the difficulty proving it. It is more common with building policies.

WoobieZarz said:

Really? So if you under-value, you not only lose out initially, but they slap you again?? So if we're 50% under-valuing ourselves for say $100k, they're only going to pay 50% of that ($50k)???

WOAH, might pay me to ring RACT tonight, make sure I understand.

I was under the impression that if we set ours at say $100k, and we under-value it, then we lose out. Or if we over-value it, we make a win?

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Definitely not that simple Scotty.

Firstly - I can't think of any type of claim that would result in a 'Total Loss' when it comes to contents. Even when you are talking about a car or house policy, it is extremely rare that the property is COMPLETELY destroyed. If the house or car would cost more to repair than to replace, they make it a total loss. When you are talking about contents, your policy is covering hundreds of different items so it is extremely unlikely that ALL of them get destroyed, therefore you will probably never see a total loss. Even in a fire, a lot of items would survive (metal), very rarely will a house fire destroy everything. I once spoke with a guy from FESA who told me that the average house fire in WA metro is 17-22minutes and is usually confined to an area of the house.

For an insurance company to refuse to pay the full amount, they would need to prove that you didn't do your best to value the items. The PROVEN replacement value would be a lot more than you insured for.

In most cases, it would be more costly for them to gather a list of all your belongings, cost them, then get lawyers to prove that you under insured than it woudl to just pay the difference.

In saying that, you do want your policy to be close to the true value of your contents, as well as having any valuable items listed individually.

Awesome Drob you definately sound like you know more than me but at least i was on the right track it is great to get some more clarification cheers.
All i know is i have mine as close as i could guess. and hope i never need it again.
I actually came close today!!!

I came home and my roller door was up??? and my dog was gone luckily there was a letter from the council and have already been and picked her up ( $100 later

the lucky part was besides my roller door being open, my UTE ( fully loaded with at least $2k worth of market stock still loaded in the back was sitting under the carport with the keys in the ignition, and they also had my spare house keys on them. let alone my shed was wide open with all my powertools and more just sitting in plain veiw from the road all day!
altho i dont think insurance would have helped if they found out everything was either open or the keys were there for it lol

Thanks Adam, great advice and knowledge, handy to know! I'm still going to review our policy soon and contact a couple of other providers, especially this new Youi mob, they sound alright on the radio.


Damn, that was lucky Karl, farout that could have been REALLY bad!

my question is how can I provide an indication that I did try my best to value my card collection accurately if they are AFL cards?