Home Contents Insurance - What Would You Recommend?

coffeemornings on 12/12/2018 - 21:00
Last edited 12/12/2018 - 23:24 by 1 other user

Hi!

I moved into my own place a year odd ago. I’m just starting to look into home contents insurance, particularly as burglary around this area (popular suburb very close to the city) is growing. A few shops on ground floor have been burglared. The storage sheds have been broken into for some.

What company would you recommend going with? I am quite clueless with this. I did some search online and they actually all look similar.

Any help is appreciated! Please let me know if there are companies I should avoid, fine print I should be aware of, what is important to get covered etc.

Thanks :)

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  jjjaar on 12/12/2018 - 21:06

  Probably more around your own assessment of the insured value. Actually take the time to add it up, making sure you estimate the replaceable value to buy it new. Count all your items of clothing, as this adds up quickly. If you still have DVDs/cds this will cost a lot too.

  I know people who assumed their assets were half of what it really was before they went through and made a list.

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    Ughhh on 12/12/2018 - 21:10

    When making a claim, how does the insurance determine how much to payout? Are they going to ask for receipts for everything you claim, incase one claims to have gucci everything?

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      87percent on 12/12/2018 - 21:55

      I've insured the bulk of my items at $200k but then I've also got individual items insured (watch, jewelry, things like that). I've had to claim on a ring that the wife lost, they didn't ask for anything when I made the claim, they just have me what I paid for it

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        sahh on 12/12/2018 - 22:25

        Did your premiums go up after the claim?

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          87percent on 13/12/2018 - 00:23

          +1

          @sahh: Our normal contents premium remained similar, but because we didn't have to insure the ring anymore, our individual items went down!

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  nocure on 12/12/2018 - 21:08

  Your house should already be insured, I assume your only talking "contents".

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  miwahni on 12/12/2018 - 21:59

  My son was burgled a few months ago and NRMA were fantastic - even refunding the excesses paid, once the police charged someone with the crime. And about a month after his claim was settled, he realised that his spare watch had been stolen in the breakin(it's amazing what you don't miss at the time). A quick call to NRMA to let them know, and the extra money was in his account the next day.

  Something to be aware of, too - I've heard from two friends how their houses were burgled, and they didn't realise at the time that the spare car keys were stolen. They became very aware the following day, when they've got up to find that the car was stolen overnight. So if you're ever burgled, check for your spare keys! In my son's case the thief took the spare keys to his Skyline plus the immobiliser tag, and the spare keys to his wife's Cruize, then they took the spare keys to the Calais, and got in it and drove it away…. so it was a very expensive claim in total. The house was damaged in the breakin with three windowframes and two french doors needing replacement, plus the front security light. But NRMA had everything fixed, even sending out a second tradesman when my son wasn't happy with the work done by the first one.

  TL/DR: NRMA are fantastically great at point of claim, and that's the point where a bit of a difference in premium cost is suddenly unimportant.

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    Goodiemite on 12/12/2018 - 22:07

    You have gone to great lengths to explain how good nrma is. My house was burgled too & so has one of my friends. But from what I know & heard from others we have not got reimbursed for stolen watches and you did it with just a phone call? Amazing

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      miwahni on 13/12/2018 - 22:15

      Yeah it was amazing all right.
      To be honest I didn't think he'd have any luck as the contents claim had already settled but they were great. Who were you insured with? What happened?

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        Goodiemite on 13/12/2018 - 23:30

        Rams insurance

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          miwahni on 15/12/2018 - 02:04

          @Goodiemite: That's underwritten by Westpac. It's a brilliant policy inclusion-wise, hella expensive though and customer service at point of claim is crap. Hope they treated you okay (and no, I don't sell insurance / work for insurance company).

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  Iamnotcheap on 12/12/2018 - 22:50

  Read the fine print, and if you have any individual items that are not standard household goods (I.e tv, washer etc), such as jewellery or an expensive camera (which are more mobile etc), be sure to call this out individually with the replacement value. If it’s jewelery, you may need a valuation or photo to evidence that you had it. The reason I say this, most claims, irrespective of insurers (there is only a handful of underwriters so there is a ton of commonality between them) usually only reimburse $500-$1000 per non itemised pieces. Premiums are affected as result due to itemisation, but it does mean any accidental loss/damage or theft is covered to its full replacement value.

  There is usually no need to itemise standard items, even if you have a $10k tv… they interested in the mobility items for the most part that are in excess of $1000.

  We are with RACQ and had accidental loss. Sent in the photo and made a police report. Claim was paid in 24 hours post lodgement of photo evidence that we had the item previously. Our premiums did not go up as a result, rather our no claim bonus fell away - but we will see at the next renewal if that is really true.

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  sam-1966 on 13/12/2018 - 10:14

  We always make sure we have a portion that is 'portable goods' to cover things when out of the house, such as cameras, jewellery, glasses (spectacles) etc.

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    coffeemornings on 13/12/2018 - 13:35

    Thanks. That’s a good point. I just checked out various providers. Portable goods coverage really increase the price of the policy a fair bit!

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      Iamnotcheap on 13/12/2018 - 16:25

      You still have to itemise portable goods if you don’t want to be limited by the caps in place.

      If you don’t itemise it shouldn’t inflate the policy by that much. It didn’t with RACQ nor when we had it with a previous provider a few years ago.

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        sam-1966 on 14/12/2018 - 09:08

        We just have something like $10,000 as our portable goods with only my engagement ring itemised. And it is coverage anywhere in Australia or New Zealand. It didn't add that much to the policy.