Home Insurance...grrrr!!!

I've never had to claim on my insurance in over seven years, but it's only cost me about £60 a year, and I'd certainly get that back if there were a fire.

I know other people who've claimed for burglary, etc., and not had a problem.  I guess either you have a very restrictive policy AL, or have just been very unlucky.

You might want to separate the contents from the home insurance, and get a few different quotes.

My manbag was stolen and I claimed that it contained the Lost treasure of the Incas.

Claim rejected, the weaselling bastards.

Kryten wrote (see)

Why have home contents insurance at all? I 'self insure'.

By now you would have had 9 x £400 = £3,600 sitting in a bank somewhere to cover any problems. Sorry I know this is no help to you now!

I do wonder why people automatically think they must have contents insurance. I've been told I'm crazy for not having it! On average you are always going to get less money out than you put in; you have to cover the insurance companies expenses not to mention any fraudulent claims people are making.

Of course if you'd been burgled or had a fire or flood in the first year then you would only have had £400 to spend.

I used to think along similar lines, thinking that insurance was an expensive option and that I didn't actually need much cover, but then I decided to insure my fishing tackle and learnt a lesson. I had loads of individually expensive rods & reels, but when I actually came to price it all up I discovered that the small 14x14x4 plastic box that held all the little bits and pieces like line, floats, weights, hooks etc was by far the most valuable thing. Nothing in it cost more than a couple of pounds individually, but added together it was well over £1000, far more than any other item.

The thing is people tend to think of insurance in terms of the things that cost a good chunk of money to buy like furniture, electicals, white goods and individually expensive items like jewelary, cameras, watches etc. The fact is however that it's often the small stuff that makes up a good proportion of what it would cost to rekit a house. Lets's suppose something happened that meant all your clothes got destroyed. Even for the average person that could easily be several thousand pounds to replace it all. Heck, your running gear could easily be pushing a thousand if you add up the different pairs of trainers, jackets, tops, shorts, tights, socks etc. Got CDs, DVDs or books? 20 of each could be a grand to replace, and a lot of people have far more than that (heck, along with the vinyl mine would cost well over £100k retail to replace). What art have you got on the walls or sitting on the mantlepiece? Even if nothing exceeds £100 if you have a couple of picures in every room then you could be nearing £1000. How much would all your towels and bed linen cost to replace? How much to replace all your kitchen utensils? Got custom-fit curtains? There's another £1000 to replace them all. It really does mount up! I've been paying insurance for over 25 years, but the premiums I've paid are still a fraction of what it would cost to replace all my contents.

£1000 for made to measure curtains?? Really?

I kept the receipt for my sewing machine, on the basis that it cost the same as a second hand car, and I didn't want the insurance company replacing it with a cheap nasty version. I got a major fright a while ago when I measured my fabric stash...over 250 metres...at an average of £8 a metre.

When we were burgled many years ago, I found it was the smaller thing which added up, all our CDs etc rather than expensive jewellery (luckily I was wearing my 2 expensive rings when we were turned over)

SoVeryTired wrote (see)

al - just a thought: are you covered for accidental damage? It sounds like that's the sort of claim where you've had issues with the insurance company. I've just been renewing my insurance and specifically do not have accidental damage cover.

yes on questioning what I am actually covered for I do not have accidental damage. I have now paid for this for the remainder of the year (my son has already put his ipod in the washing machine) so now I am covered for things like that but nothing away from home.

So anything damge /lost/stolen even IN my garden does not count - was too expensive to get that too!! And I am not covered by anything damaged by pet!!

best to check what the excess is as some companys move it up on renewal........

I have recently had 2 bikes stolen from the shed..........I had just changed insurance companes a couple of months earlier so was expecting hassle..............no hassle at all .they were great .even asking if I had things like bottle cages or lights on the bike so i could claim for these if I had..............i wouldn't have even thought of claiming for these things.........the bikes were 3 years old and my road bike had done a fair few miles   receipt for the trek was for £500...and they have given us £800 for a new bike................I have been well impressed

I haven't had home insurance for 10 years now.

Saved about £4,000 by this.

If I didn't have insurance for 10 years I'd save more like £2,000. Given that a single claim could far exceed that, I'm happy paying my premiums.