What to consider when purchasing contents insurance?
Insurance can be complicated. To make sure you get the perfect coverage at the best price, Getsafe explains what should be considered when taking out contents insurance, the factors that will affect the price, and what level of protection you need.
Covering the things you love in your home is important. Without insurance, an event like a break-in or fire could cost you your prized possessions. Contents insurance will refund you in these types of situations. However, everyone has different requirements of what extent of insurance they want to have. To make sure you find the right coverage for the best price, we explain what might be important for your personal situation and what will affect your premium price.
What does contents insurance cover?
Simply put, a standard contents insurance policy covers items in your home that you own. As a rule of thumb, this includes everything that could be taken with you if you decided to move house. Contents insurance protects these possessions against risks including fire, water, damage, robbery, and theft.
What will influence the price?
There are several factors that influence your insurance premium. Some insurers even use marital status, employment status, or the country you’re born in as a pricing factor. Getsafe doesn’t take such aspects into account, as we believe everyone should be treated equally. So factors that influence our price are mainly insurance related. Impact for instance will have the total replacement value of your contents, the excess amount you choose, meaning the amount you agree to pay towards any claim you make, or the number of contents insurance claims you have made over the last three years.
Determine what level of protection you need
Contents insurance is crucial if you want to cover your belongings at home. You might think that losing possessions, such as a cheap TV, won’t affect you much. However, consider the cost of replacing everything in your home. This will quickly add up – regardless of the value of individual items.
Despite this, there are certain things that a normal policy won’t cover. Depending on what you own, your living situation, and your lifestyle, you may require more comprehensive coverage. Let’s take a look at some situations where extra protection is key.
If you rent your home
Many people in the UK rent their homes nowadays. While this offers great flexibility, you also may have less security. For example, if you accidentally break a window glass in your flat, you could be liable to pay your landlord. By extending your contents policy.you can cover yourself against those kinds of risks.
If you travel a lot
Basic contents insurance only covers everything within your home. But if you are out a lot you might want to protect the things you have with you as well. Imagine sitting in a cafe and your laptop gets stolen. If you want to be covered for situations like that, personal possessions cover will be useful. With Getsafe, that even applies when you travel abroad so you will have worldwide protection.
If you’re occasionally more clumsy than you’d like to be
We understand that life happens! However, that doesn’t mean much to you if you have to replace your belongings. Normally, standard contents insurance won’t cover for damage that you caused. Many providers offer accidental damagecover that compensates you should you unintentionally damage items in your home.
If you anticipate legal issues with your home
Obviously, you shouldn’t buy a house or enter a tenancy agreement if you think that legal issues will likely be an issue. Despite this, many issues develop over time, such as where you live falling into disrepair. To protect yourself against these potential problems, you can add legal and home emergency coverage to your contents policy. As the names suggest, legal covers legal fees if you have to go to court, while home emergency supports you with staying somewhere if your home is uninhabitable, for example.
Find something that works for you
These are our pointers for finding a contents insurance policy that suits you. However, these are only recommendations. You can best decide what suits your needs and your lifestyle. Explore contents insurance in greater detail and find the perfect level of cover.
Contents insurance starting from £2.71 / month*
*Additional terms and conditions apply.
