HOw much are your contents insured for, and why?

[AnyDream]

Hi all

Contents insurance renewal time has rolled around again, and, like every year, I wonder about the value I have the contents insured for, whether it really represents the amount it would cost us to replace everything in the worst case scenario.

How much are your contents insured for, and what is your reasoning behind that figure?

[Beautiful Disaster]

Hey MD.

You need to estimate what it would cost to replace EVERYTHING from your kitchen to your undies and everything in between. Inusrers say the lowest is $35,000 but ours is insured for $60,000 I think and being in the industry I dont even think that is enough.

Just a heads up there has been about a 20% increase in home and contents insurance this year so its definatly worth shopping around and with all that has happened so far this year there are going to be more increases to cover the amount of claims that are going through. ALL of Australia will notice the difference. If you dont want to sit on the phone to a gazillion diff co. PM me and I will do quote for you at work.

HTH

[Astrid]

About $85,000. Can't fully remember why I came up with that figure, it was $80,000 but increases each renewal. Think I may have used an insurance calculator at the time. To be honest I am not sure if it will cover everything, I know DH wants it to be almosst doubled as we have been slowly upgrading things around the house.

[Hansie]

Ours is $200,000. I did a calculator a few years a go and at that time it was $180,000. We have since moved house (sept '10) and bought more pieces of furniture, tv etc and increased it then by another $20,000.
To get to this figure I had to count all the DVDs/CDs, Pants, t-shirts, forks etc and say what quality they were, there was 3 levels. I thought about the product ie our 3 wheeler pram and if the standard figure didn't cover it I raised it to the next level.

[diannescruffy]

Ours is insured for $80,000, I had no idea when asked by my insurance company and the lady I was talking to gave me this figure.

Regards,
Dianne

[briggsy's girl]

Ours is $200,000. I did a calculator a few years a go and at that time it was $180,000. We have since moved house (sept '10) and bought more pieces of furniture, tv etc and increased it then by another $20,000.
To get to this figure I had to count all the DVDs/CDs, Pants, t-shirts, forks etc and say what quality they were, there was 3 levels. I thought about the product ie our 3 wheeler pram and if the standard figure didn't cover it I raised it to the next level.

yeah ours is similar
it sounds like way much but i have a record of all our DVD's (some 24k worth - none have been downloaded), CD's, Books, collectibles. as well as our normal furnishings and white goods/entertainment. we do have a lot more than the average four bedroom place because we combined two homes into one and didn't get rid of one full house full! we also have some antique furniture. i worked out what the basic, average, and high "values" meant on an estimator, and we had to go the high level - and had to go with the higher level to accommodate everything.

our insurance renewal comes up in a couple of months, and i have to contact a few different "specialty" places to get values of collectibles, as well as providing our insurer with "evidence" - we have taken photos and keep them away from home to support any claims we may make.

i have a rello that used to be an insurance broker (how rude of them to get older and retire!) and they wouldn't let us under-insure. ok, so my parents argued and are still under insured, but we are pretty adequately insured i believe.

we pay fortnightly, rather than annually, so any increase is a small increase.

actually, i need to contact them again before our holiday - need to add my phone as a seperate item - and make sure stuff is covered while on holiday

[nothing2lose]

Our contents are insured for just over $250,000. On face value it seems like a lot but I really worry it wouldnt replace everything we have (material things, I mean, not sentimental) if there was a fire, etc. For that coverage we pay $550 a year.

As the other posters say, if you lost everything and had to replace clothes, shoes, whitegoods, books, dvds, toys, entertainment items (pc, tvs, dvd players, phones, games consoles, etc), furniture, sporting equipment, jewellery, as well as the million other bits and pieces in a home - crockery, saucepans, small appliances, all the crap that fills your miscellaneous drawers, etc, etc, etc), even $250,000 would run out pretty quickly!!!

Hope that helps

n2l

[Beautiful Disaster]

yeah ours is similar
it sounds like way much but i have a record of all our DVD's (some 24k worth - none have been downloaded), CD's, Books, collectibles. as well as our normal furnishings and white goods/entertainment. we do have a lot more than the average four bedroom place because we combined two homes into one and didn't get rid of one full house full! we also have some antique furniture. i worked out what the basic, average, and high "values" meant on an estimator, and we had to go the high level - and had to go with the higher level to accommodate everything.

our insurance renewal comes up in a couple of months, and i have to contact a few different "specialty" places to get values of collectibles, as well as providing our insurer with "evidence" - we have taken photos and keep them away from home to support any claims we may make.

i have a rello that used to be an insurance broker (how rude of them to get older and retire!) and they wouldn't let us under-insure. ok, so my parents argued and are still under insured, but we are pretty adequately insured i believe.

we pay fortnightly, rather than annually, so any increase is a small increase.

actually, i need to contact them again before our holiday - need to add my phone as a seperate item - and make sure stuff is covered while on holiday

BG - PM me what your actually building is insured for I might be able to help you with those 'specialty' insurers

[LimeSlice]

Our contents itself is $100k. On top of that though are the heirlooms, my specifically listed jewellery, laptops, camera, and my stock for the shop. All up it is over $200k (most of that being made up by 3 particular antiques).

The other thing we discovered is that sot furnishings are covered under contents, and not the building insurance - so carpets, blinds etc are replaced from that contents insurance, and not when they rebuild the house. Something to think about.

[M22]

100K- would be enough . I used to work for insurance and almost everybody under-insurance there contents

[LionsandBears]

Ours is $85K. We just redid it. I'm pretty sure it's accurate though i don't know what would happen in case of fire and the car in the garage was damaged, whether that's covered by car insurance or contents insurance.

We're just doing our life insurance now. i hate forms and the details the want are so private.

[Junglemum]

Ours is about $90,000 It was $60,000 but that was no where near enough. We don't have a lot of stuff but you would be surprised at how quickly it adds up. Especially things you don't think of like linen, clothes, kitchen goods.
If you make a bit of a list then add $20-$30,000 for things you didn't think of, you'd be close.

[AnyDream]

Thanks everyone. I was actually enquiring because I thought perhaps we are overinsured (it's indexed annually and it has crept up pretty fast). I have a vague recollection about asking about a lesser amount but the savings wasn't very significant. Had a read about the policy inclusions etc, it's pretty darn comprehensive...they even pay a $100 if you score a hole in one at golf .

[fionas]

ours is about $95K - I used one of the itemised calculator things but guessed each item if that makes sense. So I've got no idea if we're adequately covered for things like books, clothes and all those individual things that you have a lot of.

[Astrid]

Pays to check your policy as there are often limits on certain items like DVD's (I think ours is $1000), so if you actually have more than that you need to specify it separately. I think the safest thing is to actually call them and see what your policy will or wont pay out on certain items. We have added extra coverage which just covers up to $1000 for items away from home, we mostly got it to cover our trailer if it was stolen, as it would be about $1000 to replace these days.

[BeautifulMadness]

not enough...need to up date it its @ 50 thousand

[Sopdet]

I'm about to ring up and upgrade, have increased the amount of items, replaced some of the older items etc, also moved.

I'm thinking about $150k this time around, since the replacement items for the older items has equalled about $10k and that doesn't include anything new I've purchased (like phone & laptop)