Watch Insurance-Home or independent 2016?

[knitware]

Hello.
Could anyone give some advice on the best value and most complete watch insurance option. Should I ring my house insurer, I should for a quote, or go to an independent insurer?

I have had one quote from Assetsure for £123, the policy seems good but the premium looks a little high, but then again as I’m green it could be a great price.

The insured value is £5000.

Thank you for your replies!!

[Trev450]

My home contents ins is with M&S and covers all unspecified items up to the value of £10k. So unless you have watches of a greater value than that, it may be worth getting a quote.

[The Leaper]

When you start to think seriously about this, a £10,000 limit for unspecified items is not very much, meaning that you're more likely to be under insured. Also, for a partial rather than total loss you are likely to only get a partial value paid out.

I have two watches of reasonable value and my wife some higher value jewellery specified for our home contents insurance policy, all at an increasing annual value, and the cost is pretty small compared to the insured and sentimental value.

R.

[Trev450]

Please don't take these comments as being in any way confrontational, but I'm not sure why you consider me to be 'under insured'. I don't own any single item on my contents insurance greater than a value of £10k, and the maximum claim limit of £300k is considered to be adaquate to replace all contents should the worst happen.

I'm also uncertain as to what you mean when you refer to a 'partial loss'.

Edited by Trev450 on Tuesday 8th March 12:43

[andy tims]

Hiscox home and contents for me

[knitware]

No independent insurance users? I'll ring my house insurance and see if they cover for loss and damage.

[h0b0]

Trev450 said:

Please don't take these comments as being in any way confrontational, but I'm not sure why you consider me to be 'under insured'. I don't own any single item on my contents insurance greater than a value of £10k, and the maximum claim limit of £300k is considered to be adaquate to replace all contents should the worst happen.

I'm also uncertain as to what you mean when you refer to a 'partial loss'.

Edited by Trev450 on Tuesday 8th March 12:43

Check the wording of your policy. It may be different in the UK, but in the US the $10k number you gave would be the limit for that category in any one loss. So, if you have 2 watches taken with value of $7500 each you would get $10k if they were stolen on the same day or $15k if stolen on different days. We have everything listed even with a value below $10k so that if my safe is emptied I get the value of everything in the safe and not the cap.

[Trev450]

h0b0 said:

Trev450 said:

Please don't take these comments as being in any way confrontational, but I'm not sure why you consider me to be 'under insured'. I don't own any single item on my contents insurance greater than a value of £10k, and the maximum claim limit of £300k is considered to be adaquate to replace all contents should the worst happen.

I'm also uncertain as to what you mean when you refer to a 'partial loss'.

Edited by Trev450 on Tuesday 8th March 12:43

Check the wording of your policy. It may be different in the UK, but in the US the $10k number you gave would be the limit for that category in any one loss. So, if you have 2 watches taken with value of $7500 each you would get $10k if they were stolen on the same day or $15k if stolen on different days. We have everything listed even with a value below $10k so that if my safe is emptied I get the value of everything in the safe and not the cap.

Good point and one I shall need to check on.

[GC8]

£10, 000 unspecified single item limit, surely, and not £10,000 in total?

[Trev450]

GC8 said:

£10, 000 unspecified single item limit, surely, and not £10,000 in total?

Yes you are right. I've just read my policy booklet and it places a limit of £25K on valuables so any number of items up to that amount can be claimed for with no single item exceeding £10K.

[h0b0]

While it is not exactly as I explained it still is a different limit to your assumed 300k. I would image there are a lot of people on this forum with over 25k worth of watches with each one not being more than 10k. It is a potential pitfall that we should all be aware of. Also, it is a category limit and some times that is "Valuables" in which case it also includes video cameras.

In fact,

Marks and Spencer Insurance said:

Valuables - Jewellery (including costume jewellery), articles of or containing gold, silver or other precious metals, cameras (which includes video cameras, camcorders and digital cameras), binoculars, watches, furs, paintings and other works of art, and collections of stamps, coins and medals.

If you have your house emptied you will quickly be over 25k.

[GC8]

Trev450 said:

GC8 said:

£10, 000 unspecified single item limit, surely, and not £10,000 in total?

Yes you are right. I've just read my policy booklet and it places a limit of £25K on valuables so any number of items up to that amount can be claimed for with no single item exceeding £10K.

Broadly, my comment was made in your defence. It was the other fellow who was confused.

[Trev450]

GC8 said:

Trev450 said:

GC8 said:

£10, 000 unspecified single item limit, surely, and not £10,000 in total?

Yes you are right. I've just read my policy booklet and it places a limit of £25K on valuables so any number of items up to that amount can be claimed for with no single item exceeding £10K.

Broadly, my comment was made in your defence. It was the other fellow who was confused.

Yes I guessed it was but I could have articulated this better.

[h0b0]

GC8 said:

Trev450 said:

GC8 said:

£10, 000 unspecified single item limit, surely, and not £10,000 in total?

Yes you are right. I've just read my policy booklet and it places a limit of £25K on valuables so any number of items up to that amount can be claimed for with no single item exceeding £10K.

Broadly, my comment was made in your defense. It was the other fellow who was confused.

That is the way I read it as well. But, not wanting to seem confrontational, because I'm trying to be the opposite, we have proven that I was not confused. I wanted to highlight where some people may be under insured. Originally, Trev 450 thought he was limited to 300k but in fact he is limited to 25k. That is a massive difference especially when you consider the definition of "valuable".

For example, in my case the cap is $10k and I am fortunate to have a decent camera that would eat into a great portion of that limit. This means that if I was mugged and had my watch and camera taken I would not be in a position to replace both even though individually they are both worth less than $10k.

So, in short, my insurance sucks and so I have to itemize even though on the surface it should be covered. Others should check that the cap on the valuables category is sufficient to cover them if they, and their wife, are mugged.

[GC8]

You arent the 'other fellow'! It was 'The Leaper' leaping to a half-arsed conclusion.

Edited by GC8 on Wednesday 9th March 20:10

[h0b0]

Oh dear. Then I'm guilty of jumping to conclusions as well.

My life has not been exciting enough to have ever been "The Other Fellow".

[Snails]

I might be telling some of you how to suck eggs and for that I apologise.

In the UK your home contents you will typically have limits that look something like this:

Contents : £75,000
Valuables/High Risk : £25,000 (included within the £75,000 above)
Valuables/High Risk Single Item: £5,000

You need to look at the 3 figures above and not just the headline Contents limit.

In addition to that you will find that a standard home insurance policy (Perils based with things such as Fire, Theft, Escape of Water, Storm listed in the wording) will NOT cover items away from the home OR loss of items (in the home or away) unless you have 'unspecified personal belongings cover' OR you have the item specified.

If you take out unspecified personal belonging it will have limits something like this:

Unspecified belongings: £5,000
Single item limit: £2,500

If you have any items you take away from the home over the single items limit it is probably worth specify them at a set value.

If you have an 'All-Risk' contents policy for your contents then you won't need unspecified personal belonging cover as the policy covers any and all of you contents anywhere in the world, but it will still have a contents limit, valuables limit and valuables single item limit.

Edited by Snails on Thursday 10th March 17:19