Contents insurance how do they work help?
 

Having issues on contents insurance,i know an approx figure of the worth of all my stuff with having insured them when shipping from uk to oz.
When i look at quotes i was basing myself on the total amount of my stuff in value.
They then seem to offer you these extras like if you have portable items,ok we all probably own gps,mobiles,ipad,etc etc
Which you could say would be classed as portable and i think a few companies offer cover if you take them out and about with you and even overseas,which yes costs extra.
Im not really bothered about that to be honest,but more if we got broken into or total lose of contents due to a fire etc etc.
Say someone broke into our house,ok there not gonna take away a large sofa,fire surrond,hifi etc,or hey they might.
They are going to take the things that are easy to take and light etc like laptops,phones,ipads smaller items and even cd collections,console games and dvd blu rays etc.
Now say i just cover my items the whole amount for a certain figure,we get broken into and say many of my blu rays,laptop and say ipads etc have gone,will they pay up?
Or do stuff like this need to be listed and where does it end when you list as it could be never ending.
Lets just say i own a large collection of console games,a very large collection of blu rays,i mean a huge collection,and say some watches,chains and above items and only they go missing in a theft,will the insurance pay out,why do we need to list each item,i have many collections of many items and have a lot of stuff it would be a nightmare to list all.
And for exsmple my blu ray collection on some of the insurance site/quote pages there max would not even cover my price paid.

Im just a litle confused if many items need to be listed or just a few things and why,ok i can understand if say i listed 2 ipads,my laptop, but really when it comes to hifi's,dyson hoover,some items not so large but could a fair bit is it needed.

Im maybe looking into the contents insurance too deep or seeing it the wrong way,but ok yes with all insurance companies we all can have trouble making claims,but what if i have everything listed under a total amount and if say we did get broken into and smaller items went missing we could take photos of these to prove we owned or had them.

My main reason for having contents insurance is for total loss as you never know what could happen,but also i read that theft is common in some areas around au,so im looking to cover myself for this side also.

For example back in the uk,i had a contents policy for a certain amount,nothing listed in it just the amount of cover,never in 20+yrs needed to make a claim,courier drops off a parcel,i pop out for a few mins,wife upstairs on phone,never hears the guy come in the front door,he sneaks upstairs and steals mobile from bedroom.
Hard neck yes,wished i had caught him on my return as i had pretty much been away mins,anyway police contacted,crime files number and no chance of getting phone back claimed from insurance another phone.job done.
It was not listed in the insurance policy and thats what im trying to figure out over here with the insurance companies here.

Re: contenets insurance how do they work help?
 

Sorry Brian - were you after some advice on contents insurance? You're post is not clear.

Re: contenets insurance how do they work help?
 

Look at Suncorp contents insurance. You don't need to list individual items below a certain value (which is variable dependent which level of cover you choose).

Re: contenets insurance how do they work help?
 

brian.w . . . if you are concerned about losing some technology which is important to you, just list the main ones.

My contents insurance in Adelaide included cover up to $1000 for anything portable which I would take from the house, for example mobile phone, iPad, watch, jewellery and bike etc., but I took out a small additional cover for a nominated more expensive bike which could be damaged or stolen. However, be aware of the excess you might have to pay when making a claim.

I suggest you have a chat with someone at the insurance company.

Re: contenets insurance how do they work help?
 

I'm with Suncorp too and have portable bundles cover (or something like that). It includes $x amount for computers, $y for CDs, $z for DVDs ( as specified by me) but nothing is listed separately.

Re: contenets insurance how do they work help?
 

If you do not fully insure the contents, and many companies do a quote based on the number of rooms in the house, and you are broken into, they will look at the value you had insured your contents, and the value they calculate you should have insured for, and reduce the amount they pay out based on that. So if their calculated value is $70,000 and you only insure for $20,000 then you will only get 2/7ths the value, even though all that was stolen was the $20,000 items you had insured.
Much simpler to pay the full premuim and at least get the full amount back if anything happens

Re: contenets insurance how do they work help?
 

so what your saying i could list most my stuff for a value i have approx and get portable bundles cover on another policy?i do have ex amount of cds,games and blu ray that are worth a fair bit,what did you mean nothing is listed separately? and what about the likes of ipads,laptop,phones,ipads just under normal insurance on total value?

Re: contenets insurance how do they work help?
 

Not sure how Aus. works, but in the UK, and in Spain, you only needed to list items over a certain value, and a normal policy would cover portable items outside the home, you just had to give a value if it was above the value the Insurers quoted.

Re: contenets insurance how do they work help?
 

Brian, honestly, each insurer will have their own requirements - you'd be better directing these questions to them as the last thing you want is to end up not being properly covered.

Re: contenets insurance how do they work help?
 

You need to ask the person on the end of the phone these questions, not a forum. Insurance policies are not standard across Australia and policies by provider will differ. I cannot see any benefit of asking these questions on a forum as what somebody mint describe on here is not going to be what you will get unless you check by asking.

Re: contenets insurance how do they work help?
 

Call the Suncorp helpline. I told them what I wanted and they talked me through it.