Remember To Insure For Christmas
With Christmas fast approaching the money matter on most parents minds will be how to afford it. There are the presents, the decorations, laying on a sumptuous spread for all the family and entertaining the kids throughout a school holiday. Panto’s, trips to the cinema, meals out with grandparents, these are all Christmas holiday treats I remember from my childhood which likely had just as much to do with keeping us occupied as anything else. Research from Churchill’s Home Insurance suggests we spend on average £119 on each of our own children’s gifts and £16 on gifts for other children we know. This certainly raises the cost of Christmas for many families, but how to afford this outlay isn’t the reason for Churchill pointing out the cost. Rather the implications of adding this much value into your home could have on your insurance cover.
One good thing is that most insurance companies raise the levels of your insurance cover over the holiday period, so unlike other occasions such as weddings, you don’t have to worry about covering the cost of gifts kept in the home. However for many people, especially parents, these goods will stay in the home after the festive period has ended or other gifts will arrive for your young ones to take their place. Indeed given that most children already have toys and entertainment equipment at a value of around £618 each it’s important that your insurance cover reflects the contents value of your home.
Reassessing insurance cover is important, since if your cover is lower than the value of your contents this can damage any claim you make, even if the claim itself is not for the entire value. Key points when your contents value increases is a good time to reassess whether your cover is still comprehensive for a couple of reasons. Partly, as illustrated by Churchill’s research of the value of gifts over Christmas, because this is usually when your contents value is boosted by a significant amount. It’s not only Christmas that we increase our home contents but most people will hesitate to revalue their contents every time they buy something new. This is something that should be done regularly, so re-evaluating every year around Christmas time and other big events will ensure you always have the best cover available.
There are benefits to regularly reassessing your insurance cover aside from ensuring your cover is adequate. For example it means not only looking at the level of contents cover you have, but also gives you an opportunity to see if changes in the insurance market will allow you to receive a better deal elsewhere. In addition, there are all sorts of other aspects to contents insurance aside from level of cover and cost, which make different schemes better for different people. Have you upgraded your laptop or camera? Is your insurance scheme good cover for when you are out and about as well as your static home contents? What about large value items? Many schemes need notification if you plan to insure items that make up a significant amount of cover on their own. Remember, when looking at insurance issues; make sure you shop around so you get the best deal available.
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