Contents insurance may come in very handy if your house suffers various forms of natural disasters, fires or the attention of burglars.

Here are a few points that may be worth keeping in mind:

• some policies may contain what is called new-for-old replacement of contents – that basically means that your items will be replaced by new equivalent items;
• other cheap home insurance quotes may include only the typically cheaper market valuation replacement, which basically means the cost of your items lost will be calculated based upon their present day second-hand value (remember in insurance that what may prove cheap for someone else may not prove cheap for you);
• you may find some contents insurance where the insurer will allow you to choose between the two forms of cover, perhaps saving a little on your premium if you opt for market value replacement;
• some specific contents may be excluded by your policy – that may include things such as high value jewellery, antiques above a certain value, fine art, cash, rare and valuable documents etc;
• if you have an items or items that individually are of very high value, it may be a sound idea to discuss the specifics with your insurer as they may put together a special schedule covering such items to ensure they’re covered – though that may also result in additional cost;
• some general household contents insurance may not cover your commercial items and equipment, if you work from home or store goods there – so if you store stock and occupation-related tools in your garage or spare room, you may wish to check with your insurer to make sure that protection is in place (once again, a typically modest extra premium may be involved);
• contents cover insurance may require that you take certain common-sense security steps to protect your home, for example, you may be required to ensure that deadlocks are fitted to doors and that windows are also lockable – some policies may offer financial incentives if you install an alarm system;
• the position with respect to external items (garden furniture, tools stored in sheds, plants in pots etc) may be complicated, with some policies covering and others excluding – there may be no alternative but to read the policy detail to ascertain what is the case with the policy you’re considering;

It might also be worthwhile to look carefully at what a policy offers with regards to other people’s property in your home – for example, if you offer to temporarily store some of a relative’s possessions while they are moving home, not all contents insurance policies will necessarily cover such circumstances.

When you have many valuable items inside your homes, it helps to have everything insured. This is most important to people who like collecting many valuable items. However, even if you have a normal living standards, it would still be wise to have an insurance for all the things that you have at home.

A contents insurance is just the thing you need. Stated simply, this form of insurance will pay for you to replace everything in the house that you have included in the insurance coverage. While this may sound silly at first, you just have to be one step ahead. Everyday there are certain things that we cannot predict. A lot of internal and external factors are at work every moment at the day, and some could be destructive. In the event of natural calamities like earthquakes, storms, flooding and tornadoes, your homes could disappear in an instant. Everything that you have worked for could be damaged beyond recovery.

Other than natural disasters, there are still other things that may cause damages to the things you own inside the house. an intruder who breaks in your homes could took off with some of your most expensive jewelries, decors, art objects, laptop, electronic gadgets, among others. Even some crazy drunk neighbor could unexpectedly cause some vandalism in your very homes.

Getting a contents insurance for things you own is one thing, knowing the sum insured, or the total value of all the things you insured, is another. The sum insured also refers to the total amount that you will receive to replace all the things that you lost. If you make a wrong, inaccurate assessment, you may either end up being under insured or over insured. Some people simply do not want to bother making a careful computation of the cost of each item that they want to be included in the insurance coverage. If they get themselves over insured, they would end up having to pay for a higher insurance premium.

On the other hand, neglecting some little things will make you become under insured. This means that in the event something happens and you lost everything, you will be not be paid enough to get everything back. The right way to go about this is to consider every little things and big things in the house. that’s because when you combine the values of those little things, it becomes a big one. Also, consider if you would be covered on new for old items. This means that if you have some old things in the house that gets damage, the insurance company will pay you to have it replaced to a new one. You might also want to have your home better secured such as the use of locks and alarm systems, because they will help you get some discounted rates on the insurance premium.

If you value things that you own in the house, better get them insured with a contents insurance. This way, you make sure everything does not go to nothing when you lost them. You can easily replace everything and bring it back altogether in one piece.

David Bester is the content coordinator for a household insurance website in South Africa.

Contents insurance is there to help pay for the replacement of personal items in an home. This could be a home you are buying or renting. It could also apply to an apartment or other dwelling where you are residing. The items that can be included are furniture, clothing, jewelry, and any other items that aren’t part of the structure of that dwelling.

How much will it Cost?

If you are the owner of the dwelling, then you can get contents insurance as a rider for your homeowners insurance. This will cost you less than getting this policy alone. The amount of it though will depend on the value of the contents. If you have pieces of jewelry that are worth thousands of dollars then your contents insurance premiums will be higher than someone that doesn’t have such items on hand.

The replacement cost of such items is what will determine your contents insurance premiums. For example if you have a TV that is 5 years old, you may not think it is worth anything. Yet to replace that TV it could cost $900 for a new one. That is the price that the insurance will use to calculate the total replacement costs of your contents.

Don’t Assume you are Covered

Many people feel that they don’t really need contents insurance. They assume they are already covered. Either by their homeowners policy or through the landlord’s policy on a particular dwelling. It is very important to understand that this isn’t always the case. Too often people assume they have such coverage, but it isn’t until they need to file a claim that they learn it doesn’t exist with the policy that is in place.

Documentation

In order to accurately inventory the contents for the insurance, you need documentation. Photos of the items or a video is a great idea. Make sure you get every single item in the room. Get plenty of close ups as well as images of those that are far away. This will help you to easily identify anything that may be missing. It also helps to verify to the insurance such items were in your home.

This documentation can help you to get your claim filed faster. It will also make filing the mandatory police reports easier. If you come home and find that items are broken or missing, don’t touch anything. Call the police so that they can look for clues and fingerprints. Then you can ask for permission to take photos of the scene for your insurance company.

Keep the Policy Updated

While you don’t need to make an addition every time you buy an item, you do want to keep your policy updated. If you sell items or you replace them with new ones you want to make sure that is all documented. Keep a record of the dates of such changes. Every 3 months or so you should look over your contents insurance policy. That is when you can make those additions and deletions to ensure it is all current.

David Bester is the content coordinator for a household contents insurance website in South Africa

Insurance is meant to give buyers peace of mind. This covers everything from one’s home to one’s life. No one ever wants to deal with financial loss on top of dealing with the disaster at hand. Often overlooked, this applies to your diamond jewelry as well. Diamonds are a beautiful, precious – and expensive stone. They’re meant to wear a lifetime. They’re tied to wonderful memories. It’s no surprise that you should insure them against disasters big and small. Homeowner’s and renter’s insurance usually don’t give full coverage for your fine jewelry. Many policies do cover theft, but what if your ring goes down the garbage disposal? That wouldn’t be covered.

Wedding rings by Print North East

Diamonds are a true investment. They are very sentimental. What of that diamond ring your fiancé so lovingly searched for, wanting a perfect symbol to recognize your future together? What of your mother’s wedding ring that was her mother’s and her mother’s before that? The last thing you want is to lose or damage those beautiful pieces of jewelry. If the unthinkable happens, however, you don’t want to be dealing with the financial cost of replacement and loss of financial investment at the same time. This is why diamond jewelry insurance is so very important.

Check your current policies. Find out what they cover in terms of your jewelry. Does your policy include fine jewelry? Does it include engagement rings and diamonds? Does it include accidents and loss, not just theft? What are the limitations of coverage in comparison to the estimated value appraisals of the jewelry? These are questions to ask your insurance provider and yourself before you can make a decision as to the need for additional jewelry insurance.

There are two main types of policies; floater and standalone. A floater policy contends that if something happens to your jewelry, you get the value of your ring in cash, or are given a new ring. A standalone policy contends that a jewelry appraiser appraises the value of the jewelry, and you’ll receive the appraised value, as opposed to what you paid for the jewelry. A general estimation for cost of your insurance would be $10 for each $1,000 of jewelry value (be it purchase cost or appraisal value.) Obviously that varies state to state and company to company, but it’s a good rule of thumb to estimate what you’re looking at in terms of cost.

Insuring against the financial loss when disaster strikes does not make the loss less painful, but it does lessen the financial burden you face when losing or damaging something that has a financial investment. If you have a car accident, you don’t want to deal with all that while having to pony up money for damages. When a house burns down, you don’t want to have to deal with replacing everything and wonder where the money’s coming from. You don’t want to lose or damage your beautiful, sentimental diamond jewelry without being able to replace it. Get your jewelry insured today, and make it part of your overall safety net. Peace of mind is always a good thing.

Sarah Harris is the Marketing Manager at Adiamor Engagement Rings. Adiamor offers a large selection of engagement ring settings, loose diamonds, and other fine diamond jewelry at affordable prices.

One of the most important things you as a homeowner can do to protect your investment is to insure your home and property. Contents insurance is a vital component of your insurance protection, yet it is one of the least understood parts of a comprehensive home insurance plan. Your insurance agent can help you in determining which contents insurance coverage is right for your family’s needs, but some general guidelines can also be helpful in your decision-making process.

General home insurance policies cover the cost of rebuilding your home in case of a fire, flood, or other destructive event. Contents insurance, as the name suggests, covers the expense of replacing the contents of your home in these same events. These policies usually cover items lost to theft as well, allowing you to replace your destroyed or stolen property without serious financial repercussions. Contents insurance policies can be divided into two general types: actual cash value and replacement value.

Actual cash value policies offer you the current value of your lost items at the time of the claim. Since property usually depreciates, or decreases in value, over time, this type of contents insurance is often less expensive, but offers a lower payment for your lost items. For instance, if you lose a recently purchased stereo system, it’s likely your insurance company will give you a payment equivalent to its used value, rather than the amount you paid for it new. In some cases this can represent a significant financial burden, especially if your property will be difficult to replace with equivalently used items.

Replacement value policies pay you the amount it would cost to purchase your items at the time of loss, allowing you to immediately buy replacements. This can save you time and worry during a stressful situation. However, replacement value coverage is more expensive and requires that you keep your insurance agent up to date on major purchases.

Some types of items have limits on coverage; any losses over this limit will not be covered. Such items include jewelry, cash, rugs, computers, firearms, rugs, and silverware, among others. These items can be covered at full value by adding an endorsement to your policy or by purchasing optional supplemental coverage. However, most insurance companies also limit contents insurance coverage to a certain percentage of the structure limit, the amount the insurance company is required to pay to rebuild your home in the case of a total loss. Your insurance agent can give you more details on exactly how much and what kinds of things are covered under your contents insurance policy, and how best to protect your home and belongings.

Many home owners likely do not understand content insurance or its significance. Some policy owners believe that the contents of the home are covered by the home owner’s insurance policy. In this budget-conscience time, more and more policies are being written with fewer and fewer frills. Often times these frills are riders on home owner’s policies which reference personal property. Today, probably more than any other era, people own costly portable devices. What happens if an iphone costing hundreds of dollars is crushed in a door or perhaps a high end laptop drops in a sink full of water? The truth may be surprising. Some home owner’s policies only include items which are permanently attached to the insured home or structure, leaving many items uncovered or covered with a high deductible.

Content Insurance on Home Owner’s Policy

Content insurance is available in a number of varieties, from specific coverage of jewelry or heirlooms to general coverage of belongings. Often specifics will appear as a rider on a home owner’s policy. It’s a good idea to read the latest copy of your home owner’s policy. Some policies cover the home contents with a $1,000 deductible, which is not too useful if the cost of a deductible for a loss resembles a mortgage payment or outweighs the cost of the loss.

Tailored Content Insurance

In contrast, content insurance is likely to have a wide variation of deductibles as low as $50 to the $500 range. Often it can include items which can be transported in and out of the home. Always check the fine print. Some examples of these items can include: portable electronics such as mobile phones, laptops and cameras; surfboards, kayaks, skate boards, bicycles, camping gear and even garage items like pressure washers, snow removal equipment, chain saws and more. Specific items should be discussed with the agent when a tailored policy is necessary.

Inventory Your Possessions

It’s also important when selecting a content insurance policy (or a rider on an existing policy) to thoroughly inventory all valuable possessions in the insured home and/or structures. This should be updated yearly before existing coverage is renewed. Costly possessions may be too expensive to replace, but a call to an agent is free.

If you’re renting your home, then you may need to look into getting your own contents insurance. Even if your landlord has homeowner’s insurance on the property that you reside in, that’s not enough. You need contents insurance because your landlord’s homeowner’s insurance only covers the property.

Anything that you own within the home that gets damaged or lost won’t be covered. It would be a total loss for you. Why risk losing everything you own that you’ve worked so hard for? If you get contents insurance for tenants then your items that get ruined or lost will be replaced or given a monetary value for.

Many unpredictable things can happen to renters just as much as they happen to homeowners. Protect your items from loss by theft, fire, or flooding. There are also other features that you can add onto your contents insurance. You can pay an extra monthly fee to add additional coverage for legal fees, and also for items that you take out of the home regularly like cell phones, laptop computers, and GPS devices.

If the residence that you rent is fully furnished, your landlord probably has the items covered by homeowner’s insurance. If you were to damage any of these furnished items out of no fault of your own, you would still probably be charged for these items by your landlord deducting the fee out of your security deposit. If you have contents insurance then these items would be covered and the fees wouldn’t come out of your security deposit. Having the insurance will not only cover the value of your possessions, but it will also cover the value of your security deposit.

If you share a rental property with a roommate, you may want to look into taking on a special type of cover. Specialized insurance agents for these types of situations sometimes cover all the tenants shared belongings, or they may cover one individual tenant and their own belongings.

Make sure that when you’re assessing the value of your contents you place an accurate value on your belongings. Be careful not to underestimate the value of your items, and also it wouldn’t be any good to overestimate the total value of your belongings. This will help to insure that you have the right amount of insurance to cover your items and the right kind of insurance also.