Burglaries soar during the festive season, with new smartphones, jewellery, bikes and other gifts offering rich pickings for thieves.
So it’s vital to know if you will be able to make a claim on your home contents insurance if you do fall victim to theft.
“It’s important to check the terms and conditions of your home insurance policy to make sure any Christmas presents bought or received will be covered,” says Alicia Hempsted, an insurance expert at the price comparison site MoneySuperMarket.
First, some good news: more than 80% of home insurance policies automatically increase your contents cover over Christmas (though they may not use the C-word in their policy wording), according to the financial information provider Defaqto.
Many policies include what’s known as a “seasonal increase” or “special events cover” in the run-up to, during and after a religious festival or celebration such as a wedding or the birth of a child.
This means they usually either increase your “sum insured” by a specific amount – typically anything from £1,000 to £10,000 – or by a percentage of your total contents cover, such as 10% or 20%, says Angela Pilley, a home insurance expert at Defaqto.
For example, Axa automatically increases customers’ home contents cover by £7,500 for 30 days before and 30 days after Christmas. With some insurers it will be less than that: perhaps 14 days on either side.
For more costly presents such as the latest smartphones, laptops and bikes, whether they are gifts you are giving or receiving, you need to check whether an insurer would consider them a “high-risk” or “valuable” item.
“This can vary from one insurer to another and can include things other than jewellery, watches or pieces of art,” Pilley says. “Some insurance products list televisions, computers, audio and video entertainment equipment or photographic equipment as ‘high risk’ and limit the amount they will pay for each item.”
Data from Defaqto shows that the limit on the value of each individual high-risk or valuable item can vary hugely: from £750 to £15,000.
It says the most common limit, applying to almost a third of home contents policies, is £2,000. Some policies specify a limit that is a percentage of the total sum you have insured: typically 5% to 20%.
“If an item exceeds the limit specified, you need to contact your insurer and arrange for it to be added as a ‘specified item’ for it to be covered,” Pilley says.
Watch out for the fact that your premium may increase if adding expensive gifts to your policy pushes the value of your contents above the overall sum you have insured, Hempsted says.
Quotezone, an insurance comparison site, has research showing that 70% of people do not inform their insurance provider when they have expensive gifts under the Christmas tree.
It urged people not to post photos of expensive gifts on social media because not only might these attract the attention of thieves, they might be viewed by your insurer as showing a “lack of care” for the items, and possibly cause problems with any claim.
With millions of us hosting over Christmas, that means more people (and maybe pets, too) in the house, and potentially more of a risk of mishaps.
“With lots of excitement and visitors in the home, accidental damage of valuable gifts or belongings can easily occur,” says Hannah Davidson, a senior home underwriter at the insurer Aviva.
Accidental damage cover is usually available as a paid-for optional add-on to your home contents insurance. Data from Compare the Market suggests that, typically, you can expect to pay about £25 to add this cover to a contents insurance policy.
