to be agog that my friends have no contents insurance

[AdmiralButterfly]

I mean it is none of my business but it came up in conversation. They have buildings insurance but not contents. So if they were burgled they would get nothing and if the house burned down they would not have anything to cover clothes and furniture etc. I am totally agog. They have all the normal laptops and TVs etc and all the usual burglar able things - jewellery, musical instruments, a bit of silverware.

I don’t understand how people are saying that they can’t afford £10 a month for insurance but they would be able to find £30 for a washer or £40 for some clothes. It just makes no sense at all. If you literally don’t have an extra tenner a month, there is no way on earth you will be able to replace your possessions if you lose everything, even with second hand or cheap stuff.

Because they are more likely to catch fire.

I’d be interested to see your source for that claim.

If you literally don’t have an extra tenner a month, there is no way on earth you will be able to replace your possessions if you lose everything, even with second hand or cheap stuff.

Or, you could save money monthly and if you never need to use it, you still have the money. It’s just a different attitude to risk.

@SachaStark, neither DH or I want to listen to crappy compressed YouTube and limited to YouTube availability or internet connection, we want the freedom to listen to the music we’ve already paid for when or where we want.

So, for me i rip CDs when I buy hard copies because I like having the flexibility of listening to either the electronic or disc version, depending on how & where I’m listening. My DH can’t be bothered with the technology and his collection is all on disc and he listens either on his sound system or in the car.

I’m reading this in bed...
Replacement costs would be

Bed&mattress £700
Electric blanket £80
Quilt £30
Pillows £300
Bedlinen £120
iPad £300
Pjs (me and dh) £50
Jewellery £3000

Bedside table £150
Lamp £30
iPhone £600
House phone £30
Fitness tracker £150
Earphones £20
Phone power bank £15

That’s just lying in bed, and what sits on the top of my bedside table! You better believe we’re well insured!

Lemons a lot of our cheap eBay goods are brand new, just cheap because there is a dint on the side of the fridge (somewhere it doesn’t show) etc. And slightly older second hand goods aren’t more likely to catch fire anyway (some people sell their TVs etc after a few months if a new model comes out). My husband is a mechanic and my dad is an engineer and they’re both happy with second hand things. Let’s face it, the average jumbo jet is well over 30 years old nowadays and yet we’re happily flying around in them!

Seriously- if you are the type that want brand new replacements instantly, and feel happier insured, then good for you. Some people aren’t as bothered, as long as we’re all happy, fair enough. I don’t know why people are so upset about others they don’t know not having contents insurance.

Yabbers

I was reading an article about it a few days ago, related to the Whirlpool tumble dryer fault. They were saying there that the problem with second hand white goods is that you won’t get recall notices but moreover you won’t know the history of the item. You’ve no idea if it’s been mended by someone who may or may not be qualified or left outside in the rain for example.

Our contents insurance is less than £10 a month. I just totted up the value of goods in my living/dining room - about £5,000 and we don't live expensively at all, everything is from Argos or IKEA. That's just one room. It's not worth the risk.

Larry do you have that cite for second hand goods causing more fires than new? Assuming they are the nearly new type second hand described up thread and not some ancient electrical fire hazard?

the problem with second hand white goods is that you won’t get recall notices

You can sign up for alerts by model number with most manufacturers without having to prove being the original owner.

I'd also love to know where people can get contents cover for 2.50 a week and what exactly it covers.

SachaStark On the “making a house feel homely” front, I’m confused as to why you’d need to do that all at once. Surely you’d do the same thing you did when you first moved into your own place: you buy your decor items and hobby stuff bit by bit as and when you see something you want?

But the point of insurance is to return you to the point you were at when the insured peril happened. Not to the point you were at decades ago when you were setting up home and made do with any old bits and pieces you bought when you could afford something.

You can add "new for old" cover, so you don't have to buy an equivalent of the tatty sofa you'd been parking your arse on for 15 years, but can get the same kind of sofa again but brand new. You can buy "all risks" cover, so your engagement ring is covered for when the stone falls out unnoticed on your way round a DIY store. Or when you take out your nice new bike, because that's what bicycles are for.

I had to claim recently when someone put a lit firework (full size rocket) through my window. As you can imagine, it causes a lot of damage as it explodes!

Yes I could put up cheap curtains and live without carpet but I don't want to - I worked to make my home nice and I would want it replacing with the same stuff

Two houses opposite MIL’s house burned down a couple of months ago. Someone had put some hot ashes from a coal fire into a wheelie bin. Both houses have oil tanks next to the wheelie bin (no mains gas in the village hence oil heating and coal fires) and both houses were completely gutted. One home owner got slightly burned rescuing her dog.

Imagine how you must feel if you weren’t insured and your house caught fire because of the neighbour’s carelessness?

Funnelfanjo is spot on with all the expenses of replacing everything like for like. I think most people think of contents as stuff that goes into a removal van, but they are wrong. Contents covers carpets/flooring, curtains and light fittings as well. Kitchens and bathroom fittings are covered by buildings insurance.

“who on earth still buys DVDs and CDs??”

I no longer buy them, but I have loads from before the digital revolution – a lot of them being classical music. DD still buys the odd box set.

"Yes I could put up cheap curtains and live without carpet but I don't want to - I worked to make my home nice and I would want it replacing with the same stuff"

Quite. I'm not a student.

Some people really don't have much though. When DP and I first lived together a £1k would have replaced all of our contents.

"Some people really don't have much though. When DP and I first lived together a £1k would have replaced all of our contents"

Same here, but that was nearly 40 years ago. I have no wish to live like that again.

But the point of insurance is to return you to the point you were at when the insured peril happened. Not to the point you were at decades ago when you were setting up home and made do with any old bits and pieces you bought when you could afford something.

But that point isn’t decades ago for many. All (and I mean all) my furniture is either off free cycle or eBay. There’s really no point in insuring it. It’s perfectly nice and I’m very happy with it but valuable it ain’t!

*Bed&mattress £700
Electric blanket £80
Quilt £30
Pillows £300
Bedlinen £120
iPad £300
Pjs (me and dh) £50
Jewellery £3000

Bedside table £150
Lamp £30
iPhone £600
House phone £30
Fitness tracker £150
Earphones £20
Phone power bank £15*

Let’s compare:

Bed and mattress - free
No electric blanket
Quilt - free
Pillows £4.99
Bed linen £11.99
Pj’s - free (given to me by a friend in a bag of clothes that didn’t fit her)
Jewellery £4.99
Bedside lamp £2
Bedside table - free
iPhone £100
House phone £8.99
No fitness tracker
I do have a kindle fire £35

I’m not on the breadline either. I have perfectly nice stuff. It’s just not worth insuring.

I'm in a private rental and I have contents insurance. I was lucky that when I was broke I could still just about afford it, but there are other things I would cut out first to keep it. I view it as cheaper than replacing my entire life in the event of a fire.

I have a fair amount of stuff because my rooms were unfurnished so I had to provide. My family gave me a lot of things to start out with too, so that would all cost to replace as I've already had what can be spared for free. Plus all my clothes, make-up, jewellery etc would all add up. And just posessions in general. I've just totted up and I've under estimated my insurance, I think. It really does all add up.

Also if you haven't been victim to a fire or similar, I don't think you can comprehend how it is to have to go out and rebuy your life the next day. I've had a customer come in the day after a fire to buy her DC some new clothes. House was still up, smoke damage was the main culprit so she was luckier than some Pp here but she was in shock, couldn't really go home, and was overcome with the amount of stuff she needed to replace just for them to stay somewhere. That was with the insurance company taking care of the bigger picture, too.

I think the point that some posters are missing is that having gone through the trauma of losing your home in devastating circumstances, camping out on a mattress on bare floorboards just isn't going to cut it.

The posters on here who have gone through something as awful as that deserve a little more empathy than just being told to get a fridge from Freecycle

Those that are saying’ oh my pjs were free, or my sofa was off gumtree’ you are missing the pint spectacularly - if your house went up in flames tomorrow, you won’t nexessarily be able to put and replace those same things for free!!! You will probably have to go out and buy a quilt or a pair of pjs. There may be no sofas for sale on gumtree, that chest of drawers that you upcycled using paint you had left over will take time and money to replace (because you jo linger have any paint let along leftover paint!)
Insurance isn’t about the cost of items that you paid but rather the cost it would be to replace them, espcially if you need/want to replace it all as soon as possible to help you feel at home again and can’t wait around for weeks/months for something to pop up free/cheap.

Like someone said just having to buy school uniform/pants/socks/PE kit/bag/coat/shoes/scientific l calculator/trainers/phone/notebooks/pens and pencils/water bottle/lunch box/ for 3 kids just so that they can continue on with everything they need for school would easily be £100s of pounds, actually probably close to £1k, that’s without normal clothes/pjs/books/bedding/furniture/soft furnishings/toys/ etc etc

Funnelfanjo, it's because some of us who are comfortably off self insure. I'm very under insured for contents, but could afford to do a basic house re furnish at minimal notice.

Agree entirely @BrieAndChilli. Already know I'd be replacing all my inherited bits so extra unknown costs on top of the bits I bought and can price up.

Customer was in shock, too. The amount of stuff to get was really extensive in one go.

We don't either 🤷 And won't be getting it.

Whoever was the PP asking what cover you get for under a tenner a month, here's the policy booklet for my cover: www.sainsburysbank.co.uk/~/media/files/pdf/homeinsurance.pdf?la=en

I'm covered up to £75k as well as having accidental damage and possessions outside the home cover. DH's expensive watch is insured individually on the policy. It's £95.50 for the year (£100 excess).

Posts like this always show the true ignorance of the 'haves' vs the 'have nots'

For a few years there was no way I could afford insurance...I wasn't earning enough to cover the basics and every month were were getting further into the red.

I made the decision to cancel our contents insurance and lived under a cloud of "what if?" stress the entire time. The moment my finances improved to have a tiny bit spare after basics contest insurance was the first thing I started paying for again.

To say "It's only £5 a month blah blah" shows that despite all the news reports and stories on here some people still don't understand that £5 a month is more than others can afford.

It depends on someone's personal circumstances. Yes for many contents insurance is sensible, particularly if you can't afford to replace everything quickly.

But for others who can easily afford to replace everything quickly eg have liquid savings, they make a judgement on whether they would rather take out insurance or take the risk of needing to pay out if the worst happens.

So I don't understand why the op is "agog" at not having contents insurance. It's a valid choice for some.