To claim for TV on contents insurance

[Hufflemuff]

My TV is broken! For months we've been getting strange color lines from the top right hand corner going down. So when we watch football, the green grass has a blue tinge through these lines. The TV was £500 and isn't even 3 years old, its an LG so you'd expect it to last a lot longer!

I'm going to call curry's this morning but I expect as it's over 1 year old they won't do anything.

Last time we replaced the TV because one of our cats jumped up at it and it fell over and broke. We didn't claim on contents insurance and never have done before.

My question I guess is, is there any downside to claiming for £500 TV? We only pay about £10 a month because our house isn't big and we dont have any luxurious items. Would your premium jump up to something silly like £30-50 a month when we renew?

Would it not need to have had an incident to become damaged in order to claim? I don't think you can claim otherwise

They will take it in for testing/repair and see it wasn't damaged, unless you plan to throw it or something. How much is your excess? Probably not much less than a new TV and yes your premiums will go up. Have a look in Tesco they had TVs stacked up best the entrance on offer at my local one recently

I'd complain to LG / Curry's first.
If they won't help I'd get a second hand TV rather than going through insurance.

You can’t claim anyway, there must be an insured peril to claim against and there hasn’t been one.

It will be classed as wear and tear or mechanical failure which is excluded.

is there any downside to claiming for £500 TV?

Well, it would be fraudulent.

You cannot make a warranty claim through Currys but you can make a claim under the sale of goods act as the TV is less than 6 years old. You will not be able to get a new TV but if they cannot repair it you are entitled to a replacement of an equivalent second hand TV. Don't claim on your insurance for faulty goods.

Apart from being fraudulent, your premium will rise exponentially, so you’ll pay for the cost of a replacement TV through your renewal. Even if you have a ‘new for old’ policy, you will probably only get what the insurance company can buy a TV for, which won’t be the retail price.

As others have said, to claim for accidental damage which didn't actually occur would be illegal.

Even if the morality doesn't stop you (and it should), it's really not worth the potential downsides for the sake of £500 (minus what you lose through increase in premium): as well as the criminal sanctions you could receive for this, insurance companies share data on fraud, so you may find it a lot harder to obtain insurance in future - including types of insurance that there's a legal requirement to have, such as car insurance.

there's no valid claim to make. This is just a tv that's gone wrong.

No, for the same reason as you can't claim off your car insurance if it breaks down.

Good point! Didn't think of it from this perspective but that makes total sense.

Check your cover - is this kind of breakdown covered and your excess to see if it's worth claiming?

Without reading your policy no one else can possibly answer.

Next tv buy it from John Lewis or Richer Sounds for a longer guarantee and you will get it fixed that way!

Update! I called Curry's and this particular TV screen has a 5 year warranty... so its going away for some TLC!