Have you made a claim on your house contents insurance and did it put your premium up a lot?

[Snowbell]

DD and DP left her rucksack on a train last weekend containing about £200 worth of sports equipment, and it hasn't shown up at Lost property. We need to replace this asap since it is the main competition season. I think it is worth making a claim since it is a lot of money. DP thinks we shouldn't as we will just pay for it with higher premiums. I know our premium is likely to go up if we make a claim but surely not by that much, and it would still be worth making the claim.

Does anyone have any experience of making a claim, etc?

I'd be interested to know too. DD has broken the third tv in a year.

Our premiums went up just be investigating the possibility of claiming - we didn't even proceed with the claim in the end. Bloody disgusting!

Do you have a policy excess by the way?

We have claimed twice in the past 10 years for problems in our house, both the claims were for a few thousand and our premiums didnt change.

yes we claimed (diy disaster) and our premiums went down by a good amount.
had to ask them twice when renewing.

Sorry not to come back sooner. I checked our policy and it seems we didn't chose cover for personal possessions outside the house. . Will be reviewing this when we renew!

Yes, I've claimed a couple of times (over 25yrs + of paying insurance mind you) but Premiums didn't go up either time. They were (in household claims terms) relatively small amounts like yours.

The premium will go up at renewal it's not worth claiming for £200 if you have an excess to pay its worth having excess insurance so you can claim it back if you have a fault claim

Disagree Nanny. Excess insurance can be useful but only if you have a chunky excess in the first place. Many excess policies can have T&C which make the cover very limited - so in a lot of cases you'd be better off saving the money you'd pay for them and put it towards reducing the excess on your home insurance.

I have claimed on my contents insurance and it made no difference to my premium - but it depends which insurer you are with, what you have claimed for and what your overall claims history is like. Things like a one-off loss tend not to matter too much. Theft or flood on the other hand, will usually have an effect unless there are very special circumstances attached which mean that a claim in these areas is unlikely to happen again.