How much should we insure the contents of our house for?

[bibbitybobbityhat]

Have had an unsolicited quote from the AA giving us a quote for contents insurance on goods up to £40,000.

But our existing policy with MoreThan covers goods up to £75,000.

I really have no idea how much we should insure for!

We are an average family of 4, live in perhaps a slightly larger than average 3 bed house, and have nothing of any huge value whatsoever. One tv, one laptop, one pc, ordinary furniture, carpets, possessions. No jewellery, art, antiques, pianos or anything unusually valuable.

Is £75,000 a bit excessive?

Any ideas?

Tia.

P.S. Sorry to be so grindingly dull, but renewal date is tomorrow so would be v grateful ...

40,000 seems a bit light to me. Add up the new cost of everything in your house and it is easy to get to that amount.

Bear in mind contents insurance has to cover everything not just the big items or valuables. The test I use is, imagine if everything got destroyed in a fire, how much would it cost to replace everything in there?

For example clothes may not be particularly "valuable" but think how much it would cost if you had to go out and buy a whole new replacement wardrobe for all of you. Same for kitchen stuff, bedlinen, towels etc. All of it's small individually but it soon adds up!

New carpets and curtains alone for a 3 bed house could easily be £10-15k.

rather than respond to unsolicited offers, get quotes off a few companies.

The policy (probably) gives New for Old cover, so they are allowing for the cost of new TV, new carpets, new clothes, new beds, new kitchen appliances, new laptop, new furniture, new curtains etc. However unless you have a fire or flood is is unlikely they will ever have to stump up for it all, so they don't mind giving lots of cover. Some companies quote per number of bedrooms.

I got combined home & contents from Legal and General at a very good price, and they give NCD. I did once have a water claim and ended up with lots of stuff (it was not my fault).

Your old company is probably not giving you their best price as you will be getting the Loyalty Punishment where they charge old customers more than new ones. When my old company offered to match my new quote I was so angry they'd been overcharging me for years that I told them to stuff it.

M&S do an unlimited buildings and contents policy, which was what I had in UK. Go round and add literally everything up - replacing PS3 games for example; DVDs, CDs, cookbooks, books, shoes, boots, everything in your kitchen. I could spend £75k and still need more to replace everything we have amassed over the years. I do the adding up exercise evry year, and found that the M&S policy was the best.

Remember, if you are underinsured, then you lose big time. Better to be over than under.