House content insurance

[M3mPh1z]

Hi All

The SO and I are getting a place together (both moving out from parents).

We are looking at options for house contents insurance, we worked out that we need roughly R130 000 cover.

Using Hippo Virgin was the cheapest but I didn't not even know they did insurance, slightly higher than that is budget.

I have however been told by many people to forget about these types of companies and go for Santam.

What are people opinions on other agencies vs Santam, also what sort of premium differences are we looking at?

I have requested a quote from them but will probably only get it on Monday so any advise in the mean time would be helpful.

Also when cost is a factor would you recommend going through a broker? I hear they get better rates to cover their 12.5% and get you better cover, is this true?

Thanks!

 

[LazyLion]

Santam is great. Also check out CIB. Why not go through a broker? We use Jurgens brokers.

 

[M3mPh1z]

Never heard of CIB but I will give them a shout as well, thanks

 

[rrh]

Get yourself a good broker ...

 

[Hemi300c]

Go through a broker. Yes they earn +- 12.5% comm on motor and 20% on the rest. A broker must declare his comm and any additional fees. A broker is there to assist you in every way possible. This helps expecially at the time of a claim. Please don't take anyone who is not compliant and cannot give you a financial services providers (FSP) number and rep certificate. I strongly recomend a larger know insurer through a broker.
If the premiums look better then others ther normally is less cover higher excess etc.

 

[dj_jyno]

Get yourself a good broker ...

Can't go wrong if you do. Our home, four vehicles and content attract a lower premium than some people are quoted for their vehicles alone. Our brokerage fee is around 6%.

 

[M3mPh1z]

Ok, seems it is a misconception that cutting out the middle man is better, thanks for the feedback guys.

I will phone some brokers on Monday, can anyone recommend a good brokerage firm in Cape Town?

 

[bromster]

Just bare in mind that you should get cover for ALL items in the house. We were broken into long ago. They took all the good stuff which accounted for well over half of the total contents value. I.e R100k out of a total of R150k

The insurance company then said that there was at least half of the contents of our home REMAINING, so they only paid out the other half. I.e R75k

Be very careful. Insurance companies are the devil. Rather pay a few extra bucks to be overinsured.

 

[louisek]

IMO R130k is insufficient. Start off with at least R250k to allow for inflation. I use Santam via Russell & Associiates 021-7975820

 

[^^vampire^^]

Also use Santam, you can't go wrong - minimum they do nowadays is R150k - which is fine for me but if there are 2 of you you probably have a lot more stuff and will require higher cover.

 

[SaiyanZ]

The way I see it, if you're not getting robbed every 3 years, the money you would've paid to the insurer could have been saved and used to replace the stolen items. I work in the insurance industry as well.

 

[ToxicBunny]

You must work in a strange section of the industry.

For my contents insurance, I'm spending about R300pm... If they did the normal thing and cleaned out all electronics from the house I would be out at least R70k... it would take a hell of a lot longer than 3 years to get that money together if I didn't have insurance.

 

[Hemi300c]

Theft/burglary yes, you can consider carrying that risk yourself, but it is a risk. Alternatively take a voluntary excess to reduce premiums, that way you will still have major theft cover.

However I strongly suggest that the above is possibly the only cover you consider carrying the risk yourself. I have seen plenty of fires and floods with almost total losses and that could ruin someone. So please Insure for this at least and don't have the idea "that that would never happen to me".

 

[M3mPh1z]

Thanks for all the feedback guys, best looking option at the moment is going with Santam to the value of R160 000, I was also given the option of upping value to R200 000 which will ad accidental cover, meaning if someone accidentally damages something, insurance will cover it.

Has anyone had experience with this accidental cover? seems like a useful feature at not too much extra

 

[I.am.Sam]

my broker offered me 150k cover for r100

i have my car ...going to add household and i have life cover with her and all works out to around 900 p/m

my car is 500 p/m cause its a golf

go with a broker

 

[muzee]

We are looking at options for house contents insurance, we worked out that we need roughly R130 000 cover.

+1 : use a broker

The R130k is most probably very low. You need to cover everything and at current replacement value (not the price you paid for it)

Use this template to help you determine how much cover you need
http://depositfiles.com/files/xz8px7x0k

 

[breakpoint]

Ok, seems it is a misconception that cutting out the middle man is better, thanks for the feedback guys.

I will phone some brokers on Monday, can anyone recommend a good brokerage firm in Cape Town?

Someone advised me to get a broker too regarding my home insurance so thanks to this thread I am getting a lot of feedbacks regarding different insurance companies.

 

[marco79]

Someone advised me to get a broker too regarding my home insurance so thanks to this thread I am getting a lot of home insurance reviews of different companies.

This is South Africa buddy!