How does Insurance work?!

TheDean

TheDean

TheDean

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Ok so,

I am insured with a large Swiss insurance company and dropped my 42" plasma while moving it. I have claimed on my accidental damage cover and a company called 'Riverside' (who apparently specialise in insurance replacements?! Strange?!) have told me they will replace it with a Samsung PS42Q96HD. Now the Tv I had, which Samsung no longer make, was £1,600 when I bought it 2 1/2 years ago - Am I not entitled to ask for £1,600 worth of new Tv rather than accept this one?
What options do I have?

Cheers,

TheDean
 
No, read your contract. You'll find that you've got insurance that replaces "like for like", so they'll give you the value of what they consider a reasonable replacement.
 
Basically the only option you have is to read the Policy document. Odds on it says new for old and some text re nearest current equivelant.

Designed to stop people dropping the telly , getting the cash and then buying a cheaper one.
 
platypus said:
No, read your contract. You'll find that you've got insurance that replaces "like for like", so they'll give you the value of what they consider a reasonable replacement.
Click to expand...

But surely a 'reasonable replacemnt' would be a high end one given the fact mine was top of the range when I bought it?
 
TheDean said:
But surely a 'reasonable replacemnt' would be a high end one given the fact mine was top of the range when I bought it?
Click to expand...

but a top of the rage gfx card from 4 years ago could have cost more than an ultra but would not be its equivalent.

you get a Tv that will be of the same size /quality as your old one.
 
You'll have to read what it says. A Pentium II 266 with 64mb ram used to be a beast and would cost over £1000 but if you had it insured (for some bizarre reason) on a like for like policy would you expect a Quad core with 4gb ram as a replacement?

I think you can get new for old policies but you'll have to see what yours says.
 
You are usually entitled to 'new for old'. Many insurance companies now replace the item to reduce fraud, but you are entitled to the cash and they can't insist against it.
 
One of the fundamental tenets of insurance is that the claimant should not be in a better position after the claim, than they were before. This principle is stretched by the concept of new for old, but your argument would take it to an extreme as £1600 now would get you a lot more TV than it did when you bought it.

I have heard of cases for motor losses where the claimant has had to pay towards the cost of replacement tyres as they were in a better position post lost than pre.
 
If the model you had, was superior to the model offered you can ask for a different one, but you would have to quantify it. My advice would be to find an up to date model, with the same features and benefits as the one you have and ask for that. That way you are in the same position post loss as pre. You have the right to ask for the same manufacturer if you bought the original on quality grounds.
 
Tefal said:
but a top of the rage gfx card from 4 years ago could have cost more than an ultra but would not be its equivalent.

you get a Tv that will be of the same size /quality as your old one.
Click to expand...

That sounds about right.

They will try and source a TV with as similar a specification as possible to the broken one, in part to reduce the number of people deliberately breaking their 3 year old TV's in order to get a (current) one that costs as much but is a much better spec.

You can argue if the TV's specs are lower or different to the one that was insured, so you could argue to get a Sony if the insured one was a Sony rather than a Medion as the replacement, or if say the old TV had more inputs or a specific feature that the new one doesn't (you could expect for example to get a TV of the same size, same or better contrast, same or better inputs).
 
Just got off the phone with them & asked for cash, rather that a replacement. The woman advised me to e-mail a link of a similar Tv and they would pay me however much that is. Sent in a link for a LE40F86BDX :)
I'll see what they say
 
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