Insurance claim question

Slinkie · 31 Jul 2013 at 10:24

Hi all,

I recently dropped and broke my £500 laptop at home. Before I go and buy another one I thought I might look into the insurance route of claiming on my house insurance.

I have had my contents insured with no claims for 6 years, I think the excess is £100 but I’d need to check on that.

What I want to know before I enquire with my insurance is has anyone else got experience of this? How much is my premium likely to increase by claiming and what is the process likely to involve to get a replacement/ money for a replacement? I’m wondering if with an increase in premium and excess is worth the hassle of me having to deal with the insurance company and the time it might take to sort it out.

So I’m looking for
Is my premium likely to go up much?
How long does it take to sort?
What would I have to do?

The reason I haven’t gone to my insurers first is I only want to notify them if I am definitely going to go ahead with it.

[FnG]magnolia · 31 Jul 2013 at 10:27

Your insurers will want to know what 'recently' means.

merlin · 31 Jul 2013 at 10:34

Contents no claims bonus is practically worthless so losing it typically makes minimal difference to the premium.

Generally insurers will want a written estimate confirming the laptop is beyond repair and then an estimate (or print from the internet or whatever) for cost to replace with similar spec'd laptop.

You'll need accidental damage cover, being as you dropped it. If you dropped it within the home that's fine - if you dropped it away from/outside the home check your policy.

skyripper · 31 Jul 2013 at 10:38

Some insurers will push you to getting a replacement from their 'specialists'. In my case this turned out to be Empire Direct. I remember having an interesting conversation with their 'expert' on the differences between Celeron and Centrino, dual channel ram and a proper gfx card as opposed to onboard gfx and the merits of faster HDD vs bigger HDD.

If the spec of the replacement is not comparable or better than the spec you just trashed, then make sure you do not accept it. You may have to provide evidence of what an acceptable replacement would be.

Raumarik · 31 Jul 2013 at 10:42

Depending on how you purchased it you may have accidental damage cover via your credit card etc.

Worth checking out too, policies vary massively though from how much to how long after purchase.

Slinkie · 31 Jul 2013 at 10:51

Recently as in Monday evening.

The one thing I don't want to have to put up with is a lot of hassle in getting estimates and sending the laptop off etc as it is the only computer I have at home and I'd need a replacement fairly quickly. I just wanted to know what the process involved any how it would affect my premium.

I might just write it off and buy another.

lettucefire · 31 Jul 2013 at 10:53

i spilt a glass of water over my macbook pro recently and put in a claim a couple of days later (i use Royal Sun Alliance)

Claims process was easy they collected it via dpd who put it in a crate and it went away for analysis. Two days later the repair company deemed it uneconomical to repair and they had a new macbook pro at my door the next day. I was also given the option to get my hard disc back in a caddy for £30.

Raumarik · 31 Jul 2013 at 10:56

Slinkie said:
Recently as in Monday evening.

The one thing I don't want to have to put up with is a lot of hassle in getting estimates and sending the laptop off etc as it is the only computer I have at home and I'd need a replacement fairly quickly. I just wanted to know what the process involved any how it would affect my premium.

I might just write it off and buy another.

So it's working? What's wrong with it?

Slinkie · 31 Jul 2013 at 10:59

No it's not working, but I'd assume they'd want proof so I'd have to send it off for review?

Nexus · 31 Jul 2013 at 11:01

I made a claim for an iPad last year after it fell from a chair and the screen smashed on one of the metal castors.

Phoned Direct Line Insurance and reported it and paid the excess charge.
The next day they sent a courier with a padded peli case to collect it. It went to a large electronics goods service centre, I forget the name but I believe a lot of insurance companies use them. I was told they can take up to two weeks, but I heard back in three days that it was beyond economical repair, so they were giving me money for a new one, though the claim was on an iPad 2 and as it was no longer sold they gave me credit for the latest equivalent iPad.

The option at this stage was either a cheque, however it was of much lower value, or vouchers, which was actually more than the value of it. I took the voucher option which was for Currys and they arrived a couple of days after the phone call and I went and bought a new one.

It was actually quite speedy and my renewal for this year didn't really go up by more than a few pounds.

My sister claimed for an Apple MacBook Air with the same insurers, took slightly longer than my iPad did, but then they also removed the harddrive to send it back.

EDIT: In answer to your updated question, yes you won't claim anything without it being assessed first, and you won't get the broken item back.... except with the likes of computers where they can return the harddrive or do a data recovery for you, but that will be charged for.