Insurance explained - what are Personal Possessions?

Insurance companies can sometimes throw words and phrases around assuming everyone knows what they mean. Here we explain what Personal Possessions are.

Whilst home Contents covers the items you have in your home, Personal Possessions refers to items of contents that you might use, wear or carry whenever you leave your home.
 

Also known as ‘all risks cover’, Personal Possessions cover will typically cover your items for loss, theft or damage anywhere you go, including abroad.
 

Some home Contents policies will include Personal Possessions cover as standard, though for most it’s an optional extra which comes with an additional cost.

Having Personal Possessions cover may mean you can save on your travel insurance (as you might not need to include baggage cover) and may mean you don’t need separate gadget insurance if your mobile phone and other bits of tech are covered under Personal Possessions. Just be sure to check how how many days you can travel abroad with your home insurance provider.
 

When looking at Personal Possessions cover you’ll normally get it on a sum insured basis. You should aim to choose a cover amount that represents the maximum value of your items that you (and anyone else covered by your policy) might go out with at one time, not the total value of everything you could possibly leave home with. For example, if there’s 4 mobile phones in the household, valued at £1000, £750, £500 and £250 each you might set your Personal Possessions at £1000 so that the most expensive one is covered for the full amount. As more than one mobile phone is unlikely to be lost or damaged at the same time, you don’t need to add the value of these together and the lower value ones fall under the sum insured limit. Of course if your phone is normally buried in a handbag you might want to add the value of the handbag and everything else you keep in there just in case the whole lot goes missing.