Insurance isn’t usually something you think about often. You may want insurance for added peace of mind for yourself and your family when it comes to your house, car, and important belongings.
Whether it’s policy renewal time or not, it’s good practice to regularly review your insurances to help ensure you have the cover you need.
Here’s a few things to consider when reviewing your insurance policies.
Home insurance
Many people only consider their home insurance needs when buying a property. It’s worth reviewing your policy each year so you know your coverage continues to meet your needs.
If you’re buying a home, you may want to have insurance from the moment you have a contract on the property. There are many competing priorities when buying property, but it pays to take the time to help ensure your insurance policy is suitable for your needs.
Once you know the level of cover you need, consider whether your current policy meets those needs and is within your budget. If not, you may need to do some research to find a more suitable policy.
Some questions to ask yourself:
- Do you require flood cover?
- Do you require cover for natural disasters (i.e. storms or bush fires)?
- Would it be helpful to have accidental damage cover?
- Is your house at high risk of break ins?
Contents insurance
While home insurance covers your home building, and often other buildings on the property, your contents insurance generally helps cover the valuable stuff inside. Contents insurance is often bundled with home insurance, so it’s easy to overlook the details of this policy.
While the insurance requirements for your home shouldn’t change dramatically, what’s in it could be changing all the time, so it’s important to thoroughly review your contents insurance.
Contents insurance policies often cover a wide range of items found inside your home, which could include furniture, electronics, and even carpet and curtains.
Some policies, such as Building and Contents – Comprehensive Cover, and Comprehensive Contents Insurance (Accidental Damage Home Insurance, Listed Events Home Insurance, Fundamentals Home Insurance) may also cover theft of contents such as your wallet, and credit and transaction card misuse.
There’s a sliding scale of cover options when it comes to contents insurance, from the basic level of cover to accidental damage or loss cover.
Consider whether you’re happy with your level of cover and the price you're paying for it.
Some questions to ask yourself:
- What kind of valuable items do you have in your home?
- How much would it cost to replace them?
- What is indoors versus outdoors?
- Do you need accidental damage cover?
Motor vehicle insurance
As with all insurances, there are many variables when it comes to car insurance policies so it’s important to know what level of cover you signed up for, and if it’s still relevant for your situation.
Starting with your primary vehicle (car or motorcycle), we recommend you review your policy and level of cover.
Generally, policies start with basic coverage of Third-Party Property insurance, and go up to Comprehensive cover that covers your vehicle and any other vehicle or property if you’re in a crash.
Some questions to ask yourself:
- What level of cover do I want?
- Who drives my car and will they also be covered?
- How far do I drive?
Police & Nurses Limited (BCU Bank) ABN 69 087 651 876 AFSL 240701 acts under its own AFSL and under an agreement with the issuer Insurance Australia Limited trading as CGU Insurance ABN 11 000 016 722, AFSL 227681. Any advice provided is general advice only and does not take into account your individual objectives, financial situation or needs (“your personal circumstances”). Before using this advice to decide whether to purchase a product, you should consider your personal circumstances and the relevant Product Disclosure Statement and Target Market Determinations.