Personal possessions cover with car insurance

With fully comprehensive policies, you’ll usually get a degree of personal possessions cover, though check your documents to see what the limit of this may be. By contrast, with third party and third party, fire and theft policies, contents insurance generally isn’t included. The theft part of the latter covers the theft of your vehicle, but not any items left inside.

Sat navs and stereos are expensive items that live in our vehicles, so are they covered? Usually yes, if you have a fully comp policy – though there is a caveat. To be insured, your gadgets will typically need to be factory-fitted, so if you’ve made modifications to your sound system or any other electrical items you’ll need to let your insurer know to avoid invalidating your policy.

There are some items which insurers simply won’t cover, such as cash, bank cards or documents. Any business-related items are also unlikely to be insured, as these would require a business insurance policy instead.

Personal possession insurance also won’t cover you for any items left in plain sight – you must hide them from view, ideally in the glovebox or boot. Similarly, if there are no signs of forced entry, it’s likely your claim will be unsuccessful. This is because this suggests your vehicle wasn’t locked.

If you do make a claim, expect to be asked for proof of purchase. Without receipts, you may find you’re not covered. You may also want to take photos of any items that usually live in your vehicle to back up your claim.

That depends on your policy: each one is different, with some offering higher levels of cover than others. However, most standard policies will cover in the region of up to £1,000. Carefully consider how much cover you need and factor this into your search, as higher insured items will likely increase your premium.