What is Contents Insurance?

If you are like most homeowners, you have purchased property or homeowners’ insurance to protect you against a variety of situations. This type of coverage will pay to repair or even to entirely rebuild it from the ground up if necessary. Such coverage is ideal to repair or rebuild your home after fire, flooding and other types of disasters. However, the contents of your home is not covered by property insurance. Separate contents insurance cover will need to be purchased to replace your personal effects inside the home. In a 2011 article printed in The Telegraph, it is estimated that approximately 6.8 million residents in the United Kingdom either do not have contents insurance or do not have enough insurance to replace all of their home’s contents.

What Is Covered?

Contents insurance is vital to ensuring continuity of your life and preventing major financial loss when your home is damaged. It is estimated that the average contents inside a home may be valued around 45,000 pounds. However, this can vary significantly based on the size of the home, the amount of electronics, the cost of furnishings and more. The average person’s wardrobe alone may be valued at over 10,000 pounds by some estimates. Contents insurance will pay to replace your clothing, your furnishings, your housewares, your electronics and more. Even the cash that is in your wallet may be replaced if it was damaged.

How Much Do You Need?

As you can see, you can experience considerable financial loss if your home is damaged and you do not have contents insurance. Likewise, you may also experience loss if you do not have enough coverage to fully replace all of your home’s contents. With this in mind, it is wise to go through each room of your home and estimate how much it would cost to replace all of your items. Consider everything from your sofa and chairs to your shoes, socks, jewelry and books.

Protecting Yourself From Loss

Keep in mind that your contents cover will only reimburse you for the cost of items that were damaged or lost. In order avoid issues when filing a claim, consider taking photos of every room in your home. Open up drawers, cabinets and closets, and take photos of those contents. Don’t forget to photograph the items in your attic, garage, basement and other related storage areas. Then, keep your photos in a safe place, such as with a family member, in a cloud-based storage solution or in a fireproof safe. Keep in mind that if your home is damaged by a fire, photographs stored in your home may also be damaged.

Nobody wants to think about the possibility of being displaced after damage is done to their home, but there is peace of mind in knowing that property insurance may pay to repair the damage to the physical structure and contents insurance may pay to replace the contents inside your home. If you do not have contents cover or ample cover for your needs, consider shopping for this important insurance today.

What Can Online Auto Insurance Services Offer Me?

I'd like to introduce you to three online auto insurance companies. Three companies that you may or may not have heard of previously, but that would certainly be worth a few minutes of your time. Insurance.com, 21 st Century, and Costco. Available around the clock for anyone in need of late night auto insurance information, these three sites have three distinctly different layouts, which cater to various aspects of the shopping public.

Insurance.com allows consumers to purchase auto insurance online, a highly valued commodity in today's fast-paced society. Visitors can also compare quotes from other leading auto insurance companies or consult the insurance learning center for numerous articles and tips. A Verisign secured site and a member of the Better Business Bureau; Insurance.com sends a clear message that any and all customer information is secure and kept totally private. Easily navigated, Insurance.com is a must see stop in your online auto insurance travels.

21st Century Insurance Company another online auto insurance site, is perhaps the most well rounded and well developed of the three. 21 st Century visitors can get an online quote and even compare that quote with offers from other top auto insurance providers. 21 st Century even allows visitors to compare coverages offered by various companies, a break from the norm in a business that thrives on reeling in the customer and keeping them blinded to other companies' altogether. If you have already had the good fortune to become a 21 st Century customer, you can make a payment online, add a car or driver to your policy, or even print ID cards if yours have been misplaced. Another Verisign secured site that is a member of the Better Business Bureau, these clearly displayed emblems give visitors peace of mind for a safe and secure transaction. 21 st Century even offers their entire website in Spanish for non-English speaking clients. Very clear and concise in everything they offer, 21 st Century has a crystal understanding of online auto insurance customers wants and needs.

Costco is perhaps the well-known grocery retailer for many people, with perhaps the biggest network. Offering free quotes for online auto insurance in all the major states, Costco works primarily through various affiliated provider companies such as Ameriprise. These companies have signed up with Costco to make their offers available to a broader consumer audience.

Costco surveys the premiums presented by each company, and provides the online auto insurance shopper with the best of these (You can read more at: Costco Auto Insurance Review). The website is completely secure, and the quote process itself is extremely detailed in order to provide the consumer with the most concise quotes possible. Though it offers little more than the chance to receive a precise and extensive quote, Costco nevertheless eliminates valuable time otherwise spent surfing around for better offers.

The world of online auto insurance providers is vast and varied. Someone always seems to have a "can't miss" special or a "must see" website. When your policy renewal date next comes around, listen to your pocketbook, and take a glance at these three providers before signing on the dotted line.