Insuring your beloved belongings away from home

You may have a solid insurance plan for your contents at home, but what about those valuable personal items you leave the house with every day? Your expensive engagement ring, precious jewellery, and much-needed mobile phone are all important to you. Making sure you’re covered in case they’re lost, stolen, or damaged should be important to you, too.

What many people don’t realise is these kind of items aren’t necessarily covered by all contents insurance policies.

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Insurance for engagement rings, jewellery, and other personal items

At Suncorp, we call items you usually carry with you when you leave home are called ‘personal valuables’, but you may see other insurers call them ‘portable valuables’. This usually includes:

• jewellery
• wallets and purses
• mobile phones and tablets
• watches
• cameras
• laptops, and
• bikes (as long as they’re not being used for pace-making or racing).

Your personal valuables can be either specified or unspecified. Specified items are ones that you’d like to insure up to a certain amount (like, for example, a really precious and valuable piece of jewellery). In that case, you’d need to tell your insurer so you could list it on your certificate of insurance.

Unspecified items, on the other hand, don’t need to be explicitly listed. They’ll just be covered for the regular limit included with your insurance policy.

What’s not covered under personal valuables?

Although the general definition of personal valuables is anything you take with you when you leave the house, there are a few things that aren’t covered. This includes:

• sporting, leisure and recreational goods that are lost or damaged while in use (again, not including bikes, unless they’re being used for pace-making or racing)
• restoring electronic records
• items you’re exhibiting or are up for sale (for example, if they’re on your lawn for a garage sale)
• belongings you’re moving between permanent addresses, and
• personal valuables used for business purposes.

How to purchase cover for personal valuables

Not all contents insurance policies will include personal valuables. With Suncorp, for example, it’s an optional extra you can purchase on top of our Contents Only or Home and Contents policies. It’s all explained on our Home and Contents and Contents Only pages, so be sure to check them out if you’re interested in learning more.

How to make a claim for personal valuables

Claiming for your personal valuables isn’t any different to making a claim for your regular contents. For example with Suncorp, you can still make a claim online or by using the Suncorp Insurance App.

Make a claim 

Read more:

• Avoiding underinsurance: What to consider when buying home insurance
• Affordable ways to make your home more secure
• How to bring a real sense of self to your home

Insurance is issued by AAI Limited ABN 48 005 297 807 trading as Suncorp Insurance. Consider the Product Disclosure Statement before making a decision about this insurance. This advice has been prepared without taking into account your particular objectives, financial situations or needs, so you should consider whether it is appropriate for you before acting on it.

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