Quillan Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 I would never ever advice people NOT to have insurance, just to make that quite clear.You books may well have the value inside the cover or on the back so you could make a list. Why not go and ask your insurance company in France or if it is a holiday home I believe (though not sure) you can get insurance in the UK what the situation would be.The French are very good at keeping paperwork for warranty, insurance etc. Perhaps it's that we have differen/better consumer laws in the UK and don't see a problem with throwing receipts away. If you TV does go bang and it's inside it's warrenty I doubt you will have much luck getting it repaired without a reciept. I seem to remember a post a long while back where somebody had the same or simular problem (no receipt, no repair) with a French supermarket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Kathyit's such a coincidence that you have mentioned not bothering with contents insurance. i was coming to that conclusion anyway. although we are fully covered here in the uk, i have been trying to think when we last claimed for anything. the anwer is never!the way i look at it, all our costly things tend to be jewellery bought in the far east (where the gold and gems are of wonderful quality) or family heirlooms and our musical instruments. as the instruments cost too much (by way of premium) to insure, we have just accepted that if we had a fire, we would be more worried about other things than our possessions (such as our pets). and a burglar is unlikely to cart away a piano and violins.after taking into account the excess on the cover, it's never seemed to us appropriate to claim. after all, these days, if the tv or hifi or whatever get damaged, you just tend to go out and buy the latest or better model, don't you?as you say, we will all have different ideas of what is "valuable". i have come to the conclusion that the real value of our things tend to be sentimental ones and you can't put a price on those, can you?was it oscar wilde who made a scathing remark about people who know "the cost of everything and the value of nothing"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Don't forget for customer service claims, according to recent posts here you also need the box.FWIW we started a system a couple of years ago with one of those concertina box file jobs, as we buy a product we staple on the till receipt and file it. Just claimed under the 2 year guarantee and got a new slow cooker.For insurance claims, be careful. I have a collection and apparently that means that claims for individual components of it would be limited to seven items I think, the rest would be 'a collection' and count as one item ! Careful of those books ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catalpa Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Even in the UK you normally have to have expensive items (or a collection) individually listed - as specified items - and a value agreed. Most of our worldly goods are still in (insured) storage in Wiltshire but when they come out, we'll have AGF / AXA etc round to quote on general contents replacement in case of burglary or catastrophe and will also ask them to quote for individual cover on various pictures, ceramics etc. It will be interesting to see if they will insure on the basis of an English valuation because, of course, most of the items we have would be worth more in the UK and could only be replaced from the UK.There is a British-owned, French registered insurance company based in France - Dordogne-ish direction I think - who insure British-style. And the premiums are therefore much higher than the French highstreet AXA. But it has been suggested that if you want British-style insurance cover (and payout) as opposed to the very iffy French cover (if only you'd kept the receipt, if only you'd told us the painting was worth more than 100euros, if only you'd got a French valuation)... they are a good option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathyC Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 sweet17It's not the burglars I'm worried about; as my mum used to say"they'd have to bring it in before they could steal it!" Although I've never had a fire, the thought of having to replace everything without any insurance cover is rather scary; even if your furniture is secondhand/IKEA it would still be disastrous if you couldn't claim without receipts. We've claimed a couple of times in the last few years; freezer contents, carpet ruined by leakage, that sort of thing.RHI've never thought of books as a collection; we used to have very average contents insurance until one day we looked around, counted the books and multiplied by £10. We immediately tripled our insurance which alerted the insurer who thought he could sense a fiddle in the offing until he came round and stared in amazement. I don't think he could believe that anyone with so few furnishings could have so many books! As far as book prices on the jacket goes, this assumes that some of your books aren't priced at 2/6 as some of my husband's beloved Penguins are.CatalpaCould you possibly pm. me with the name of the insurer you're talking about. Obviously they may be too expensive but it sounds as if it's not really worth forking out for French contents insurance from what has been said here. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 It would be interesting to look into the book issue. My husband has books on natural history, astronomy etc, some of his books have jumble sale prices on the cover, some £100. There is also a collection of Observer books (anorak, him ? [;-)] ) many of which were between £20 - £40, frightening when you add it up. Just my own books on Quimper Pottery are often fairly pricey, some are just no longer availableIts one thing to be concerned about run of the mill copies of fiction, but when it comes to reference books ? [:(]Did you have to catalogue yours ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathyC Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 [quote user="Russethouse"]Did you have to catalogue yours ?[/quote]No, thank God; life's too short! Your husband's book buying habits sound very similar to my husband's; eclectic in the extreme! At least mine are 95% fiction but even these can go out of print.(Perhaps we should catalogue them; it'll give us something to do on the long winter nights in France.[:)]) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catalpa Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Kathy - I think the company I remember is (or was) Entreprise Tredinnick but I've not been able to find their website. However, if you Google something like France House Insurance (which is wot I did) there now appear to be several companies who do what they describe as British insurance. FrenchEntree website appears to be a good place to find that type of information. I shall investigate further... but not this evening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathyC Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Thanks Catalpa, I'll do it tomorrow; thanks for the suggestion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.