A handy little app for calculating your home contents value

When insuring the contents of one's home against theft, damage or loss, it's surprisingly easy to underestimate the sum total of your stuff. For this reason, it's common for people to be underinsured, and hence fall short of being able to replace all their possessions in the event of a claim. Bad times!



But how much of a problem is this, exactly? Well, it's been estimated that homeowners may be underinsured to a tune of a whopping great 79 per cent*, as they believe their contents amount to an average of £10,717 - whereas the real average figure is closer to £50,000!



Eeek! What's to be done?



There are many free app's for the iPhone that will help you work out what your household contents are really worth, the Confused.com app in particular is very good. In turn, having a more accurate figure for their total value will greatly reduce the risk of finding yourself underinsured, and potentially out of pocket.



The Confused.com contents app ensures you overlook nothing!

To work out how much contents insurance you need, you can use our app to help you work out the exact inventory of your house. This can be used as a snapshot of your valuables, and can be updated at any time - such as after you've redecorated, or bought expensive new items.



Forgetting to include items in your inventory is just as likely to leave your final figure short as undervaluing what you do take into consideration. For example, have you tallied up all of your CDs, DVDs and books? How about your clothes? Or your bed linen? And it can be very easy to forget items such as carpets or curtains - which you would still have to spend money replacing in the event of a fire, for instance. But our handy tool can remind you of things you may otherwise overlook on a room-by-room basis.



The tool will also automatically recognise which items are high risk, or which will need to be insured if taken off the property - such as laptops, sports equipment or jetpacks.

Our splendid little home insurance contents calculator is available for free download from the Apple site from 23 March. Oh, and did we mention that it was free?



Other handy tips

• Some people overlook entire rooms. Don't forget the attic! And do you have any cupboards which house vacuum cleaners, or coats, or shoes, for example? Stick 'em all down!

• You mustn't forget to pop outside and list garden ornaments, bicycles and items stored in your shed. That is, if you want these included in your cover. Which you do. Again, our app will remind you of this.

• A 'computer' tends not be merely a computer. If there are any peripherals such as webcams, printers, external hard-drives etc, then make sure they're all included.

• Don't just guesstimate the value of your clothing - be thorough. You may have more suits, pairs of shoes or designer togs than you initially think.

• There may be a small fortune living inside your laptop, PC or your phone. Some policies will cover you for your downloads - such as software or digital music - so be sure to keep your e-receipts when you buy things online. You could make a new folder in your email program specifically for such purchases.

• Items you've bought for your pets may well tally up. Have you got a kennel, a tropical aquarium, or a diamond-studded collar for your beloved moggy? If so, make a note of it!



*Research by OnePoll during February 2010 amongst 2,000 homeowners.



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To download the home contents app and to get a free home insurance quote visit Confused.com