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Single item insurance

Pay less by only insuring important items like your phone and laptop with single item insurance.

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Gary Hunter
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With single item insurance, you can cover one or more individual items in your home. It's slightly different from traditional contents insurance because it lets you pick and choose specific items you want to protect, such as your phone, laptop and camera.

What is single item insurance?

Single item insurance is a pretty unique and relatively new type of insurance that covers individual items, from cameras to bikes, rather than whole categories, in the way that contents insurance does. It basically means you don't need to insure every item in your home if you just want to protect the important stuff like your laptop, camera and phone from being damaged or stolen.

Single item insurance will usually cover your listed items (you can insure more than one) for loss or damage that occurs inside your home. These events ordinarily include cover for storm, flood and fire, as well as theft and attempted theft. You can also sometimes get insured for theft outside your home and accidental damage. So for instance, if you drop your phone and it smashes the screen, single item insurance could reimburse you for the costs.

Who offers single item insurance?

As its popularity increases, there are now a number of providers offering single item insurance. Some of these providers are:

Is there a difference between single item insurance and portable contents?

Yes. Single item insurance functions like contents insurance, except for individual items, not everything in your home. That means you're covered for loss or damage to the listed items if something occurs inside your home. Portable contents insurance, on the other hand, protects your items when you take them away from your home.

Some single item insurance policies will let you add on cover that's a little like portable contents insurance, e.g. cover for theft anywhere in Australia. Generally though, a standard policy will not provide cover for your items outside of the home.

Should I get single item insurance or contents insurance?

It really depends on how many items you want to insure. If you just want to protect a couple of things, like your phone and laptop, then single item insurance is probably going to cost a lot less than a contents insurance policy. However, if you want to insure several items, then contents insurance will offer better value for money.

Keep in mind that contents insurance covers everything that is not permanently attached to your house. This can include everything from carpets and curtains to furniture and whitegoods, as well as personal belongings like your laptop, camera and phone.

What's covered?

Single item insurance generally lets you insure the same items that would ordinarily be covered in a contents insurance policy. These items include:

  • Jewellery and watches
  • Laptops
  • Mobile phones
  • Cameras
  • Bicycles
  • Personal electronics
  • Gaming accessories
  • Musical instruments
  • White goods e.g. fridges, ovens etc
  • Sporting and camping equipment
  • Furniture
  • Home audio and visuals
  • Tablets
  • Desktop computers

What's not covered?

There are some items that single item insurance ordinarily won't cover. These include:

  • Motorcycles, vehicles, caravans and trailers
  • Motorised golf buggies or carts
  • Ride-on lawnmowers
  • Mobility scooters
  • Tools, e.g. work equipment such as drills and saws
  • Any items and stock used for your business or profession
  • Gemstones

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