If you’ve splashed out on food, decorations, presents or entertainment for a Christmas to remember, then you might want to make sure that you’re covered for any unexpected incidents.
Also known as Christmas cover, our celebration cover protects you for the occasions and festivals you celebrate, as well as Christmas.
We’ve put together this quick guide to help you decide if this extra cover will benefit you.
Home insurance and gifts
If you’ve invested in a present for a family member that lives in your home and it’s worth over £2,000, you can declare it on your home insurance policy as a specified item – that's if it falls under our definition of a high-risk item.
If it's a present you’ve bought for someone else who doesn’t live in your home, you won't need to specify and declare it as you’ll have to remove it again once it’s out of your home. This is when our celebration cover can be really useful.
With our Platinum home insurance, it'll automatically be insured for up to 30 days after buying it under the 'new purchases' extra cover.
Examples of high-risk items include:
- any collectible articles which are rare or unusual
- musical instruments, cameras, audio or sporting equipment
- computers, laptops, mobiles phones, tablets and notebooks
- jewellery, watches, pearls, precious metals or stones
- pictures, prints or works of art
- stamp, coin or other collections
My gift is worth £2,000 or less
Even if you’re not spending that much, you may still want to insure your presents.
Celebration cover protects you for presents that are at your home until they’re gifted to someone else.
Insurance for guests’ possessions
If you have friends and family staying over during the festive season or for celebrations, then their possessions may be insured too.
You’ll need to check this with your insurer as different providers offer different types of cover, but our Gold and Platinum contents insurance covers items from £500 and £1,000 respectively.
Cover for freezers
Storing food in a freezer is a great way to save money, especially if you’ve bought party food and joints of meat in advance for the big day.
Many policies protect the contents of your freezer, including our contents insurance.
The amount covered varies depending on what policy you’ve bought – this will be explained in your policy documents which you can check in MyAccount.
Cash gifts
While it’s easy enough to transfer money to someone online, some of us are still old-school and like to gift cash by putting it inside cards.
Cash in your home is insured up to the limits shown in your policy documents all year round. This limit is anywhere between £250 and £1,000, depending on which level of contents insurance you have with us.
We always recommend banking cash as soon as possible because the insured limit does not increase around celebration times for most policies.
Where to store presents
Celebration times - Christmas in particular - is a prime opportunity for thieves.
At Christmas, don’t leave presents under the tree for passers-by to see if they’re visible from the window.
Lofts are great for storing presents and possessions but be careful where you place your footing - we deal with several cases each year where people have fallen through ceilings trying to get gifts or decorations down from the loft!
Outbuildings are less secure, and while your policy may protect you against theft if they’re securely locked, it’s unlikely to extend to high-risk items (excluding sports equipment).
Again, check your policy documents in MyAccount to make sure you know what’s covered.
Increasing your contents insurance cover
You may want to increase the total value of your insured contents after the celebrations are over, especially if you’ve received lots of presents. In this case, you may be able to amend your policy.
This is simple to do but it may increase your price. If you received a very expensive Christmas present that’s worth more than £2,000, make sure it's listed on your home insurance policy as a specified item.
If people in your home have received a few expensive presents too, then it's worth checking if you still have enough contents cover to cover them all or if you need to increase it.
Head of Admiral Home Insurance, Noel Summerfield, said: “Make sure your contents policy is updated when you buy any high-risk item (worth over £2,000), such as jewellery or a new television, so you know they’re covered.
“The value of most items can be searched on the internet, but antiques or jewellery should be valued by a professional before adding them to your policy."
Our celebration cover
All levels of our contents insurance include the extra celebration cover as standard.
This automatically increases the value of the contents insured at your home by £3,000 for Admiral cover, £5,000 for Gold cover and £10,000 for Platinum cover for 30 days either side of the date.
What counts as a celebration?
We know that there are many reasons to celebrate throughout the year. That’s why our cover insures you for:
- religious festivals
- your wedding day
- the birth of your child
- special events
If you’ve got a wedding or you’re welcoming a new child into the world, you don’t need to tell us in advance for the cover to be effective.
But we may ask you to give us some sort of evidence if you need to make a claim (like a venue booking receipt or a doctor’s note).
Log in to your MyAccount to double check what’s covered.
