Responding to news from the ABI that 1 in 4 UK homes has no contents insurance, despite the cost of insurance at a record low, Charlotte Halkett, MD of insurance product at buzzvault said:
“The ABI’s figures come at a time when sadly the absence of home contents insurance is really felt through flood and escape of water resulting from our winter weather.Whilst it is good news that the cost of contents cover is at a record low, the sector should not be slapping itself on the back.The fact that 1 in 4 homes has no protection in place for their possessions is shocking and incumbent operators in this market should be embarrassed by this revelation.Insurance should be good value and useful for all.
“These figures should provide a wake-up call to the sector to improve access to home contents insurance.They need to shorten the application process, cut out the complexity and stop asking house-holders for information they may be tempted to guess at.
“buzzvault’s mission is to deliver hyper personalised home insurance using mobile video and digitised contents data.We’re at the start of this journey so we’re not perfect yet and we know we need to prove ourselves.But we’re removing the barriers and providing a solution that responds to the way we all live today – from generation rent to households with boomerang kids.We hope we inspire others in the sector to look to us as an example of how home contents insurance can change, so that we can better serve our society as a whole.”
Insurance Edge Comment;
The insurance industry needs to radically re-think contents insurance in an age of renters, many of whom will never own a home. These people, and there are millions of them, want to insure the things they cherish, and the items that cost a fortune to replace.
It could be a classic Gibson guitar, an electric bike, jewellery, Swiss watches, designer handbags or shoes. One simple set of smartphone photos of their items, plus the receipts, should generate a quote within seconds. It really should be that simple.
If the industry wants to win more revenue from millennials, overseas employees or just those people who have no interest in insuring their landlord’s furnishings, then it needs to change the 1990s mindset which underpins home contents cover.
Because the era of `room by room’ contents cover is going the same way as bank chequebooks.
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