Personal Possessions Cover
Bronze, Silver and Gold John Lewis Home Insurance is brought to you through our Home Insurance provider, Munich Re Digital Partners Ltd. Personal possessions insurance covers your belongings when you take them out and about or on holiday. It's an add-on available if you have standard contents insurance, which is designed to protect your contents at home.
If you regularly go out with your tennis racket, guitar or an expensive watch, you may want to add personal possessions cover to your home insurance.
This page covers what you need to know about Personal Possessions Cover for our Bronze, Silver and Gold Home Insurance policies.
What is personal possessions cover?
What do we mean by personal possessions? These are typically the sorts of items you keep on you while you are outside your home, especially the items you regularly take out and about with you.
Personal possessions include:
Binoculars
Camping equipment
Cash that belongs to you personally, not to your business
Children’s motorcycles
Clothing
Go-karts
Golf buggies
Guns
Hearing aids
Jewellery and watches
Musical instruments (portable)
Prams and pushchairs
Sports equipment
Wheelchairs and mobility scooters
Drones are excluded from Personal Possessions Cover.
Contact us on 0345 608 9001 if you'd prefer to call. Calls may be recorded or monitored, and call charges may vary.
Are personal possessions covered by home insurance?
Our Home Insurance consists of two separate types of insurance: Buildings and Contents Insurance.
Contents Insurance covers your belongings while they’re inside your home. It covers the repair or replacement of stolen items and things damaged by fire, flooding, natural disasters and vandalism. This cover is for things like televisions, carpets, furniture, clothes, cash and the contents of your garden.
Contents Insurance covers the items inside your home and garden under one policy. However, you may want to consider adding personal possessions cover to your policy if:
You regularly take certain items out of the house.
Your things are particularly valuable.
You’re storing them somewhere that’s not your main residence.
Valuables
Your belongings carry an enormous amount of sentimental value. The thought of these things being stolen or going missing can be terrifying, so it’s reassuring to know personal possessions cover can cover you.
Get coverage for:
Rings
Bracelets
Necklaces
Earrings
Other types of jewellery
Watches
Fashion accessories
Medals
And more…
Our personal possessions add-on covers your valuables worldwide. So it’s ideal if you’re going on holiday.
Cash
Our personal possessions add-on also covers your cash anywhere in the world.
You can typically expect to be covered for:
Coins
Banknotes
Cheques
Postal orders
Stamps
The exact types of currency and the amount you can expect coverage for will vary, so make sure to check your policy.
Only personal money is covered, not cash lost or stolen from your business.
Are gadgets and electronics covered by personal possessions cover?
No. Electronic devices are some of the most common items you will expect to take on the move. However, to get cover for these items with a Bronze, Silver or Gold policy you will need our gadget insurance add-on.
Find out more about our gadget insurance add-on.
Travelling and cover away from home
Personal possessions cover offers additional cover for your much-loved items while you're on the road or staying in other places temporarily.
While some standard contents insurance policies may cover items you have on your person, your coverage may have certain limits. For instance, it might not cover you if you are abroad for longer than two weeks, or if the item you want to insure is not usually kept at your home.
But, with our personal possessions add-on to your Bronze, Silver and Gold Home Insurance, it can help give you peace of mind knowing your items will be covered while they're within reach of your person or locked away, out of sight.
Better still, if you’re living away from home for a while, our personal possessions cover may be able to replace lost, stolen or damaged items that you urgently need such as a hearing aid or child’s pushchair.
Personal possessions could prove useful for the following:
Holiday travel
While travelling abroad, there may be a limit to the amount you can claim on your travel insurance policy or on the types of items that are covered.
If you are taking valuable items abroad, you may want to make sure you have more comprehensive cover. Personal possessions cover could be a good idea – particularly for jewellery and camping equipment.
As well as taking out a suitable policy, make sure you are taking steps to stay safe abroad. Don’t walk alone while carrying valuable items and make sure you secure your items in your hotel safe when you’re not using them.
Taking items to work
Personal possessions cover can also cover your items if you take them to work.
While it won’t cover items you specifically use for work, it will cover items you have on you such as jewellery, cash and music or sports equipment. This includes personal items you leave at work, such as things you store in a locker.
If you work from home and use personal items for work-related purposes, you may want to speak to your employer about getting your items covered by your company’s insurance.
Frequently asked questions
How much cover do I need for my personal possessions?
As with standard contents insurance, you will need to add up the value of the items you wish to include as part of the personal possessions cover in your policy.
Working out each item’s value is the first step to deciding the sum you wish to insure it for. So, for example, if you regularly leave home with a pushchair worth £500, a ring worth £1,000 and a jacket worth £300, you should look for a policy in the region of £2,000.
You could consider when looking for a policy:
How much would it cost to replace or repair this item?
If the item could not be replaced, what would its value be?
This insurance is designed for items you regularly take away from home. You should usually be able to rely on your contents insurance for any items that tend to stay at home.
What is the maximum level of cover for personal possessions?
The level of cover is dependent on the cover that you purchase. If you have incredibly valuable items, you could consider if our Specialist Insurance meets your needs
For everything else, you can work out the value of the insurance you need to take out. It is worth remembering that the more valuable your possessions, the higher your insurance premiums will be.
Will I need to pay an excess?
Yes – if and when you make a claim. This is why you must carefully consider the right policy for you.
While choosing a higher excess will lower your premiums, if the value of the item you are claiming for is not much more than your excess, you may not receive much from your insurance.
Think about the value of your things compared to your excess and whether your insurance will provide the level of coverage you need.
Am I eligible for personal possessions insurance?
You should be eligible for our personal possessions cover if you:
Have a permanent address in the UK
Already have a John Lewis Home Insurance policy
Do not intend to move abroad permanently
From there, it’s up to you which items you add to your policy and how much you choose to insure them for.
If you do not have a John Lewis Home Insurance policy, you can take out a Bronze, Silver or Gold policy and add personal possessions cover to this.
If you are a Specialist Home Insurance customer with John Lewis, your contents are covered anywhere in the world as standard.
Are my personal possessions covered in storage units?
If you are looking to cover contents in storage as part of your home insurance, you could consider if our Specialist Insurance meets your needs.
Not yet covered by John Lewis?
Insure your home and valuables today by calling us on 0345 608 9001 or getting a quote online.
Calls may be recorded or monitored, and call charges will vary.
For a higher level of cover, we also offer Specialist Home Insurance for unique homes and high-value contents.
Choose other optional add-ons
With our Bronze, Silver or Gold Home Insurance policies, if you need to make changes to your add-ons or policy to suit your new circumstances at any time, your premium may go up but we won't charge you an extra fee.
Legal issues cover
Get access to a 24-hour helpline and up to £100,000 of cover for legal costs to help with legal problems covered in your policy, including employment, contract and property disputes.
Bicycle cover
Add up to £15,000 of cover for your bikes while at home or out and about (up to a maximum of £5,000 per bike). We cover against loss, damage or theft.
Accidental damage
We’ll cover damage caused by an unforeseen and unintentional event, like cutting through a cable or breaking a window.
Home emergency cover
In the event of a home emergency, we'll arrange for a tradesperson to make things safe with a temporary repair.
Gadget cover
Expensive to buy, easy to drop. Add an additional £10,000 of cover for your gadgets (max £2,500 per item). Add items worth more than £200 specifically to your policy.
Personal cyber cover
Get help with computer problems like restoring your home systems or removing viruses. We'll also help you if you fall victim to online fraud.
Accidental damage to contents
Whether it's red wine on a white carpet or a broken glass coffee table, you're covered.
Student cover
Up to £5,000 of contents cover for your family while they're studying and living away from your home.
John Lewis Money, John Lewis Finance, John Lewis Insurance and John Lewis & Partners are all trading names of John Lewis plc.
Munich Re Digital Partners - our Bronze / Silver / Gold insurance cover
John Lewis plc is an appointed representative (firm reference number: 416011) of Munich Re Digital Partners Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority to carry out insurance distribution activities (firm reference number: 804106). Registered office: 1 Fen Court, London EC3M 5BN. Registered in England and Wales (company number 10207490).
John Lewis Home Insurance is underwritten by Great Lakes Insurance UK Limited (company number: 13436330). Registered office: 1 Fen Court, London EC3M 5BN. Registered in England and Wales. Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority (firm reference number: 955859).
Covéa Insurance - our Specialist Home Insurance cover
John Lewis plc is an appointed representative (firm reference number: 416011) of Covea Insurance plc, which is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority (firm reference number: 202277).
John Lewis Specialist Home Insurance is underwritten by Covéa Insurance plc (company number: 613259). Registered office: A&B Mills, Dean Clough, Halifax, HX3 5AX. Registered in England and Wales.