Protecting your prized possessions: a guide on insuring valuable items with contents coverage
Protecting Your Prized Possessions: Understanding Valuable Items Cover
When it comes to insuring your valuable possessions, it's essential to ensure they're adequately protected. RACV offers a solution through their Valuable Items Cover, an optional extra that can be added to your RACV Contents Insurance policy or RACV Home Buildings and Contents Insurance policy.
What is Valuable Items Cover?
Valuable Items Cover is designed to provide coverage for specific types of valuable items whose value exceeds the standard limits listed under General Contents cover. These items may include works of art, music, games and movies, collections, and jewellery.
What does Valuable Items Cover include?
Items such as jewelry (rings, watches, bracelets, necklaces), works of art (paintings, pictures, sculptures), collections (cards, stamps, rare coins, sovereigns, bullions), and music, games, and movie media (CDs, DVDs, records, digital media) are typically the high-value items that require this cover.
For portable high-value items like jewelry or electronic devices that often leave the home, RACV also offers Portable Items Cover as a separate optional feature, which can protect items lost or damaged outside the home.
Why consider Valuable Items Cover?
If any individual valuable item exceeds $10,000, it should be specifically noted on your policy or renewal notice to ensure adequate coverage. Without Valuable Items Cover, the most that can be paid for works of art, jewellery, collections, or music, games and movies is $2,500, regardless of their actual value.
When calculating the contents sum insured for your policy, consider the replacement value of your items as well as the General Contents limit. Individual items insured for more than $10,000 are also shown on the renewal notice.
Key Points to Remember
- Valuable Items Cover is an optional extra that can be added to your RACV Contents Insurance policy or RACV Home Buildings and Contents Insurance policy.
- Valuable Items Cover, including the amount of cover, is shown on the renewal notice.
- Individual valuable items insured for more than $10,000 are also shown on the renewal notice.
- Valuable Items Cover does not cover items taken outside the home, including overseas.
- Portable Items Insurance can cover items taken outside the home, including overseas, but limits apply if the item is taken outside of Australia or New Zealand.
In the event of a claim, proof of the item's value (such as a receipt or certificate of valuation) may be required. A Certificate of Insurance from RACV can be requested at any time to review current policies and coverage.
With thousands of Victorians losing their belongings due to theft each year, having a contents insurance policy can provide peace of mind should an insured event occur. In the year ending March 2025, 313,540 property items were lost due to theft in Victoria, a 22% increase from the previous year (Source: Crime Statistics Agency).
[1] RACV Contents Insurance Policy Information [2] RACV Home Buildings and Contents Insurance Policy Information [3] RACV Portable Items Cover Information
Personal finance management is crucial when deciding to take out insurance for valuable items. For high-value possessions like jewelry, works of art, collections, and digital media, it's prudent to consider adding Valuable Items Cover to your RACV Contents Insurance policy or RACV Home Buildings and Contents Insurance policy. Without this cover, the Insurance policy may only provide up to $2,500 for such items, regardless of their actual value, leaving a gap in personal-finance protection.
