Home What does deductible mean?

What does excess mean?

When you take out contents insurance , you will come across the term 'excess'. What does the deductible mean exactly?

What is excess?

With an insurance policy you can have an excess. An excess means that you have to pay for part of the damage as standard. The amount of the excess can differ per insurance company and in many cases you can determine the amount yourself. An excess usually applies per claim.

Example: you have a damage of € 5,500. The insurance policy states that you have a risk of € 250 per incident. You will therefore receive maximum compensation of € 5,250.

Example: you live in Amsterdam and have € 2,000 damage due to theft. The insurance policy states that you have an excess of €250 per incident. Because you live in one of the major cities, an additional deductible of € 100 applies. In this case, you will receive maximum compensation of € 1,650.

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Do you have an excess with a contents insurance?

As you have read before, most insurers allow you to set your own excess. The rule is: the higher the excess you choose, the lower the insurance premium. With a higher deductible, the insurer has to pay less per claim.

Some insurers always impose an excess. This is often a low amount. The reason for this is that it creates a barrier for claiming every small damage on the contents insurance. Every damage claim results in an administrative workload for the insurer, even for small damage claims. This costs the insurer a lot of time and ultimately money.

In addition, by setting a compulsory excess, insurers hope that you will be extra careful with your belongings.
As you have seen in the example, there are insurers who set a different excess for certain types of damage. In practice, this is the case, for example, in the case of theft/break-in(especially in large cities) and storms.

When applying for home contents insurance, it is therefore important to pay attention to the amount of the excess with this specific insurer. You can always find the amount of the excess on your policy schedule and in the policy conditions.

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Are there contents insurances without excess?

There are insurers who offer you the option of taking out contents insurance without an excess. Please note that the amount of the excess always influences the premium. The lower the excess, the higher the premium.

Is it wise to choose a high deductible for contents insurance?

Whether it is wise to choose for a (high) deductible for home contents insurance has to do with your personal and financial situation. A high excess is not always wise or unwise. It is important to consider whether you can easily bear the excess, even when there are several claims per year. Is this feasible and does the premium discount that you will receive with this higher deductible weigh up?

These factors can determine the cost of contents insurance.

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