Personal possessions vs specified items

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  • Indiana's Avatar
    Fresh Eyes
    I'd appreciate some advice on 'personal possessions' cover versus 'specified items', and whether specified items are covered in addition to personal posessions cover, or a subset of personal possessions.

    For example, let's imagine I've calculated that I have £5,000 of things that I want to cover outside of the home. But none of them are worth more than £2,000 each. So I take out £5,000 of personal possessions cover - that seems pretty straightforward.

    But in addition I also have one very posh camera, which is worth £3,000. So I add that as a 'specified item'.

    So what is the level of my cover outside of the home now? Is it £8,000 in total (£5,000 personal possessions + £3,000 specified item)?

    Or does my specified £3,000 item get 'knocked off' my personal possessions cover, leaving me only £2,000 cover for other things?

    The policy wording is ambiguous on this (Tesco isn't alone here, I can't really understand it from a general Google search either).

    I'd just like to ensure I quote for sufficient cover - but there's no point in quoting for too much either. Thanks in advance for any advice.
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  • Verified Answer

    ChristopherP's Avatar
    Your Community Expert
    Verified Answer
    @Indiana Hey there, thanks for getting in touch. Specified items tend to be things that you would normally wear or carry out with the home and are valued at more than £2,000 each.You can cover as many specified items as you like, as long as:

    • No single item is worth more than £20,000
    • The total value of the specified items isn't more than £20,000

    Specified items are an addition to the contents sum insured.


    Items specified under cover away from the home are subject to individual and overall maximums (Maximum Single Article Limit and Maximum Overall Sum Insured).



    Customers can specify several items or just one as long as they don’t exceed the policy limit set out below:


    • Specified Items sum insured (overall) - £20,000
    • Specified Items sum insured (individual) - £20,000

    I hope this helps.


    If you need to ask a question about a Tesco Bank product, you can make a post in Help & Support here

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  • Indiana's Avatar
    Fresh Eyes
    Hi ChristopherP, thanks for your answer, but that kind of repeats the ambiguous wording on the website. I'm not sure I'm any the wiser.

    I understand that 'away from home' cover - personal possessions and specified items - are in addition to the contents sum insured.

    What I'm trying to understand is whether 'personal possessions' and 'specified items' are in addition to each other.

    In the hypothetical example I gave in my first post, what is my level of cover for personal possessions + specified items outside of the home? Is it £8,000 or still only £5,000?

    Is my 'specified items' level of cover ON TOP of my 'personal possessions' cover, or a subset of it? £8,000 or £5,000?

    Ambiguity like this troubled me, and makes it hard to understand how much cover to buy.
  • Indiana's Avatar
    Fresh Eyes
    Bumping this in hope of a clear answer. Does Tesco customer service spend time in this forum?
  • ChristopherP's Avatar
    Your Community Expert
    @Indiana Hey, I'm sorry you found my answer ambiguous. Items that are £2000 and under individually are unspecified personal possessions. Cover starts from £1000 to a maximum of £10,000. These items don’t need to be individually named; we just ask for a total value.

    Items that are over £2000 individually would be specified personal possessions. Each item would need to be individually named along with their value (i.e. camera - £3000). The maximum total is £20,000 for all items.

    Specified and unspecified are two different types of cover. In the example above, your camera would be covered as a specified item up to £3,000. Your other possessions would be covered to their total value as it falls within the policy limit.

    I hope this makes more sense.
  • Indiana's Avatar
    Fresh Eyes
    Many thanks Christopher P, I think I get it now.