While some of us head straight to the sock department when buying Christmas gifts for our loved ones, others will be digging a little deeper into their pockets this year, data reveals.
Jewellery is the number one item added to home insurance policies over Christmas, according to data from insurer
Admiral – with items valued at an average of £4,035. In at second place are laptops and tablets, at an average cost of £1,528, and third are bicycles at £935.
Collectively, the top three categories account for more than three quarters of new items added to existing policies over the festive period, Admiral has revealed.
“With average values of £4,035, £1,528 and £935 last year respectively, buying one of these gifts as well as forking out on all the other festive trimmings could mean the cost of your Christmas quickly snowballs,” Noel Summerfield, head of home insurance at Admiral, said.
Admiral Home Insurance has conducted extensive research into the cost of Christmas over the last four decades, looking at traditional Christmas items such as food, drinks, gifts and experiences, based on ONS data and inflation rates.
To help consumers understand how purchasing one of the top 10 most popular items will impact the cost of Christmas, the company has also created a ‘Cost of Christmas’ tool, which is available online.
In at fourth place are watches, which come with a fairly hefty price tag at an average of £4,261. Fifth is televisions at £2,043, followed by works of art at £4,282, PCs at £1,833, musical instruments at £3,215, photographic equipment at £2,101, and audio equipment at £3,034.
“Any individual item worth over £1,000 needs to be specified separately on a home insurance policy at the earliest possible opportunity to ensure it is protected should it be stolen, lost or damaged,” Summerfield went on to say.
“It may be a busy time of year, but customers should remember to do this as soon as they can to prevent their Christmas becoming costlier than they’d first thought.”
The data is based on customers’ additions to insurance policies over the past three Christmases, between December 25 and 31.
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