Is it worth making a small insurance claim?

IS it worth making a claim, is a question I’m frequently asked by people when it comes to their home insurance policy.

And they ask because the nature of the claim and the financial impact it caused may not be significant, but they’re wondering nonetheless should they use their home insurance policy to cover the cost. They don’t really want to raid their savings account to cover the cost of the repairs.

What’s the point in having an insurance policy if you’re not going to use it, right?

But there is that uncertainty about the impact a claim could have on their future premiums.

And if you have that worry, it’s well founded because if you have a claims history, regardless of how big or small a past claim was, it will impact your future insurance premiums.

I wanted to find out exactly what that monetary impact would be, so I contacted a very well-known insurance provider this week and I asked them to give me some quotes based on insuring a property for €300,000, contents cover of €50,000 with a policy excess of €250 (this is where the first €250 of any claim is paid by you rather than the insurance company) I also told them I made a small claim last year for water damage from a burst pipe.

The premium they quoted me for the year was €350.47.

I asked them if I hadn’t made a claim in the last number of years, would this influence the premium they’d charge me?

And yes, they said it would.