Keep safe this holiday season

Christmas and New Years is upon us, bringing with it gifts and holidays away from home.

While enjoying your family getaway or your relaxing home ‘staycation’, State Insurance encourages New Zealanders to protect themselves over the Christmas break.

State’s Executive General Manager Mary-Jane Daly says the insurer sees the number of burglary claims rise between 5 and 10% over the December/January period. The average cost of each claim also rises by around 20% during this time.

Here are some helpful tips to keep yourself and your home safe this Christmas.

Prevent a break-in while you’re on holiday:

• Avoid enticing burglars – don’t leave empty pressie boxes outside. Cut them up and hide them in the recycling bin instead.

• Make your home look lived-in. Ask a trusted neighbour to watch your house, and collect the mail and newspapers. Use timers on lights.

• Hide valuable items well and lock away small important items – keys, laptops and cameras for example.

• Don’t mention being away on your answer phone message, or loudly across the street to a neighbour – you never know who will be listening.

• Mark your assets. Write your driver licence and city on your valuables – this helps the police with identification if they find the stolen goods.

If you’re at home:

• Lock where you’re not – don’t assume you’ll notice things being taken out the back door if you’re in the front garden.

• Don’t turn everything on. House fires can be caused by overloading your electrical multi-plugs.

Ms Daly says now is also a good time to review your insurance to make sure it covers all of your household items, including any Christmas gifts and purchases made over the last 12 months. Your ‘sum insured’ needs to include all of your home contents. This will ensure you’re fully covered if you need to make a claim.

“It’s also important to let your insurer know of any high value items. For example, your insurer may not pay more than a few thousand dollars for an item of jewellery or a camera unless it is specified with its value on your insurance policy.”

Holiday insurance checklist:

ü      Review your insurance to check it covers all your household items.

ü      Tell your insurer about any high value items.

ü      Travelling? Check your policy covers contents anywhere in New Zealand. Some policies will only cover contents when they are at your home.

ü      If you’re home is empty for a long time (with State this means over 60 days), contact your insurer to make sure you'll still be covered.

ü      Travelling overseas? Take out travel insurance. Generally it covers you for your baggage and personal belongings while overseas, travel disruption cancellation costs and medical expenses while overseas.

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