Home Insurance optional covers explained
Optional covers can offer additional coverage for your home — and/or the stuff inside it — in certain circumstances, depending on which ones you choose. They can help you set up your Home and Contents Insurance in a way that suits your needs. Here’s how!
What are optional covers?
Optional covers are specific kinds of coverage that don’t come as standard with your Home and Contents Insurance policy. They’ll usually offer cover for a specific type of item or damage and will increase your premium if you decide to take them out.
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How to add an optional cover to your policy
It’s easy!
If you’re an AAMI Home and Contents Insurance customer, you can add an optional cover to your policy by updating it online.
- Log into your account (you can also use the AAMI App!).
- Select your Home Insurance policy.
- Click ‘Update policy’.
- Pay the additional premium.
- Enjoy the additional coverage provided by your optional cover.
New to AAMI? Grab a quote today!
AAMI optional covers explained
Accidental Damage at Home
If you accidentally damage your home, contents, or both (depending on your policy type) AAMI’s Accidental Damage at Home optional cover can help.
Excess-Free Glass
Your AAMI Home and Contents Insurance policy covers broken glass that is fitted to your home, such as windows, skylights and shower screens. However, you’ll need to pay an excess if you make a claim.
Enter, Excess-Free Glass cover.
For an additional premium, this optional cover means you won’t have to pay an excess for accidental damage of glass. For more info, read our helpful guide.
AAMI Home Assist
As a homeowner, you may sometimes find yourself dealing with a minor home emergency.
This could be:
- getting locked out of the house,
- a blackout or electrical failure,
- a blocked toilet or drain, or
- a broken or burst hot water system.
And while you may know that AAMI Insurance can help cover big emergencies, did you know we can also assist with the small ones?
For an additional cost, our AAMI Home Assist optional cover on AAMI Home Insurance policies gets you 24/7 access to a trusted plumber, electrician, locksmith, or carpenter for small emergency home repairs.
You also don’t need to pay for a call out fee, even after hours,
get 3 emergency call-outs during the policy period,
get up to 2 hours emergency assistance per call-out, and
up to $50 of materials including GST.
If your repairs can’t be completed within the 2-hour call-out period, we’ll let you know what other options are available to you.
And getting help is easy.
Simply call 13 22 44 and a support team specialist will assess the emergency over the phone and connect you to the appropriate tradie.
And while it may be tempting to try and fix the issues yourself, this has its risks.
Sometimes, it’s easier to leave things in the hands of a qualified tradesperson.
So call 13 22 44 today to add AAMI Home Assist to your AAMI Home Insurance policy.
And for more helpful tips visit the AAMI Informed site.
It’s easy!
If you’re an AAMI Home and Contents Insurance customer, you can add an optional cover to your policy by updating it online.
- Log into your account (you can also use the AAMI App!).
- Select your Home Insurance policy.
- Click ‘Update policy’.
- Pay the additional premium.
- Enjoy the additional coverage provided by your optional cover.
New to AAMI? Grab a quote today!
Complete Replacement Cover®
We all want our home and belongings protected against life’s surprises. But what if there is an insured event and the amount listed on your certificate of insurance isn’t enough to rebuild your home or replace your contents? This is known as underinsurance.
Underinsurance can happen for many reasons: If your home or contents are not valued according to their repair, rebuild or replacement costs when purchasing or updating your policy. If you renovate your home but don’t adjust the building value on your policy – also known as the sum insured. If you purchase new items, like appliances or furniture, but don’t adjust the value of your contents on your policy.
With the cost of living rising, it may be tempting to have a lower sum insured to save money on your insurance premium. But if you need to claim, your insurance policy might only cover a portion of the repair, rebuild or replacement costs, leaving you to pay the rest.
When it comes to choosing a set sum insured for your policy, there are a few simple steps you can take to help avoid being underinsured.
Use the AAMI Home Building and Contents calculator to get an estimated rebuild cost for your home and estimated total replacement costs for your contents. A qualified builder can also provide further help with estimating rebuild costs according to current building standards.
Make a list of your belongings to ensure your contents sum insured is accurate. For particularly valuable items, take a photo, note their value, and save any receipts. Keep this list up to date by adding any new items you purchase for your home.
No two home insurance policies are the same, which means it’s important to read your policy documents. Knowing what your policy does and does not cover, and any limits that apply, will help give you confidence that you’re covered if you ever need to claim.
With AAMI, you can also choose our optional Complete Replacement Cover for the home building. Complete Replacement Cover is our best protection against underinsurance as we’ll repair or rebuild your home as it was or pay you the amount of the assessed quote to repair or rebuild it, without you needing to set a sum insured.
And remember, don’t set and forget. As your life circumstances change, so should your home and contents insurance policy. Regularly review your policy details to ensure your cover is up to date and meets your needs.
Download the AAMI App or log in online to update your policy. And for other helpful tips, visit the AAMI Informed site.
Usually, the maximum amount we’ll pay to repair or rebuild your home after an insured event is determined by your ‘sum insured’ — that’s the amount you agreed to insure your home for when you took out or renewed your policy.
While this can offer some certainty, it can also increase your risk of being underinsured. That is, if the cost of rebuilding your home is higher than you’d initially estimated — maybe because there’s been a run on building services following a major weather event, or material costs have suddenly spiked — your sum insured may wind up being inadequate.
Complete Replacement Cover® provides you with enough coverage to rebuild your house to the same condition it was in before the event. We’ll repair or rebuild your home as it was or pay you the amount of the assessed quote to do so, without you having to set a specific sum insured limit.
Portable Valuables Cover
This covers accidental loss or damage to the belongings you might carry with you away from home, such as jewellery and cameras, anywhere in Australia and New Zealand.
You’ll be covered up to $1,000 per item, set or collection and up to the total chosen from the range we offer and stated on your Certificate of Insurance. If you have a high value (over $1,000) or high risk item, you need to specify it to cover its replacement value. By doing so, you’ll ensure it’s covered up to its full amount and you won’t be out of pocket if it’s affected by an insured event.
More about Portable Valuables Cover
Read more:
- What does my AAMI Home and Contents Insurance cover?
- Are broken windows covered by insurance?
- Should you get complete replacement cover home insurance?
Insurance issued by AAI Limited ABN 48 005 297 807 trading as AAMI. Read the Product Disclosure Statement before buying this insurance. The Target Market Determination is also available. This advice has been prepared without taking into account your particular objectives, financial situations or needs, so you should consider whether it is appropriate for you before acting on it.
The information is intended to be of general nature only. Subject to any rights you may have under any law, we do not accept any legal responsibility for any loss or damage, including loss of business or profits or any other indirect loss, incurred as a result of reliance upon the information. Please make your own enquiries.