Back to blogUpdated · 1 min read

Wear and tear

Wear and tear is damage to an item that is caused over time through use. For example, every time you drive your car the tread on your tyres slowly wears down. Wear and tear is usually not covered by insurance policies or warranties.

Why isn’t wear and tear covered by insurance?

Insurance protects you from low-likelihood losses. For losses that you know will occur, savings products are there to help you prepare. When you use, say, your cell phone and it gets older, you know it will experience wear and tear (these days it’s rare for a phone to last more than two years). You might set up a savings account to be able to replace your phone in two years. To protect yourself from the unknowns, like your phone being stolen tomorrow, insurance can protect you. Separating savings and insurance products in this way makes premiums affordable and keeps insurance true to its purpose.

What are other common insurance exclusions?

Exclusions differ from insurer to insurer and from product to product but as a general rule insurers only cover things that are sudden and unforeseen.

You might also like

Definitions

Loss

Loss, in terms of insurance, is when you (the policyholder) have suffered a financial loss because of something that has happened that is covered by your policy.

1 min read
Definitions

Malicious damage

Malicious damage is damage caused to one person’s property on purpose by another person. For example, if someone deliberately scratches your car with keys or kicks a dent in your car door.

1 min read
Definitions

Average

Average is when your claim’s payout is reduced by the proportion (%) of how much you under-insured your stuff by.

1 min read