A brand new study conducted on behalf of a home insurance provider has revealed that the majority of young Britons would rather cancel their home contents insurance policies over less important financial outgoings, such as regular takeaway coffees, Netflix and gym subscriptions.

As many as two thirds of young renters in the UK without home contents insurance believe the policies are ‘pointless’ for those who don’t own a home; with the majority believing that they will never need home insurance as they deem their homes to be safe.

The team at www.CoverBuilder.co.uk polled 2,398 UK adults aged 18-30 as part of research into the perceptions and attitudes of young Britons towards protecting their valuables. All those taking part lived in a rented property, either by themselves or with a partner/housemates.

Respondents were initially asked if, since moving into their rented property, they’d invested in home contents insurance to protect the items within their home, with just 38% claiming to have done so. The remaining three fifths (62%) admitted to researchers that they didn’t have a contents insurance policy and when asked why, 12% said they hadn’t got round to it yet and 16% thought they couldn’t afford a policy. The overwhelming majority, 65%, said that they found the notion of buying contents insurance ‘pointless’; more than half (53%) of whom confessed that they didn’t feel they needed it because their home was safe and probably wouldn’t ever be burgled.

In order to further explore how important the protection of valuables is to those who do have contents insurance, compared to other financial outgoings, all relevant participants were given a list of 5 popular monthly outgoings that young Britons living in rented accommodation normally face. All were asked to reveal which they’d be the most likely to give up first, and how much they roughly spent per year on each outgoing.

The results were revealed as follows:

1. Homes contents insurance – 48% (would give this outgoing up first) (£124) (average annual cost of outgoing)
2. Morning takeaway coffees – 23% (£577.20)
3. Music streaming subscription -16% (£119.88)
4. Gym membership – 12% (£470)
5. Netflix (or other film/TV) subscription – 1% (£71.88)

Rob Rushton, Head of www.CoverBuilder.co.uk, made the following comment on the findings of the study:

“It’s well documented that millennials have very much a ‘live for the moment’ mentality when it comes to their financial outgoings and spending, and don’t necessarily tend to worry as much about the future as previous generations might have done. As renters living under someone else’s roof, it can be tempting to think that paying rent and other vital bills each month is more than enough. Yet, should the worst happen and you find yourself suddenly left without a TV, mobile phone, computer or precious mementos, then there is no doubt you’d want to rely on contents insurance to claim back some of the value.