Best Photographic Equipment Insurance?

Cezare

Cezare

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Cezare White
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Hello all.

I'm interested in getting insurence for my Camera gear.
I need to get it covered for work, personal, going worldwide. and liability insurence for Motor racing.

which would you recomend for a first time user?

I'm also off to Sicliy within next two weeks with work.
so planning on taking my own gear, is there any one that is instant online?

cheers,
Cezare
 
i'm insured with photoguard - no problems with them yet - but haven't claimed either.
 
I'm insured with E&L, not had a problem, but then again same as Wez, I haven't claimed.

Apparently, they're not brilliant.
 
thing with E+L, they don't cover your camera in a boot of a car that can be accessed from the car itself (i.e folding rear seats), which takes about 99% of hatches out of cover.
 
Drop E&L as fast as you can...
 
Just this minute insured with Photoguard, £66 for the year, car cover, public liability, proffesional indemnity (which I dont think I need, but selecting it didnt affect the premium) and its covered in the EU :)
 
think Photoguard best bet.
get worldwide, 5mil liablity, and lots more.

seems to be a good monthly rate also.

if I buy online Am I covered from then?
 
Luckily, my policy with E&L runs out on the 29th of this month, so think I'll be going else where.
 
Betty said:
Just this minute insured with Photoguard, £66 for the year, car cover, public liability, proffesional indemnity (which I dont think I need, but selecting it didnt affect the premium) and its covered in the EU :)
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£66 for the year! I went to their website and the cheapest quote I could get on £10K of kit in the UK with car and public liability was £650 per year.

How did you manage to get it for £66 Betty?, go on, share your secret!:help:
 
Eeek, 10k worth of kit? Ive only insured 1k worth, maybe thats the problem ;)
 
I am with photoguard and 3k of kit insured..just the bare minimum .. two bodies and one lens... all the smaller lenses and kit i couldnt afford to put on... got 2m liability cover as well.. thus 175 quid a year
 
I highly recommend aaduki. I got 9500 quid worth of insurance for £18 a month. Very good service too.
Mark.
 
Betty said:
Eeek, 10k worth of kit? Ive only insured 1k worth, maybe thats the problem ;)
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Could well be Betty. thanks. I rarely, if ever take it all out at once but my basic kit is a 5D with 24-105mm (replacement cost 2K) a nifty fifty (£60) a 100mm macro (£300) 70-200mm (£450) and an EX580 (£250)

It soon adds up!

Then there is the 20D, the 100-400mm, the 15-30mm, the Mamiya MF kit with three lenses, the Metz flashgun, tripods, two sets of studio lights, the lastolite hilite, some Bowens kit, a ringflash.....................

I think I had better have a word with the house contents people too!

Hmmmmmm.... goes off to check cover! :thinking:
 
I was thinking of going with E&L as their prices seemed reasonable. So those of you who have clearly stated not to... could you elaborate on this and let me know why? If you would prefer not to say it in here could you PM me please Cheers :)
 
I better check the house cover too, it better cover the studio kit! :)
 
I've just reinsured my gear with Imaging Insurance. Their minimum cover for pro's is £213.98. One thing I discovered is that it costs a hell of a lot more if you tell them you're a pro. Eg with Aaduki I put some figures into their website and got a quote of £73.50. Tell them you earn some (ANY?) money from photography and the premium triples.

With Imaging and probably other companies you don't need to insure all our gear for All Risks cover (the expensive bit). Work out the maximum value of the gear you use away from the risk address at any one time and insure that for All Risks. The rest can be insured at a lower rate along with your scanner, computer etc only at base camp.

If you take out more gear than you're covered for and have to make a claim, you could be up s**t c***k though ...

Good luck
 
I just got mine at Photoguard. OK it's a bit of a pain having to get everything out and list the serial numbers but at least I now have proper cover (Thanks Betty) It made me realise just how much gear I had collected in the last few years. I got £4,250 of cover with public liability and car cover for £22 per month. Not bad for some peace of mind.
 
Glad to be of help AliB :) I dont have that much stuff, so serial numbers wasnt a problem. It did say though you didnt need the serial numbers to cover them, only if you make a claim :)
 
Cezare said:
what Level of public liability would I really need?
to do my motorsport photography?
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You will find that most circuits insist on having at least £5 Million worth of cover. I'm with Glover & Howe for my professional cover, been with them for about 5 years now and always have had top notch service:thumbs:


Cheers
Ian
 
just be careful to read the small print

i was with photoguard. I left £2500 of equipment in the media centre in Brands Hatch over night and when i came back the next day it had been stolen. Photoguard refused to pay out because there was no sign of a forced entry.

I used the same company to insure my bike. It got stolen from the secure underground car park (was locked with their recommended lock to window bars) at my flat. Insurance only paid half the claim because the bike was in a 'communal area'. If I'd locked it up outside in the street I would have had the claim paid.

My advice is to try and find some kind of mutual insurance company where the policy holders also have a share in the company. That way the insurance company is more interested in the customer rather than making money out of suckers like me.
 
It seems to me its not of any real use people recommending their insurance companies if they havent had to try to make a claim........... that part is the bottom line really.

Saying "I insure with XXX.co and they are really polite on the phone and their insurance is a good price" is of no value at all.... what are they like when all your stuff is stolen?

Those are really the only valuable comments to someone trying to decide what insurance company to go with I think.... as by then it will be too late to find out they are a load of fraudsters!
 
at the end of the day, it doesnt matter how helpful the company is when signing you up and taking your money, its all about how good they are in the unfortunate situation that you need to claim.
Photoguard were very slow with my claim. Bare in mind that if you have your equipment stolen you cant just go out and replace it the next day. You have to wait for photoguard to replace it for you. Even if they had replaced my equipment I would still have been without it for 2 months.

I dont bother with insurance now, i just look after it and never let it out of my sight.
You may notice a slight amount of bitterness in this post :) Its mainly down to still having to pay off a loan for £2500 worth of equipment i dont have any more, plus another loan to buy a 30d and 70-200mm to replace the 1d mk2 N and its 400mm lens.
 
Janice said:
It seems to me its not of any real use people recommending their insurance companies if they havent had to try to make a claim........... that part is the bottom line really.
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damn, if i'd known you were going to post that, it would have saved me a lot of rambling :) :)
 
Hmmmm.

I'm about to sort out some new camera specific insurance, and not sure what to do now. :shrug: You're absolutely right about not knowing what a company is like until you try to claim. I couldn't give a tinker's cuss if someone is nice on the phone, just sort out the problems and give what your customers pay for.

Sorry if I sound a bit bitter too, but I currently have a long running problem with a Nikon 28-70 2.8 lens that I dropped and am claiming through my house insurance. Absolute nightmare. 2 months and counting. Currently out for second 'repair' as it came back to me with a huge chip in the rear element (that wasn't caused by the drop), that they must have done at the repair centre and had the gall to send it back to me.
 
I've got £10,000 worth of kit insured, with £2M PL for £340 through a broker, through Norwich Union.

Haven't claimed for anything yet, but the small print *seems* OK.
 
And I'm often to be found clutching a monopod and it's not for putting the camera on either! :)
 
Easier said than done really isn't it, can't keep an eye on your stuff all the time.

Got just over 2 weeks to find someone to go with, one of the main reasons I went with E&L is because they had vehicle cover...or so i thought.
 
Little Man said:
Easier said than done really isn't it, can't keep an eye on your stuff all the time.

Got just over 2 weeks to find someone to go with, one of the main reasons I went with E&L is because they had vehicle cover...or so i thought.
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Depends which car you own. The boot has to be lockable by a key and not just central locking and must not have fold down seats.
So most classic cars are ok!

I gave E & L the chance to change my policy after explaining the level of security my car has. (even laminated windows) They weren't interested.
I then suggested that they had misold me my policy and wanted a refund because the wording on the policy is deliberately misleading. They again refused.
It still stuns me that a company that puts a flyer in just about every camera mag that you pick up off the shelf and even advertises on here can get away with this.
There must be lots of togs out there that think they are covered, only to one day to find out that the nice modern car they drive isnt covered. Trouble is, they find out after the gear has gone....
Tis a crazy world. :shrug:
 
I'm with Photogard, including PL, £6k cover with £200 small items, cover in the car etc £220 a year
 
kevshore said:
Depends which car you own. The boot has to be lockable by a key and not just central locking and must not have fold down seats.
So most classic cars are ok!

I gave E & L the chance to change my policy after explaining the level of security my car has. (even laminated windows) They weren't interested.
I then suggested that they had misold me my policy and wanted a refund because the wording on the policy is deliberately misleading. They again refused.
It still stuns me that a company that puts a flyer in just about every camera mag that you pick up off the shelf and even advertises on here can get away with this.
There must be lots of togs out there that think they are covered, only to one day to find out that the nice modern car they drive isnt covered. Trouble is, they find out after the gear has gone....
Tis a crazy world. :shrug:
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That's the thing matey, I don't currently own a car, so I'm generally in and out of all sorts of different cars.

Think it's swaying towards me having to change, simply on that factor alone.
 
i been looking into this and thinking about it for some time after spending around 1500ish on stuff and going to alot of motorsport events

what sort of cover would you recommend? and what is needed, accidental damage part of it? just incase i trip, slip, fall etc? what is liability insurance? or is that answering my own question?

thanks in advance
 
whitey said:
i been looking into this and thinking about it for some time after spending around 1500ish on stuff and going to alot of motorsport events

what sort of cover would you recommend? and what is needed, accidental damage part of it? just incase i trip, slip, fall etc? what is liability insurance? or is that answering my own question?

thanks in advance
Click to expand...

save yourself a lot of money and hassle and get some good shoes and some bubble wrap
 
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