Camera Insurance

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Mattfeliks

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Who do you insure your gear with? I've seen various places, but a search on the forums doesn't bring up much of use.

I'm going travelling soon and thinking about getting dedicated worldwide insurance for my gear (aside from travel insurance). Any ideas who?

These guys look quite good, and are cheap: http://www.photoguard.co.uk/

Carrying around about £1000 worth of gear needs some insurance methinks!

I know some of you will say put it on the house insurance, but this isn't that useful for travelling, and besides, I don't own a house :)


Any pointers appreciated :)
 
Its definately worth looking to see if your Household Contents insurance covers you first

I think there is a tendancy to over-insure gear (or double insure if you have Contents Insurance)

Travel Insurance may also cover valuables (check the small print, some don't)

However as long as you are not away for more than 3 weeks (or whatever the small print of your Home Contents is) you are probably covered already, and you don't need to be a home owner to have contents insurance.

I'd get Contents Insurance first to cover everthing, because you could be burgled while you are away.

I know you don't want to hear the Contents Insurance thing.. but... I would.
 
i have photoguard as most travel insurance and home insurance don't do new for old and its not always covered outside the house.
 
Household contents covers my camera and lenses outside the home for all the things they're covered for inside the home - up to an individual item value of £1,500. I have nothing even close to that cost on its own so there's no point me getting them separate insurance. If I did ever get a lens or camera that was north of a grand then I'd probably get separate insurance for that but until then it seems unnecessary.
 
Always worth checking your home incurace thoughraly, thought my kit was covered, but when I looked closer they would only cover £1000 away from the house total not individual items.
 
Mattfeliks said:
I'm going travelling soon and thinking about getting dedicated worldwide insurance for my gear (aside from travel insurance). Any ideas who?
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I've been meaning to ask the same question (in respect of travelling). Planning a long trip round Latin America next year and was thinking about the best way to cover my camera gear from the unknown. :suspect:

I currently have contents insurance but would be renting my house out (hopefully :)) while away so thought that it would be better to get some other insurance. On the other hand if I kept up my contents insurance then I would probably be covered abroad. Best check the small print :rules:
 
Im with Photoguard too. Seem to be a good price but havn't yet claimed so I guess that is when it matters really.
 
maybe we should stickyfy one of these threads because we seem to go over the same stuff.

my advice:
avoid photoguard at all costs (and that goes for their sister companies that insure bicycles and other items too)
get your equipment covered by your household contents instead.
 
I'm just thinking of getting PhotoGuard, as my insurer for my student flat took one look at the declaration sheet of photographic equipment and accompanying receipts and said "Sorry, but no way can I insure that for you"

I heard that E&L are a bitch to claim from. Is this true?

I might see if N&W Brown can insure my camera when I insure my kayaks.
 
TheKrikkitWars said:
I'm just thinking of getting PhotoGuard, as my insurer for my student flat took one look at the declaration sheet of photographic equipment and accompanying receipts and said "Sorry, but no way can I insure that for you"

I heard that E&L are a bitch to claim from. Is this true?

I might see if N&W Brown can insure my camera when I insure my kayaks.
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Endsleigh will do it, you can just add to your policy. Won't be cheap though, my sound system cost loads to insure and that's about £500.
 
I have to say that I found Photoguard quite reasonable when I needed to claim, I did place a review of the process in the reviews section.

However, my claim was for a single low value (£200) lens which I dropped so I may have been in a better position than badgerbaiter who had a claim rejected by photoguard IIRC he had a couple of thousand quids worth of kit stolen overnight from an unsecured desk in a motor racing circuit's media centre as they said there was no sign of forced entry.

As with everything read the small print carefully and see how they might be able to wriggle out of a claim. Some companies are better than others - personally I've found Photoguard to be one of the better ones.

Plus Photoguard will allow you to use your kit semi-professionally on a standard policy provided you get less than 50% of your total income through photography. Most household insurance exculdes any professional use.
 
A small tip,

take a photo of every piece of equiptment you have and try and include the serial number in the pic. Also a good idea to include you drivers licence or similar as this helps connect the item to you. I have also seen pics of equiptment next to a national paper which helps with the date.

I know it sounds daft but this deters insurance from the 'how do we know you even had the lens' question, and helps the police ID any item if found later!
 
glover and howe is who i use. i have about 13k's worth of stuff insured, 2mill public liability and the small print has no hidden nightmares in it. i haven't had to claim though......
 
gingerjon said:
Household contents covers my camera and lenses outside the home for all the things they're covered for inside the home - up to an individual item value of £1,500. I have nothing even close to that cost on its own so there's no point me getting them separate insurance. If I did ever get a lens or camera that was north of a grand then I'd probably get separate insurance for that but until then it seems unnecessary.
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Check that out cos when i looked into it my household insurance company considered all my camera gear together as an individual item, thus it was over the limit.
 
Toothie said:
Check that out cos when i looked into it my household insurance company considered all my camera gear together as an individual item, thus it was over the limit.
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I went through it with them a couple of weeks ago as I had to speak to them about an unrelated issue - they said each item counted separately ... but I will check the policy. TBH, even all the gear together would be under £1,500 - the camera (a D40x) is probably worth less than £300 now and the most expensive lens the same.
 
gingerjon said:
I went through it with them a couple of weeks ago as I had to speak to them about an unrelated issue - they said each item counted separately ... but I will check the policy. TBH, even all the gear together would be under £1,500 - the camera (a D40x) is probably worth less than £300 now and the most expensive lens the same.
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as long as your covered:thumbs:
 
Like a few others on this thread, was thinking about using a dedicated insurer, but when i added up all my equipement, with one or two extra's (i.e. travel insurance in europe + 30 days cover worldwide) the yearly policy was between £500-700 per year for about £8000 worth of equipment.

Thought that was abit steep, so I'm sticking with my current house insurance that covers single items upto the value of £2500, that more than covers me, and just use my annual travel policy when aboard as an addition.

A friend uses PhotoGuard and is in the middle of sorting out a claim because he damaged his 120-300mm lens, will keep you posted on his progress.

Peter
 
Mattfeliks said:
Endsleigh will do it, you can just add to your policy. Won't be cheap though, my sound system cost loads to insure and that's about £500.
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We have never needed to claim so couldnt comment on this
 
Mattfeliks said:
Why?
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i've bored everyone to death already with my story (even i'm getting bored of it :) ). But if you do a forum search for insurance you'll find my story and some others

with regards to my bike, though, (insured with photoguards bike department) i might as well have not bothered insuring it.
I had a bike that i bought for a bargain on ebay. So if it got stolen i would be lucky to ever get one for the same price that good.
The policy cost £30 and they make you buy certain locks (which cost £30) i think... So my bike was £150 (insured for the price of a new one £300).
I always kept it in my room, but i'd been riding it through the floods so i chained it to the railings next to my car in our secure underground car park (electronic gates etc). If i'd put it on the other side of the wall it would have been on the street and fully insured.
Some pikey got in and stole it.
I sent in my honest claim (wish i'd have lied) which took quite a while as they wanted photos of the bike etc to prove i owned it etc.

They made me pay £100 excess because it was kept in a communal area!! (therefore all the bikes in a block of flats' bike storage are only partially insured).
So, they valued my bike at £200 (although they are £300 new), made me pay £100 towards it, so thats £100.. minus the £60 for policy and lock = £40.
They also give you the £100 as an Evan's voucher. Evans dont sell used bikes so i have to buy a new one.
New bike was £300 + new lock £30... (although i ended up getting a £350 bike instead)
Do the maths and you'll see that the insurance was a complete waste of time.
They used all the excuses not to pay my camera theft either. READ THE SMALL PRINT

With the new bike i bought a lock that has a £400 anti-theft warranty.
My new bike got nicked (from secure bike storage in our secure underground car park, locked with the new lock) last week. So I'll let you know if the lock warranty works.

Errr i think i've gone very off topic LOL
 
badgerbaiter said:
i've bored everyone to death already with my story (even i'm getting bored of it :) ). But if you do a forum search for insurance you'll find my story and some others

with regards to my bike, though, (insured with photoguards bike department) i might as well have not bothered insuring it.
I had a bike that i bought for a bargain on ebay. So if it got stolen i would be lucky to ever get one for the same price that good.
The policy cost £30 and they make you buy certain locks (which cost £30) i think... So my bike was £150 (insured for the price of a new one £300).
I always kept it in my room, but i'd been riding it through the floods so i chained it to the railings next to my car in our secure underground car park (electronic gates etc). If i'd put it on the other side of the wall it would have been on the street and fully insured.
Some pikey got in and stole it.
I sent in my honest claim (wish i'd have lied) which took quite a while as they wanted photos of the bike etc to prove i owned it etc.

They made me pay £100 excess because it was kept in a communal area!! (therefore all the bikes in a block of flats' bike storage are only partially insured).
So, they valued my bike at £200 (although they are £300 new), made me pay £100 towards it, so thats £100.. minus the £60 for policy and lock = £40.
They also give you the £100 as an Evan's voucher. Evans dont sell used bikes so i have to buy a new one.
New bike was £300 + new lock £30... (although i ended up getting a £350 bike instead)
Do the maths and you'll see that the insurance was a complete waste of time.
They used all the excuses not to pay my camera theft either. READ THE SMALL PRINT

With the new bike i bought a lock that has a £400 anti-theft warranty.
My new bike got nicked (from secure bike storage in our secure underground car park, locked with the new lock) last week. So I'll let you know if the lock warranty works.

Errr i think i've gone very off topic LOL
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i think thats the nature of insurance full stop! When my car got stolen endsleigh paid out less than i paid out in premiums for it!! Because they claimed that's what the car was worth i rejected their offer twice at which point they said we will return, the now recovered car, and you can sell it :shrug:
 
pete.rush said:
Like a few others on this thread, was thinking about using a dedicated insurer, but when i added up all my equipement, with one or two extra's (i.e. travel insurance in europe + 30 days cover worldwide) the yearly policy was between £500-700 per year for about £8000 worth of equipment.

Thought that was abit steep, so I'm sticking with my current house insurance that covers single items upto the value of £2500, that more than covers me, and just use my annual travel policy when aboard as an addition.

A friend uses PhotoGuard and is in the middle of sorting out a claim because he damaged his 120-300mm lens, will keep you posted on his progress.

Peter
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So you feel between £500-700 a year is steep to cover £8000 of equipment, so for a smaller premium, you are now insured up to the value of £2500 of single items, but if your camera bag was stolen, would they replace each and every item in that bag, or would they class the bag as a single item, and pay out a max of £2500?
 
Glover & Howe for me.
as others have said, no hidden catches and public liability which is a must these days, in our modern "sue first" world
 
48thEagle said:
So you feel between £500-700 a year is steep to cover £8000 of equipment, so for a smaller premium, you are now insured up to the value of £2500 of single items, but if your camera bag was stolen, would they replace each and every item in that bag, or would they class the bag as a single item, and pay out a max of £2500?
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Thats probably the grey area, I have a receipt for each individual item I've purchased that would be in the bag as well as the bag, perhaps you've just discovered a loop hole whether the insurance company wouldn't pay out on house insurance using this arguement? :suspect:

Peter
 
pete.rush said:
Thats probably the grey area, I have a receipt for each individual item I've purchased that would be in the bag as well as the bag, perhaps you've just discovered a loop hole whether the insurance company wouldn't pay out on house insurance using this arguement? :suspect:

Peter
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As i stated earlier my home insurance company said outright they would consider all the camera gear as one item. And there for they would probably not pay out at all stating that its over the limit and therefore not covered by the policy!
 
I'm with photoguard, insured £1k worth of kit. Not had to claim, seems alright on the front of it, i'll let you know if I ever have to claim.
 
I recently grabbed myself £6,000 of cover for photographic equipment (professional use) and £5m public liability (not professional indemnity) for £168 or so from....

http://www.aaduki.com/

I searched the internet and found a couple of good comments about their no fuss claims. They were very helpful when I phoned to discuss my precise requirements and did give me some options to consider. When someone I wanted to talk to was unavailable they promised to call back and did so within a few minutes. I've only had the cover a coiple of weeks but so far things seem very positive. They also offer discounts if you belong to certain trade/professional organisations, which I don't at the moment.

It did take over a week for the paperwork to come through, which I thought odd, but it also took over a week before my credit card charge came through as well. I don't know why there was a delay but no harm done.

There was no upper limit on an individual item but they wanted anything valued at over £1,000 to be named and to have the serial number and replacement value.
 
Also been thinking about specialist insurance for my photographic kit, as the total value of my stuff is steadily increasing.

I was just wondering what the situation was regarding receipts - is it a waste of time taking out insurance if I don't have them to prove ownership & item value?

(just to expand on that; I've bought most of my lenses, and other bits and pieces from ebay, and therefore don't have receipts for them.)
 
I buy a lot of my stuff on eBay, mostly from Hong Kong, and I keep all the email notifications of won items etc. filed in Outlook and also archived in Gmail. There is also my payment history for these goods on Paypal so I would think that one way or another I am covered, even though I don't have a physical paper receipt.

The next best thing, I suppose, would be to photograph all your gear and serial numbers, plus record your items on the manufacturer website. Even if I lose all my gear, Canon has a record of my main kit - bodies/lenses/flash guns and serial numbers for everything.
 
CaptainBeefHeart said:
Also been thinking about specialist insurance for my photographic kit, as the total value of my stuff is steadily increasing.

I was just wondering what the situation was regarding receipts - is it a waste of time taking out insurance if I don't have them to prove ownership & item value?

(just to expand on that; I've bought most of my lenses, and other bits and pieces from ebay, and therefore don't have receipts for them.)
Click to expand...

If you record the serial numbers of all your kit you should be safe. Although this doesn't prove ownership per se it's enough for most insurance companies.
 
I had a claim on my contents insurance when my wife dropped her D200 on the attached 18-200 Nikkor. The lens seemed to be affected most (stiff zoom ring) but I sent the whole lot to be on the safe side. When I chased them after a few weeks they sent out a brand new body and lens (from WHE) DOH! The camera was probably OK.
I was insured with SAGA (OK I'm showing my age) but my next years premium doubled and I didn't renew.
 
About to ensure both our 5D's and lens, been going through Photoguard and E&L’s insurance policies and short of having the camera bag forcibly removed from your person you are covered for very little. Also check the excess amounts on E&L.

Read the details about stolen from car… it must be a saloon car as if there is a removable partition between the cabin and boot area (hatch) then the equipment is not covered.

Example asked (Photoguard): On holiday and leave camera equipment in hotel and equipment gets stolen, unless there is evidence of forced entry then not covered.

My Pru home insurance covers all our equipment £5000 unless stolen from a car then max payment is £1000.

These policies were quoted around £350 a year, and I think there is a risk of losing all your photo gear and finding due to the circumstances of the loss that the insurance company would not cover the loss.

We are still trying to find a reasonable insurance company!
 
i use house insurance for my gear it covers me for accidental damage and theft whislt out and about as long as i dont leave it on a park bench or anything like that!
 
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