Claiming (or not) on insurance

cymruchris

cymruchris

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Would be interested to hear of other members experiences if you've been through something similar to me.

I have a camera specific insurance policy through a well known insurer covering my equipment up to the value of £10k (overseas for as long as I want) for a premium of about £350 a year.

On a recent trip to Thailand - I managed to get water inside a Canon 1dx2 and a 100mm 2.8 macro...

It's at Canon being assessed - and they've said the lens is dead - unrepairable, but the camera can come back to life with a new shutterbox.

Cost of repairs - around £350-400 - plus the replacement macro lens around £650 makes the whole lot come to around £1k.

I'd originally taken insurance to protect me (in my mind) against a total loss of everything when travelling - but wondering now whether I should claim this, and suffer the subsequent rises in premiums for years to come...

(Excess if I remember is £50) - What would your thoughts be on the above?
 
This is not camera specific as I've just put my stuff under home insurance as I don't travel with anything worth more than £500.

Check the policy - I remember a few years ago when I looked into it that some expire once you've claimed. Either way, I would then shop around at renewal time - you may be able to get the same cover cheaper. I don't think it's massively different to car insurance - you'll have a slightly increased premium had you not claimed but you could still pay less than you are now.

I don't have a spare £1000 so I would claim. Your circumstances may be different and £1k may be small change to you, in which case I might not even bother with insurance.
 
I don't think the premium would rise that much and you can always shop around to bring it back down.

but in this situation I'm with omens I couldn't afford 1k so would be claiming.
 
tijuana taxi said:
If you don't claim, why bother with insurance in the first place?
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I’m one of those that doesn’t like to claim unless it’s big - and it is quite big - but not a total loss scenario that I was picturing.. 1k is a lot to me no doubt about that :) I think I’m on the side of making a claim - but wanted to hear of anyone who’d gone through a similar situation..
 
tijuana taxi said:
If you don't claim, why bother with insurance in the first place?
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This!

Understandable if the excess is £200 and the repair is £250, but £1k, get claiming. I made a £1200 or so claim a few years back (specific camera insurance) and if it did go up it would have been a couple of quid a month at most.
 
I had just short of a 2k claim on my house insurance recently, for a lens ( don't ask :rolleyes: )
my premium went up all of £2 the following year ...
(That was through L&G)
 
Why bother with insurance at all if you are even questioning filing a legitimate claim for £1k?!

You should have informed straight away. They may be not too happy with you waiting so long.
 
LongLensPhotography said:
Why bother with insurance at all if you are even questioning filing a legitimate claim for £1k?!

You should have informed straight away. They may be not too happy with you waiting so long.
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Oh I did inform straight away :) they said send it to canon for assessment - and it’s today the assessment has come through :) thanks for contributing all as always I think the claim route is the way to go... now for the forms and the 37 pieces of accompanying information they want to go with it - passports - identification - reports - incident details - inside leg measurements - haven’t done one of these before :)
 
cymruchris said:
passports - identification - reports - incident details - inside leg measurements -
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You forgot the pint of blood and a sample of your water :thumbs:
 
Server Hamster said:
You washed it again, but did it with the dishes and got crumbs in it, didn't you?
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Something like that, I left it in the staff room. I was trying to get the hamster droppings out of it :(
 
The problem is you've already reported it so already deemed a risk by the insurance company even if you don't claim. Your insurance premiums will probably increase regardless of if you claim or not so you may as well get your moneys worth and claim.
 
If there was any logic to insurance and insurance claims, it would be easy to answer such questions. If it was covered by my house insurance it would be borderline if I claimed or not as my premiums would increase. With specific insurance I would claim and if necessary shop around at renewal.

As mentioned above as you have already reported it to your insurers it may or it may not hit your premiums anyway.
 
I fail to see how someone who pays an insurance company £350 a year and then does not claim £1000 for damage to the insured item is a greater risk then some one who does claim or someone who has no recored of not claiming in circumsatnces where a claim could be made.

If I where the insurere and I had a client that paid £350 to me then told me his camera had a £1000 worth of damage but he was not going to claim I certainly would not consider him a risk I would consider him one of my best cutomers.
 
shapeshifter said:
I fail to see how someone who pays an insurance company £350 a year and then does not claim £1000 for damage to the insured item is a greater risk then some one who does claim or someone who has no recored of not claiming in circumsatnces where a claim could be made.

If I where the insurere and I had a client that paid £350 to me then told me his camera had a £1000 worth of damage but he was not going to claim I certainly would not consider him a risk I would consider him one of my best cutomers.
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I heard of someone who dropped a laptop down the stairs, she contacted her insurer regarding increased premium if she claimed and on the basis of that conversation decided not to claim.
Renewal time came and her premium had increased. She queried it and they told her it was because she reported that she had damaged an insured item and so she was considered a greater risk than previously.

NB I'm not saying it's right, just that it happened.
 
Because you have demonstrated that you are liable to break thing that are insured. Not claiming does not alter that. The insurers are concerned that next year you will break several things and then claim.
 
john.margetts said:
Because you have demonstrated that you are liable to break thing that are insured. Not claiming does not alter that. The insurers are concerned that next year you will break several things and then claim.
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That's a good idea - break a few more things next year to make up for any increase :) :) Sounds like a plan :) (Obviously not really - but it made me smile thinking about it!)
 
john.margetts said:
Because you have demonstrated that you are liable to break thing that are insured. Not claiming does not alter that. The insurers are concerned that next year you will break several things and then claim.
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But you have also demonstrated that you don't claim when you can.
 
In another case, a few years back, one of my dogs had a minor op at the vets, came to £5 over the excess, as there was a possibility
of it recurring |I did report it the the insurance company
They said I could claim for the £5, but I declined, she registered the claim as if there was a need for future treatment that would cover the excess,
premium didn't increase any more then the inflation rate at renewal
 
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