Insurance for your Camera kit

[kamion]

I assume some people here have bought insurance for their camera kit... can I ask which insurance company you use? I'm thinking of getting cover for my kit as I recently just added quite a bit to it!

Thanks.

 

[kamion]

Just did a quick search and found Boon's thread and Google'd Whitewash's Photoguard cover... £63 for £1350 cover with EU and 30 day worldwide. Need to read their fine print more later.

http://www.photoguard.co.uk/home.asp

Anyone else using other insurers?

 

[Janice]

It is sometimes covered on your home insurance, so read that before you start.

 

[praxis]

lol! for £300 of cover £25 a year, with £250 excess, £22 per year!

 

[kamion]

I don't have home insurance.

Here's a few more links for people interested:
http://www.pentaxuser.co.uk/pages/insurance.htm
http://www.eandl.co.uk/insurance/photo

Interesting article on the British Journal of Photography listing a few camera insurers:
http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=13539

AUA Insurance:
http://www.aua-insurance.com/Photographer-Insurance.shtm

Camerasure Alliance:
http://www.towergateunderwriting.co.uk/Default.aspx?page=52

Glover & Howe:
http://www.gloverhowe.co.uk/

Morgan Richardson Limited:
http://217.35.93.125/MROnline/holdingpage.htm?A5W_Sess_ID=5cae4a9bbcf54d37b04315bf494ee829

 

[Col_M]

I use imaging insurance www.imaginginsurance.co.uk

~£160 for £4k of non-business cover

 

[PaulBoy]

I don't have home insurance.

Here's a few more links for people interested:
http://www.pentaxuser.co.uk/pages/insurance.htm
http://www.eandl.co.uk/insurance/photo

Interesting article on the British Journal of Photography listing a few camera insurers:
http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=13539

AUA Insurance:
http://www.aua-insurance.com/Photographer-Insurance.shtm

Camerasure Alliance:
http://www.towergateunderwriting.co.uk/Default.aspx?page=52

Glover & Howe:
http://www.gloverhowe.co.uk/

Morgan Richardson Limited:
http://217.35.93.125/MROnline/holdingpage.htm?A5W_Sess_ID=5cae4a9bbcf54d37b04315bf494ee829

kamion - sorry for being a lazy gyt but from your research what's the best cover for @ 2-3K worth of kit (scary when you add it up)
Paul

 

[kamion]

kamion - sorry for being a lazy gyt but from your research what's the best cover for @ 2-3K worth of kit (scary when you add it up)
Paul

I don't know... I haven't gone round getting quotes for myself yet. I'm going to call them up to ask for quotes, I think you have to do the same to get a quote for yourself.

 

[chenko]

I use home insurance, it covers items "away from home" too, and I dont have any equipment yet that has to be named on the insurance.

 

[PaulBoy]

I don't know... I haven't gone round getting quotes for myself yet. I'm going to call them up to ask for quotes, I think you have to do the same to get a quote for yourself.

kamion - I had a shuftie at those today but decided to use Photoguard HERE
£3000 worth of cover was £66 per annum which compares well with the ones above ...

I use home insurance, it covers items "away from home" too, and I dont have any equipment yet that has to be named on the insurance

chenko - I have £2000 worth of cover on my home contents to cover golf clubs etc but when I asked about adding my photog kit my premium went up over £100 so specific photog insurance worked out cheaper for me ...

Paul

 

[kamion]

kamion - I had a shuftie at those today but decided to use Photoguard HERE
£3000 worth of cover was £66 per annum which compares well with the ones above ...

Is that with Euro (30 day worldwide) and unattended vehicle cover?

 

[rpstewart]

I've got mine on my home contents as a bucket of cover for personal items outside the home. I think it's about an extra £70-80 for £8K worth of cover including unattended vehicle cover etc.

I looked at specialist insurance and some of the small print was a little scary - the vehicle cover was unworkable, the excess was something like 25% of the claim and if you did claim they wouldn't insure you the following year etc.

 

[PaulBoy]

Is that with Euro (30 day worldwide) and unattended vehicle cover?

kamion - no neither (neither of which I wanted / needed) It is easy to see how they affect the quote though on the front page of the site ... Paul

 

[robbin'b]

A Cautionary Tale:

Read the small print, very carefully. like rps. says, even then it might not be all you think.

Many years ago I worked part-time as a photographer, weekend and evenings kind of stuff. I took out 'proper' insurance, unattended vehicle, new-for-old, liability, the works. It wasn't too expensive at the time. No claims for five years and then I got my car done over properly (I was on my way back from a shoot and needed to eat, mistake!).

Was quite miffed, BiB gave me a crime number but nothing else didn't even want to look at the damage.

Totted up the damage to car, smashed window, broken locks about a grand - claim from car insurance - took seven days and they paid out.

Did the same for the photo gear, just shy of 2 grand, pair of Bronicas and lenses etc. - claim from specialist insurance - two weeks later get letter from insurers, they need to send a loss assessor to talk to me. Being a nerd type I have all my kit, makes, purchase dates, costs, numbers on a database so I prepare a print out marked up with the missing stuff and also assemble a list of the replacements that I had bought in the meantime to keep me going.
Talk to loss assessor, who was decent enough about it, and wait for the outcome. Their offer was the second-hand value of what I had bought as replacements well under half of what I had lost; completely ignoring the new-for-old, all-risks clauses.

I was fortunate to have a good insurance agent who had handled this for me, he was furious (I wasn't too chuffed either) and after two more months of angry letters I got my settlement. And that was that until...

Policy renewal time - we ain't gonna - you're a risk...

One claim in five years, one strike and you are out.

More letters, eventually they offered to cover me, no new-for-old, no unattended vehicle, 25% excess, oh and that will be 2 grand thanks.

No thanks, decided to stick their premium in the bank and 'take me chances'.

Never lost a thing since, must be ten years now, still have the replacement Bronica just don't get to use it.

Rob

 

[kamion]

Just got this reply from Photoguard in response to me asking about their terms and conditions:

Thank you for your email. We can confirm that as all theft must be by forcible or violent means, if you were to leave the equipment in a locked room outside of the Insured Location and someone who had access to this room stole the equipment, unfortunately this would not be covered as there would be no proof of a forced entry.

This would also apply if someone stole the equipment from the Insured Location without showing evidence of forcible or violent means.

With regards to the definition of Unattended, this refers to if the equipment is outside of the Insured Location. Therefore, if you are away from the Insured Location with the equipment and need to leave it unattended, it would either need to be inside a locked vehicle, if you have selected this cover, or inside a locked room or cupboard.

We would only class the Insured Location as Unoccupied if this has not been lived in for more than 30 days. If you are going on holiday for more than 30 days and are leaving the equipment at the Insured Location, you would need to make sure that someone can visit the Insured Location within 30 days so that it would not be classed as unoccupied.

I'm quite worried about the opportunist thief who might wander into the house in the middle of the day when there's someone upstairs or in another part of the house and nick stuff from my room. That won't be covered.

 

[chenko]

kamion - I had a shuftie at those today but decided to use Photoguard HERE
£3000 worth of cover was £66 per annum which compares well with the ones above ...


chenko - I have £2000 worth of cover on my home contents to cover golf clubs etc but when I asked about adding my photog kit my premium went up over £100 so specific photog insurance worked out cheaper for me ...

Paul

As you can see from the other posts, Photoguard have lots of dodgy small print, imo.

Photoguard for about 2-3k worth for worldwide cover is about 100quid anyway

 

[apodo]

I'm quite worried about the opportunist thief who might wander into the house in the middle of the day when there's someone upstairs or in another part of the house and nick stuff from my room. That won't be covered.

Do you leave the doors unlocked when someone is home? If so you are taking a big risk and I doubt anyone would insure you in those situations.

Michael.

 

[tirnanog]

Coincidentally, we're presently looking at renewal of our house insurance. In addition to my camera equipment, I have expensive bicycles to cover - most insurers impose a rather low limit for each item and a rather low "Personal Effects" overall. By far the best cover - and cheapest - was with Marks and Spencer's Premium cover: no overall limits, but any individual item over £4000 must be specified. Seems to be just the job. You can download their policy to look at the plain English terms and conditions from their web site. Hope this helps.

 

[Ross]

Covered on my household insurance for an additional £20 per year. Cover upto £1500 per item (unnamed) and no upper claim limit, and that's with worldwide travel cover included.

I asked what would happen if I dropped my entire camera bag in the sea and they told me I would be covered for each item seperately as long as it was under the value of £1500, if an item was over £1500 then they would pay out £1500 and no more.

That was with MoreThan

 

[Grendel]

I've just spoken to my house and contents insurers (Barclays). My camera and equipment weren't covered at all. I've just added the full monty cover for both, that's at and away from home, including worldwide cover and if anything got nicked from my car (as long as it was in the boot or glove box) for and extra £34. Seems like a pretty good deal to me!

 

[whiteflyer]

I use home insurance, it covers items "away from home" too, and I dont have any equipment yet that has to be named on the insurance.

Same here, I went to Spain last month and asked the insurance company (More Than) if my 30D was covered. They said any single item up to £1500 before I need to name them and up to 90 days away.

My camera and lenses don't add to to £1500 yet, but would like to know how they define single item, is a DSLR with lens attached one item or two.

 

[rpstewart]

is a DSLR with lens attached one item or two.

With the exception of the kit bundles the body comes in one box and the lens in another, 2 lines on the receipt equals 2 individual items in my book. The fact that they're physically joined should make no difference.

 

[Darryn]

Camera gear is insured as "listed items" on my household insurance. Ive checked with the insurance company "First Direct" that it is all covered at home, out and about and also abroad. As whitefyler has said, only items over £1500 needed seperately naming and adding 300f2.8, 5d, 1dmkII and my Macpro only added £7.50/month to the premiums.

 

[kamion]

Having looked around a bit more comparing between Photoguard, E&L and Glover & Howe, I've decided on the latter because:
1) it's cheaper than Photoguard, but it does have an excess
2) the excess is cheaper than E&L

but most importantly, Glover & Howe policy allows me Worldwide cover as long as each trip is less than 60 days at any one time! Great! Also, it automatically includes vehicle cover as well (except for hours between 21:00 and 06:00).

The excess is:

10% of any agreed claim, subject to a minimum of £35.00 and maximum of £150 (In respect of the theft of attempted theft from an unattended motor vehicle the minimum excess is £100 with a maximum of £500.00)