Insurance question

pg333

pg333

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I'm about to spend around £1000 for my new setup. I have home contents insurance, but not including away from home or accidental cover. The camera is not for business, purely home-user stuff.

What's the cheapest, most extensive cover - including accidents, theft and water damage and possibly covering more than one camera / multiple lenses?

Thank you in advance if you have any idea!
 
I too would like to know this.

Also, can insurance cover second hand goods, as I have just spend around £600 on some used equipment.
 
The majority of my stuff is second hand and i have it insured. I just needed the serial numbers on each specific item, then i have a 'micellaneous' items amount which covers things like filters, cable relase, bag etc etc
 
Jonathan,

Who are you insured with, and if you don't mind me asking, what is your premium like?

Thanks,

Craig.
 
Speak to yur home insurance provider and ask about 'all risks' cover. If they are a decent company, they should be able to provide additional cover for your camera gear when it is being used away from the house, and will provide cover for damage or loss irrespective of how the damage/loss occurred.

In many cases there may not be an additional premium for such cover, depending on the value of the kit. My insurance provider has given me £5000 of all risk cover, with a single item limit of £2000.

As none of the individual bits of my camera gear cost more than £2000, this is fine for me. I just need to remember not to take more than £5000 total worth of gear with me when I venture out. If it ever gets to the point where I need to do this, a quick phone call will allow me to increase the cover, though at that point I am sure it would attract a small additional premium.
 
I found that by taking out a premium contents cover which includes Lost, Stolen and accidental damage at home or when out (even in Spain) for all my Camera gear worked out cheaper than a 'budget' contents policy and separate cover for the Camera gear.
 
Hi I'm just revisiting this thread as I haven't had any joy yet - why, oh why, is insuring photographic equipment so difficult???

To date, I've looked at:

Photoguard
Glover and Howe
E&L
Aaduki
Morgan Richardson
Imaging Insurance.co.uk and
AUA Insurance

and already I want to give up. The number of exclusions genuinely makes me wonder whether I should even bother.

All I want to do is cover the camera from theft, accidents and mechanical problems in the UK. Is that really too much to ask for? This industry is doing itself a mis-service by excluding so many things, as people like me are just put off entirely by taking up their cover.

Are there any companies out there that do cover exactly what they say they cover without any asterisks or exclusions? I just want to make sure if I get mugged on the street or if the camera gets stolen from the boot of my car after 9pm at night out of town or if I damage a lens, I know I can count on my insurer covering me and not having to pay a fortune in excesses to get it sorted.

Is this really all that unreasonable????
 
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I have got my home contents insurance with Direct Line and I phoned them when I bought my camera a few weeks back to check if it was covered. Because I have the personal possessions cover included in my policy then this will cover all my camera kit, up to a max of £2500 with a single item limit of £1000 where I am at home or not. I didn't have to register any details about the equipment, and the only criteria was that it must be being used for personal not business use.

I can't remember exactly, but I don't think it was more than about £40 to add the personal possessions cover to the main contents insurance for the year.
 
I did the same as Stuart went to my home contents insurance company and got them to cover all my photographic equipment and it cost an extra £5 a month = £60 per year.

I am covered for £5000 if all my equipment gets lost or damaged, or £3000 for any single item.
 
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I'd love to do the same but my contents insurance company said they couldn't add the cover to my policy (via a broker, you see) and I'd in effect have to buy another new policy to include it - basically my home insurance is about £50 for the year and they wanted £140 for a policy to include the camera away from home!
 
Thank yourself lucky that you're not trying to get insurance in Canada. I want to insure my entire kit; D90, 3 lenses, SB600 flash. It's virtually impossible to do.

All I can get at the moment is a $1000.00 deductible and accidental damage isn't covered. I'm basically covered for theft and fire.

Not really worth it, is it?
 
For the work I do, I cannot get insurance at all...

"You want to use it for what...where...? hahahhahahahahahahahaha... No..."

:(
 
For what it is worth we are with Virgin insurance, dropped my 300L in stream, phoned insurance, they dealt with the claim in a fast and efficient manner and paid up for replacement lens.
 
Camera insurance is real quandary - there are so many factors affecting cover; are you already covered under an existing policy? Does a policy cover my equipment while in transit or abroad? Will this or that policy cover second hand equipment?

I quickly ruled out cover for my equipment under the house insurance since while out shooting, I have it with me in the car or on location.

After shopping around, I finally opted to trust Photoguard - like every insurer, I found both negative and positive opinions when I searched around the net. On balance it seems to provide the cover I require at a fair price.

I've never needed to make a claim so I'm not in a position to comment on that aspect of their service.

Setting up the policy was a straightforward process, taking about 15 minutes; you will need to supply the serial numbers from your equipment during sign-up or before you can make any claim on the policy - better to do this while signing up imho since it's difficult to locate them from your kit when you need to make a claim and it's possibly missing!
 
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On first call to my insurance company (over here in Canada), they said Accidental Coverage wasn't available for my camera, and I couldn't add it is a separate item as it was below $3000.00 minimum, and I have a $1000.00 deductible!!! And that was that, no other offers of covering my camera.

I went away, did some research and found out there is a policy called an "All Risk Floater". Called them back, enquired about the All Risk Floater, and got my camera and equipment (told them it was all worth $2500.00) insured for $34.00 a year with $0.00 deductible.

Why wasn't I offered this in the first place?
 
mindcrime said:
On first call to my insurance company (over here in Canada), they said Accidental Coverage wasn't available for my camera, and I couldn't add it is a separate item as it was below $3000.00 minimum, and I have a $1000.00 deductible!!! And that was that, no other offers of covering my camera.

I went away, did some research and found out there is a policy called an "All Risk Floater". Called them back, enquired about the All Risk Floater, and got my camera and equipment (told them it was all worth $2500.00) insured for $34.00 a year with $0.00 deductible.

Why wasn't I offered this in the first place?
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Because they don't want you to actually use the policy, they just want to take your money - it's gambling.
They're gambling that you won't make a claim.
The fact that you have high-value items and made specific enquiries as to specific cover under specific circumstances alerts them that you might actually be taking those high-value items into situations where they might get damaged - meaning they'd have to pay out.
 
What bothered you about aaduki?
I've just taken out a policy with them, including public liability, and I thought it was quite reasonable (half the cost of adding it to my More>Than policy!).
I had one issue with the wording of their policy regarding my house alarm and I had a reply back that they would change the wording with their underwriters and they agreed to a 'warrant' on the policy to provide cover on my conditions in the interim.
 
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