Who has insurance on their gear?

jfriend · October 27, 2006

I'm upgrading some of my gear and getting into the price range that I'm thinking maybe it should be insured. I also like to use my gear in all circumstances (weather, hiking, travel, etc...) which exposes it to a little more than the average amateur's risk, though I do my best to take care of it as long as I'm not restricting where I use it.

Do you have insurance on your gear? If so, do you have it as a rider on your home owner's/renter's insurance or do you have a different policy?

Does your insurance cover anything that might happen to your gear including theft, breakage, weather damage, water damage, dropping, etc... Or, does your policy exclude some things like this?

Any ideas for what an "all risk" non-pro type of policy should cost for $15k of equipment coverage?

John Mueller · October 27, 2006

State Farm personal articles policy
They have pro or non pro.
I switched to the pro from non pro and at that time it was a approx couple hundred bucks a yr for non 15-17k of gear
As far as I know they cover all that you mentioned.
Havent had to place a claim yet.

TristanP · October 27, 2006

I also have a State Farm policy, only mine is non-pro. IIRC, it's $1.35 for every $100 in covered value per year for the non- and $1.85 per $100 for the pro, with a $50 minimum. Everything is covered. Only thing I'm not sure of is coverage outside the US. Haven't had that to worry about, but will check if it ever comes up. I'll probably upgrade to the pro coverage next year as I'll be (hopefully) shooting more motorsports.

Andy · October 27, 2006

Pro policy through Travelers.
All my gear is covered, where ever I use it, anywhere in the world. A few hundred a year, don't recall exactly. But I highly recommend being insured.

Fred Maurer · October 27, 2006

Liberty Mutual Homeowners rider. Roughly $150.00 - $175.00 per year for about $12,000 worth of equipment. Absolutely recommend it. Brings great piece of mind when hiking in the mountains, "shooting" in the city, or traveling on the plane.

pathfinder · October 27, 2006

I will call my State Farm agent tomorrow

Jeffro · October 27, 2006

Country Mutual...rider, under $100 per year. Covers it all. Highly recommended.

JenGrace · October 27, 2006

I have a simple service plan through Best Buy which doesn't really cover all that much. Ritz camera actually seems to offer a really good coverage that pretty much covers everything but theft. And they don't have a limit as to how much you use it. Water damage, fire, breakage, everything seems to be covered. Anyone have any good or bad input on that?

Jeffro · October 28, 2006

JenW wrote:

I have a simple service plan through Best Buy which doesn't really cover all that much. Ritz camera actually seems to offer a really good coverage that pretty much covers everything but theft. And they don't have a limit as to how much you use it. Water damage, fire, breakage, everything seems to be covered. Anyone have any good or bad input on that?

It wouldn't be good coverage....if it didn't include theft protection...at least not to me.

Pezpix · October 28, 2006

Dont do what I did... My gear was stolen out of the back of my ride back in August. Needless to say, it was a sickening feeling knowing that even though my gear was gone, that I was uninsured for most of it. (Thankfully my homeowners policy ponied up and covered the losses)

Be smart if you have a heavy investment in your equipment.

GrtWht · October 28, 2006

Pezpix wrote:

Dont do what I did... My gear was stolen out of the back of my ride back in August. Needless to say, it was a sickening feeling knowing that even though my gear was gone, that I was uninsured for most of it. (Thankfully my homeowners policy ponied up and covered the losses)

Be smart if you have a heavy investment in your equipment.

I Feel your pain Pezpix. I had half of my gear stolen out of my truck about a month ago and unfortunately was curently uninsured. Lost about $8k worth of equipment.

What ever you have to do make sure you have your gear insured unless you don't worry about how much it will cost to replace.

Justiceiro · October 30, 2006

Where would be a good place to get travel isnurance for about $3K worth of gear?

wxwax · October 30, 2006

pathfinder wrote:

I will call my State Farm agent tomorrow

Does this mean you have to dig up all of your old receipts? Do you even have them?

Justiceiro · October 30, 2006

I am about to leave for Uzbekistan, and I have no insurance whatsoever. What should I do?

pathfinder · October 30, 2006

wxwax wrote:

Does this mean you have to dig up all of your old receipts? Do you even have them?

Actually I do have them, Sid. I put every receipt from B&H in its own seperate file in my filing cabinet.

I would prefer to insure them for curent replacement value

I'll get back to you on my final decision.

psmoore · October 30, 2006

Another State Farms here. I'ts like 6.00 for 6500.00 for all my stuff.

jfriend · October 30, 2006

State Farm's policy
I called my State Farm agent (that's who we have homeowner's insurance with).

Their answer is that I can take out a separate policy for "all risk" coverage on specific itemized pieces of camera gear. It's got a $1000 deductible and would cost about $200/yr for $15,000 worth of equipment for a non-pro in my zip code. It's around $300 for a pro. "All risk" coverages covers pretty much any loss, but the large deductible certainly narrows the circumstances where it's a good deal to situations where you lose a really big ticket item or get several things stolen at once. I'm trying to figure out if this is worth it or not.

psmoore · October 30, 2006

jfriend wrote:

I called my State Farm agent (that's who we have homeowner's insurance with).

Ask him/her about the Personal Articles Policy. That's the one you want.

jfriend · October 30, 2006

How would a personal articles policy be different?

psmoore wrote:

Ask him/her about the Personal Articles Policy. That's the one you want.

I thought that's what she was describing, but she didn't specifically call it a "personal articles policy". How would a personal articles policy be different than what she described to me already? Are you thinking it's cheaper? Or has lower deductibles?

agunther · October 30, 2006

I believe buying insurance is like cheating yourself.
Unless the replacement of something would bancrupt me (house) or for necessary stuff (car) I stay away from it.
Here is my reasoning:
Insurance companies are businesses that have one goal: Make Money.
They do their homework and they determine on average how much it costs them to pay your claims and they set their fees based on that (plus a decent mark up). In a way, by not having insurance I am my own insurance agent. I pocket the money ( actually I don't spend it) and I pay the claims (buy new equipment). By all reasoning, I should come out ahead of the curve if I am just average (no mark up). But since I am my own agent, I can beat the average by looking after my stuff more carefully.
It will save me enough money to be able to replace lost, damaged or stolen items after so many months or years.
So far I have made a lot of money (by not paying insurance) and didn't have to pay a single claim (no damage). I have already saved enough to replace some expensive item.

Edit: This only works if you have the financial backup (hence not for things that would bancrupt me). Same as for insurances.

jfriend · October 30, 2006

Why I am considering insurance

agunther wrote:

I believe buying insurance is like cheating yourself.
Unless the replacement of something would bancrupt me (house) or for necessary stuff (car) I stay away from it.
Here is my reasoning:
Insurance companies are businesses that have one goal: Make Money.
They do their homework and they determine on average how much it costs them to pay your claims and they set their fees based on that (plus a decent mark up). In a way, by not having insurance I am my own insurance agent. I pocket the money ( actually I don't spend it) and I pay the claims (buy new equipment). By all reasoning, I should come out ahead of the curve if I am just average (no mark up). But since I am my own agent, I can beat the average by looking after my stuff more carefully.
It will save me enough money to be able to replace lost, damaged or stolen items after so many months or years.
So far I have made a lot of money (by not paying insurance) and didn't have to pay a single claim (no damage). I have already saved enough to replace some expensive item.

I'm well aware of this argument against buying insurance and I use it all the time. If you are an average risk and you can financially survive the loss, then the insurance company is making money on you (on average), so you are better off not buying insurance (some call this self-insuring). It's why I don't carry collision insurance on my cars (I do have liability though).

I do, however, believe you should carry insurance in four circumstances:

The law says you have to (e.g. liability insurance for driving)
A loss would be catastrophic to your financial condition (e.g., many people couldn't financially survive the loss of their home)
The "peace of mind" by knowing it's insured is worth it to you, even though you could survive the loss. This is an emotional need, not a financial one.
You believe you are a higher than average risk, but the insurance company will be charging you as though you are an average risk.

I am investigating insurance for reasons 3 and 4. I want to own expensive camera equipment. I want to be able to take it almost anywhere I go without worrying about whether it might get stolen from the hotel room. I intend to take reasonable precautions to take care of it and protect it, but not limit myself on when I can take it with me out of fear of someone stealing it or it getting damaged.

My reasoning is if I can't take it with me nearly everywhere I go, then why did I buy good equipment in the first place? I could do all that without insurance, but it would definitely be a lot more peace of mind knowing I had insurance and I may actually be a higher than average risk because I intend to use my equipment more than most. This is not me being careless, just me wanting to really use my equipment a lot.

Different strokes for different folks - this is just my own thinking. Your mileage may vary.

kygarden · October 30, 2006

I asked my insurance agent about coverage and she told me my camera was covered under my homeowner's policy. Now, how flexible they'll be if something happened when I was out on vacation with it, I don't know....but they've always been honest and fair with me in the past.

rosselliot · October 30, 2006

what if it's stolen? does it cover that?

- RE

psmoore · October 31, 2006

kygarden wrote:

I asked my insurance agent about coverage and she told me my camera was covered under my homeowner's policy. Now, how flexible they'll be if something happened when I was out on vacation with it, I don't know....but they've always been honest and fair with me in the past.

But under your homeowners, you'll have to pay the deductible first. With the PAP I have there is 0 (zero) deductible.

SteveF · October 31, 2006

Hello,

You need homeowner's insurance. Your bank will not give you a mortgage without it (as a side note you are really insuring their loan as much / more than your house).

Many insurance companies will drop you after two claims. Most will drop you with three significant claims. You will then be in a higher risk category and pay significantly more.

Don't insure your gear with a rider on your homeowners policy. It's cheap for a reason.

bobcool · November 2, 2006

Just got off the phone with State Farm..

The great thing about the Personal Artical Policy is:

No deductible
My quote was $1.13 per $100 of equipment
Covers everything but nuclear and flood damage
It's not just for photography equipment - you can add other expensive items such as jewelry to this policy
Minimum premium is only $30/year

I'll be getting this as soon as I decide over the great debate of a Canon vs. Nikon dSLR going on in my head right now...

Regards,

BobCool

limbik · November 2, 2006

Just thought I'd chime in, I also have a Personal Articles Policy with State Farm, non-pro. It is affordable enough for me to keep it even though thankfully I have not had a need to make a claim as of yet.

L84CABO · November 29, 2006

I also went with a State Farm policy for professionals. It costs me $110/yr for about $7K worth of coverage. It covers everything from theft, to damage if somebody steps on it or I drop it...I'm a clumsy guy. And yes, it's good internationally.

Whomever you go with, you really want to make sure you read the policy carefully and understand the fine print. Some policies are only good in the US. I read one policy that would only cover theft from a vehicle if the vehicle had an alarm. Does the policy cover the full replacement value of your equipment or does it only cover up to the amount you originally spent...or does it only cover the depreciated value?

You also want to make sure you that you get a professional/business policy if you use your equipment to make any kind of money at all. If you cover your equipment on your home owners policy and the insurance company discovers that you have, say, a SmugMug site and that your photos are for sale, they may not cover the loss.

Finally, think about the ramifications of covering your equipment under a homeowners policy if you're thinking of going that route. Insurance companies are cancelling insurance policies left and right these days. Do you really want to attach several thousand dollars to your home owners policy? Because if you ever do have to file a claim for your equipment, they may end up cancelling your home owners insurance once the claim is paid. For this reason, it may be a better idea to have a completely separate policy for your equipment.

Pennsylvania · December 2, 2006

Personal Articles Insurance Policy
Just read your note about contacting your State Farm Agent for a Personal Articles Policy. I contacted a State Farm Agent and was told they no longer offer a "stand alone policy", we would have to switch our home owners from our present insurer to State Farm to be covered. I spoke with our agent and was told if we have more than 2 claims they would cancel our home owners policy.

Have you had any luck obtaining insurance other than coverage attached to your home owners policy?

Thanks,

Richard lcrs@cove.net

Asmodeus · December 2, 2006

Pennsylvania wrote:

Just read your note about contacting your State Farm Agent for a Personal Articles Policy. I contacted a State Farm Agent and was told they no longer offer a "stand alone policy", we would have to switch our home owners from our present insurer to State Farm to be covered. I spoke with our agent and was told if we have more than 2 claims they would cancel our home owners policy.

Have you had any luck obtaining insurance other than coverage attached to your home owners policy?

Thanks,

Richard lcrs@cove.net

I have the PAP coverage from SF, and do not have homeowners. They do, however, carry my car, boat, and life insurance policies.

gus · December 2, 2006

I have everything insured for any situation be that at home or out & about. A simple fumble could cost me thousands instantly. Its only $300/year. Money well spent on my part i recon.

Who has insurance on their gear?

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