Independant Camera Insurance

[dpSparhawk]

Looking at some advice

I am in the frame of mind to insure my kit because I just realised that when I take my kit bag out with my tripod and have all my kit with me, it's approaching £1700 at the prices I paid. At todays prices, it's probably a tad closer to £2000. Then I realised "Oh shit, what if it's ever stolen off me" - I can't afford to replace all that in one go! So, I think insurance is particularly wise.

Now, I've asked the superior one about our home contents insurance and it doesn't cover any equipment we take out from the house (WTF I'm thinking but she knows best... cough ahem!) - Anyway, it can be added but as you would expect, the boss is concerned about the increase in premium were I to have to claim.. lol So, being honest, I'd prefer to keep it all separate anyway so I had a quick search on here and found this thread: http://www.digital-forums.com/showth...ight=insurance

It mentiones E+L and Photoguard. I've researched elsewhere and apparantly E+L are significantly more expensive than Photoguard according to some.

However, when I've checked E+L for Amateur All Risk, it shows it to be £5.08/month +10% for Unattended vehicle cover (UVC) (total £5.66/month) Or inc. UVC, a yearly one off payment of £55.88

When I checked Photoguard the price varied between £60 and £75/year (or around £7/month) dependant on whether I included an excess of £250 or not with the unattended vehicle cover included

All this is for up to £2000 covered

People are reporting E+L to be a nightmare to pay when a claim is made however Photoguard are quite good.

So, do any of you have 3rd party cover and whom would you recommend? Just to throw a bit more confusion in, Glover and Howe are reputed to be very good. Does anyone know much about them?

http://www.gloverhowe.com/pages/photographic.php

[BertRoot]

I looked at Photoguard as they are cheaper and have heard of others having issues with E+L when claiming. As I don't have receipts for some of my fear I asked them how this would pan out and they said I could, in the event of a claim, shoe photos, boxes, bank transfers or statements etc, which I thought was pretty good. Price was also reasonable.

[dpSparhawk]

Cool cheers Bert.

Anyone else?

[the ghost]

yep cheers bert watching for answers as I looking for insurance aswell

[dpSparhawk]

Any more imput from anyone? Wingnut, Mr O.? I know you guys have a significant amount of kit. Neo, I know you use your home insurance.. Bilbo?

What about Glover and Howe? Any thoughts?

[BertRoot]

Can you not beef up your home cover? I have no idea of the value of my kit currently and would need to research whether it would blow my home cover up by a vast amount to cover it on there. Am not too comfortable at the moment as I am out with all my gear at night regularly and am thinking of venturing up to Blackpool for some shots which with the amount of pikey shitehawks out and about up there worries me slightly.

edit:Jesus in todays climate my gear is up around the 4k mark if priced on WHE. I need to sort this quickly.

[dpSparhawk]

I'm leaning more towards an independant specialist. Someone who knows what my gear is to be honest mate. The home insurance would probably try and give me a £90 P&S in replacement.. lol

[XBOX4LIFE]

Not for camera's but relevant,
I raised the limit on my house insurance to include taking high value items out & about, any single item over £1500 had to be named, it was to cover a £1600 laptop, phone and pc's, it only cost a couple of ££ on top of the monthly payment and everything was covered for accidental damage & theft (had to be in a locked boot if the vehicle was unattended)

[BertRoot]

I used to have my bike as a named item on my home insurance valued at about 2.5k. When I stacked it into a car at 30mph and bent the frame I got a nice shiny new one for 50 quid excess and it had no effect on my premium. I will see how my insurers would deal with this.

[{{909}}]

good thread, I went out on a shoot being severly hungover and accidently left my bag in a pub, both bodies and 3 lenses were in there, didnt even realise untill i was half way home. couldnt believe it when it was still in the corner where i left it after running accross mansfield in panic. someone could have had a VERY nice find there