Insurance for Your Camera Gear

[Gordon]

Originally Posted by gpgyo

So I guess the bottom line here is unless you can add your gear to a home owners policy, insuring camera gear is going to be in the $350-$500 range.

For any kind of professional usage, I think so yes. Though I was insuring about $16,000 worth of equipment. Certainly you can get lower rates for non-commercial use.

[ndsimm]

I got insurance through my Sam's club membership (not from Sam's though ) 20K coverage, 250 deductible, and 1 mil liability for about 60 bucks a month. I needed the monthly option (can't afford annual payments right now) and they were the only ones that offered it that I spoke to with a low deductible

[jeffkohn]

Originally Posted by RubenZamora

Does anyone here have Allstate ? and how are their plans for photography equipment.

My homeowners is with Allstate. According to my agent, they don't offer anything like the "personal articles" supplementary policy that State Farm apparently has. What she was able to do for me is schedule the camera equipment so that I have full coverage with no deductible. You'll have to provide receipts for everything. Coverage for $10K worth of gear (yikes! first time I ever added it all up) came to about $160/year. I don't think this is the best overall solution, will probably look into one of the separate policies that would even cover my gear for "professional" use at some point in the future, but at least I know for the time being that I'm covered and don't have to be quite as stressed out about traveling with such expensive gear.

[suzyjazz]

I appreciate everyone's comments here -- it's spurred me into action. My collection is really small compared to some people's, but losing $2K in the blink of an eye would still hurt. I plan to call State Farm tomorrow, and see what they say. I'm not expecting any problems since it's personal use, and it shouldbe pretty cheap. I would be afraid to make a claim on it though, with the things I hear about insurance agencies dropping you or rasing your rates a bunch because of one small thing.... Nevertheless, I would feel a lot better about traveling (domestically) with my gear if it's insured.
Suzy

[jheiliger]

See my thread here... http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...936#post230936

If you are a Pro, you better get insurance!


Joe

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

If you are buying the insurance through your homeowners policy be sure to see if you can get it as a seperate rider or policy because if you do have it stolen you will have a claim against your homeowners policy and many insurers now have it pretty much written in concrete that if you have more than 1 claim in a 2 year time period they will then cancel your coverage. Used to be insurance companies had to answer to state boards of insurance about their ability to cancel policies but that is long gone now and they will cancel at a whim and once you are cancelled finding another carrier is a real hassle and your rates will be HIGHER! See you fall into a high risk pool! So having a camera stolen from a vehicle, HOTEL ROOM or even checked in luggage on an airline etc maybe even on the other side of the world under your homeowners policy will be putting your home under risk of losing coverage. (heard from several hotels in europe many years ago not to leave camera equipment in the room, if I didn't want to carry it to take it down to the front desk to check it into the hotels safe for the time that I would be gone).

[zeroendless]

All state, You must have premium insurance with them to get the schedule. Fully convered everywhere. I think it comes with $300K liability too? My agent was joking about drop my lens and broke a fellow bones or two. That covered too.

Mine is $20k insured ran around $250-$300, don't remember the exact amount but no deductable. This is for personal no biz insurance. Like Jeff said, they do need receipts for every single item.

[Cope]

From experience, it's a good idea to maintain a spreadsheet for cameras, firearms or anything else of value that is too large a collection to remember everything. I keep Description, Serial Number, Cost, Date of purchase and Vendor. Filters, batteries and other small items are not listed, but I keep an inventory of them at the bottom of the spreadsheet. I had a theft from my storage shed, and sent a spreadsheet along with the claim form and had a check within 3 days.

It's a good idea to email a copy of the spreadsheet to someone outside the home for safekeeping.