What insurance company?

Hi,

 

I am a beginner in photographer. I read a lot of books and one of

them suggest me to get the insurance. I am wondering what insurance

company can cover for my camera and lens.

I have called my car insurance (ALLSTATE) and unfortunately there is

no such coverage. They just have some kind like home coverage. So it

would not cover the camera unless it is stolen from my home or apartment.

Can anybody suggest me what insurance to take since I travel a lot and

I am planning to go overseas later.

Thank you,

Erwin Hartanto

Go to a independent agent and ask for a Inland Marine Policy for your cameras.I had my Hasselblad Camera and lenses insured and when they were stolen out of a trunk of a rental car ,they were replaced.

If you have homeowners or renters insurance, your insurance company should be able to write you a personal effects policy to cover your camera equipment. It is not that expensive, about $150-200/year for $18,000--25,000 of replacement value. If you are using your camera equipment for commercial uses or in a business, you will need a different type of policy. Joe Smith

All of my insurance is written with State Farm, so I get a multi-line discount. If you aren't going to use the equipment commercially/professionally, you could probably get a personal articles floater attached to your homeowners/renters policy:

 

 

http://www.aon.com/ca/en/individuals/home_property/specialty_coverage/personal_articles.jsp

 

 

If you are going to work professionally, you will want an inland marine policy for your equipment:

 

 

http://www.hillusher.com/define/insurance/Glossary/ar2.htm

 

 

Shooting professionally, you will also want a business liability policy, in case, for instance, someone trips and falls over your tripod, is injured and sues you:

 

 

http://sbinformation.about.com/od/insurance/a/liability.htm

My State Farm personal articles policy is $1.12/$100 coverage per year. If you have $2000 in equipment it'll cost you $22.40/yr. If you do computer equipment the rate is twice as much and if you work professionally it's also a little more.

And if you were in the Katrina area; the State Farm rascals will find "weasel words" to void coverage with your "inland marine policy". Read all the fine print, trust them as much as the devil or any other con-man, they will obfuscate, find things to pay little or nothing if possible. It is wise to be aware that they may not be your good neighbor, except when you are paying your premiums.<BR><BR> In the long run the insurance company wins. There is also a massive cost in their obfuscating your claim, placing armed guards from Chicago around the claims office 800 miles away 24/7 to prevent a riot, a cost in coaching the adjusters in lying. With a major natural disaster, expect poor service or none, getting the run around, getting your claims lost, and you paying for your equipment out of your own pocket. Often it makes more sense money wise to insure less, be vigilant about risks, and put the premium money in your own kitty to pay for a future loss. <BR><BR>The sweet honey/sirens of your agent's promisses can go real sour when you face the claims guy, and all exceptions, loopholes are played in their favor. There will be things that you cannot image, or never have seen before that will be used against you when they get into "dont pay mode". He gets paid to cut you short, pay you nothing at all. Insurance is a business that strives to be a nice guy during the pay the premium period, and a total enemy when you need them to pay for your claim. With a small policy, there is more overhead.

The "inland floater policy" can often not cover a loss in an automobile, a flood, on a boat, in another state, another country. If you are an amateur and you are doing pro work, but get the got the policy as an amateur, they might not pay either. <BR><BR>Anything your agent tells you really needs to be signed off in blood, with a witness. I am not kidding. When you premium comes due in 6 or 12 months, what he said was covered can magically be voided without your knowledge, but you might be paying for the added coverage or items. <BR><BR>These "special" things agreed to must be annually signed off by the insurance company, so they dont weasel out when a claim is made. The claims guy you meet wont know your agent, or have on record any of this added stuff. He is like an executioner ready to lowball the payout, or pay nothing at all.<BR><BR> If your inland floater policy item was in a car, will they pay the floater policys limit, or will the automobiles lessor coverage magically overide and ratchet down your payment? . One friends mother had a hurricane policy that had fine print that excluded wind. The roof came off, and the houses contents had alot of damage, and the policy paid zero. They had been paying extra premiums for hurricane, were not flooded, and only discovered the lack of "no wind coverage" after Katrina. The agent probably really got a good chuckle hawking that policy.<BR><BR>Once back in the 1970's I bought a new Nikon F2, 50mm F1.4,35mm F1.4, 105mm F2.5 all half off the NYC prices from a midwest company that was going out of business. The insurance agent had me paying the policy on the replacement value, NYC prices, 2x what I paid for the brand new stuff.. When it was stolen the inland floater policy only paid for what I paid for it. Cool gambit, they get you to pay double the premium for the replacement cost, then dont pay what they say they will. After taking them to court and the lawyer fees, I got more than the 50% figure, but not enough to replace 2/3's of the gear. Figuring in the premiums lost, I got enough to get 1/3 of the gear. <BR><BR>Insurance is a game of risk, weasel words, obfuscating claims, with alot of overhead. The payouts cannot be close to unity, because of the vast overhead, coaching, advertising, agents commissions, all the research they have to do to play the risk game, and investment costs of investing your premium's cash flows. They are as happy as pigs in slop if you pay your premiums , and they make zero payouts, and have alot of cash flow to play golf. :)

Methinks you protest too much! Sounds like a load a crap to me...

Thank's everybody. Now I know what to look and ask to the insurance agent. Thank you for the advice, Kelly.

 

Regards,

-erwin