Possessions travel insurance

cinereus

I'm helping someone insure their laptop and camera for a trip. Brand new value approx. £1500 and £800 (total £2300) or replacement cost about £950 and £500 (total £1450). However, as always, I'm finding it impossible to get an insurer without too many restrictions. They don't need accidental damage cover, just theft really.

Problems I'm encountering are:

• few insurers allow annual policies with trips longer than 90 days - they're away for just 91 days. either that or you have to buy for a whole year at 3-4x the price of 3 months
• many insurers have a max per "valuable" item of <£250
• many insurers require that you bought your items brand new (why would anyone buy laptops and cameras brand new and, anyway, how does this affect their value if stolen?! proof of ownership and purchase price is not an issue.)
• many insurers require items to be no more than 36 months old (again, this is a premium laptop worth about £950 - it's in far suprior condition to many new laptops)

I've tried looking at specialist gadget/photo insurers, contents insurance, backpacker insurance and travel insurance. There are tens of thousands of Britons going away for a few months and almost all have items bought on ebay or gifted which are still worth £500+. Are there really no underwriters catering for this market or are they just hoping to catch people out when they need to claim?

The two closest I've found so far is £110+ from insure-and-go for just 91 days (it's £95 for a year including unlimited trips up to 90 days!) and just £8/month from Photoguard but you have to pay for the whole year at £95 and I've read so many horror stories about unpaid theft claims with them.

rs65

Home insurance, with worldwide personal possessions cover.

paddyandstumpy

I agree with the above, try home insurance.
You'll need to insure the items for the new values not the 2nd hand replacement value though, as home insurers tend to be new for old.

csgohan4

if you use home insurance and you claim, your premiums will go up, while travel insurance this is unlikely to happen

paddyandstumpy

OP - have you tried googling "long stay travel insurance"?
I suspect your problem is more the value of the possessions cover not the duration of the holiday, but I'd just thought I'd check.

Regarding the above post, I've seen cases where the travel insurer refuses the claim if there is personal possesions cover under home insurance as travel policies can have a clause something like "no cover is provided where you have cover elsewhere", so make sure you have one or the other!

cinereus

paddyandstumpy wrote: »

OP - have you tried googling "long stay travel insurance"?

Yes, and dozens of variations.

paddyandstumpy wrote: »

I suspect your problem is more the value of the possessions cover not the duration of the holiday, but I'd just thought I'd check.

They have a simple laptop and a mirrorless camera. Even just an iPad and a SLR with a couple of primes would end up being valued about twice as much so I can't see the value being outrageous. Indeed, most policies I see have a max above £2k it's only the other issues.

rs65 wrote: »

Home insurance, with worldwide personal possessions cover.

I already explained in the OP that I'd tried this without any luck whatsoever. Home contents insurance is always excluded by point one (and usually several others).

paddyandstumpy wrote: »

I agree with the above, try home insurance.
You'll need to insure the items for the new values not the 2nd hand replacement value though, as home insurers tend to be new for old.

It would be great if we could find any home insurers offering this then...

Do you know of any which would cover this trip as I have yet to find any hence asking the question!

csgohan4 wrote: »

if you use home insurance and you claim, your premiums will go up, while travel insurance this is unlikely to happen

Not an issue - they just need to find anything that will cover this for a non-exorbitant rate.

rs65

The likes of Aviva don't seem to have any restrictions you mention.

cinereus

rs65 wrote: »

The likes of Aviva don't seem to have any restrictions you mention.

Thanks but it has the same problems as the others I mentioned - very expensive and you have to pay for the whole year instead of just 3 months.

This makes the price about 3-4x as expensive and, with personal items cover, Aviva are quoting us £181 which is 15% the value of the items! :eek:

rs65

£181 isn't expensive for annual contents cover with worldwide personal possessions cover. Are they not needing contents cover anyway?

paddyandstumpy

cinereus wrote: »

Thanks but it has the same problems as the others I mentioned - very expensive and you have to pay for the whole year instead of just 3 months.

This makes the price about 3-4x as expensive and, with personal items cover, Aviva are quoting us £181 which is 15% the value of the items! :eek:

You seem to want to moon on a stick but aren't willing to pay for it.
The £181 isn't unreasonable for contents cover with personal possessions, where you have the flex to be away for more than 90 days and still have cover!
And it's not £15% of the value, as they would replace the items on a new for old basis, so a claim would be circa £2300.

Ultimately you have quite a bespoke set of circumstances, not many would take such a long holiday and especially with valuables items like a £1500 laptop with them.
Despite your protestations in the OP that "tens of thousands" of people go travelling with £500+ luggage.

If there was a market there would be a policy.

cinereus

rs65 wrote: »

£181 isn't expensive for annual contents cover with worldwide personal possessions cover. Are they not needing contents cover anyway?

Seems expensive when alternatives for 90 days' cover plus unlimited trips for the rest of the year (instead of 91 days) are half the price. Photoguard is also only £24.

paddyandstumpy wrote: »

You seem to want to moon on a stick but aren't willing to pay for it.

See above. How can other insurers do almost exactly the same thing for a fraction of the price?

And it's not £15% of the value, as they would replace the items on a new for old basis, so a claim would be circa £2300.

I'm aware of that hence using the word "value" not "new replacement cost".

Despite your protestations in the OP that "tens of thousands" of people go travelling with £500+ luggage.

If there was a market there would be a policy.

Hmmm, I agree, there ought to be. I think it's the length that's the main issue...

You may be right and we both may be wrong here, but it seems self-evident that most people do travel with >£500 of belongings. You can barely move for iPads and iPhones in most holiday destinations.