Equipment Insurance

[LostInSp_ce]

I'm not if his has been covered in here before, but I'm wondering if anyone knows of an insurance company that would cover your equipment when away from home? I've been thinking about taking the scope with me when camping and then thought about about what happens if it's damaged or worse stolen when I'm out and about in the wilderness? As far as I'm aware my House and Contents Insurance wouldn't cover me.

[gaseous]

I believe some car insurance policies will cover items in a car, but only up to a certain limit which from memory wasn't particularly high and unlikely to cover much if some scumbag cleans you out. Alternatively you may be able to take out some exotic form of short-term travel insurance, or get a special (and expensive) addition to your standard vehicle insurance.

[gjr80]

No insurance expert but just reading our contents PDS it talks about things like 'Personal valuables - unspecified items' and 'Personal valuables - specified items' and I see words like 'an item that is normally carried by you away from from the insured address' and 'photographic or optical equipment'. All highly conditional and there are percentage limits etc and it's all under optional cover so you are going to pay for it.

Might be worth having a look around at what other companies offer. After all am sure we all check our cover every year or two to make sure we are getting the best deal we can :)

Gary

[jenchris]

RACQ home cover covers stuff you're travelling with I think

[glend]

Specified Items, on your car policy, like photo equipment etc will cost you significantly so think about it, and get several policy quotes as you may need to switch to get what you want in the way of coverage.. If the gear is outside the car its probably not covered anyway. I recall a certain fellow that had his EQ8 mount knocked down by a young bull up at Bretti in the middle of the night.
I always put my scope inside my locked vehicle after a session, but that only works for fairly small setups, and obviously breaking down aligned mounts, or dobs, is not likely to be feasible at 2am or later, so most would not try. Your best security is to go in company with others, and literally 'circle the wagons', this has worked well for group trips.

If your away from your locked vehicle in a remote location there is not much you can do, other than making sure your equipment cannot be seen from outside the car (ie throw a sleeping bag over it). Again, going in company usually insures that someone is always watching your gear or vehicle while your off bathing in the river.

[ausastronomer]

I looked into this about 10 years ago with respect to insuring all of the 3RF equipment. I have a friend who is a broker and he canvassed it with several underwriters. The cost to collectively insure 7 large aperture dobs, a 12" binocular telescope, a pair of 25 x 150 Fuji Binoculars on a star chair plus about 40 Televue Eyepieces was fairly stiff, notwithstanding they were in the custody of 5 different people and located all over the place, which greatly minimised the insurance companies overall risk. We decided to "self insure" and 10 years later we haven't lost a major item. We have lost a few 2"/1.25" Feathertouch focuser adapters and countless Televue Eyepiece Lens Caps, but these were all worth less than the insurance excess in any case. We have lost a couple of hundred $$$ with of bits and saved well over $20,000 on Insurance Premiums.

One of the 3RF Volunteers took out Insurance cover on the 2 dobs and eyepieces he has custody of (for his own peace of mind) and the premium on a much smaller collective of equipment wasn't too bad. It cost him a couple of hundred dollars per year to insure the gear he has custody of for about $40,000. That was coverage in and out of the home. I am pretty sure he did it as an annexure to his home and contents policy through CGU. That was 10 years ago when he took it out and I haven't discussed it with him recently. He still has the scopes, not sure if he still pays the extra insurance.

Cheers

[LostInSp_ce]

Thanks guys/girl for the responses. It's a shame that nothing of this kind exists. If there are any entrepreneurs floating around in here maybe this could spark an idea for a potential new business model. :)

I'll have a look into travellers insurance and see what they have to say. Otherwise I might see if I can put together a budget setup that won't make me cry if it's dropped into a river or off of a cliff whilst on my man vs wild expedition.

[acropolite]

IMHO individual policies or additional contents insurance are not worth it, you can take out travel insurance for a fraction of the annual cost when out and about for extended trips.

[LostInSp_ce]

Yeah I think that's the way to go.

[Jasp05]

I happen to own and run my own insurance brokerage so feel I can weigh in here.

Depending on what kind of value or sum insured you require, most good home and contents policies should allow for accidental loss/ damage for "unspecified" personal valuables. Our policies limits are $10,000 per item up to 25% of your contents sum insured. (This is deemed to include Photographic & optical equipment, at least in the policies we provide anyway :P) And this shouldn't cost you any extra. It's built in to the wording.

Excesses on most policies are starting from $400-$500 these days so that's something to consider.

There are insurer's who will do this as standalone cover also. I'd be happy to chase up a price for you if your serious about looking into it. PM me with a list of items and individual value and I can look into it. Or we can provide a quote for your home and contents and allow it to be insured within that personal valuables category if your current providers cover is not sufficient.

[casstony]

Hi Aaron, are you able to name insurers which are generally good to deal with when it comes to a claim?

We've found AAMI to be quite good over the years with car accident claims so we stick with them for house and contents as well, assuming they will be quick to sort out a potential claim for theft, fire, etc.

We're also happy with Latrobe Health as they covered a private hospital admission for an accident after we had accidentally let it lapse for 6 months.

We are not happy with a travel insurance policy taken through Australia Post - airline went bust and they pointed us to the long list of exclusions. We didn't read the fine print and Aus Post is fully focused on profit and doesn't care about customers IMO.
Aus Post insurance policy for packages is dodgy too when one reads the fine print.