insurance question - and homeowners is not a possibility

wheresdavid

I have a question regarding finding an insurance policy for my equipment. i can't take out a home owners policy or a personal articles policy because, well it is a long story - my "address" is in utah, my license is from minnesota and i had personal articles policy from illinois where my mom lives. now it sounds like they are going to drop the policy and I am leavig for asia in two weeks! i dont want to be without a policy because on my last trip to south america i had all my camera equipment stolen.

Does anyone know of a carrier who handles my type of situation???

cheers,

dave

bham

wheresdavid wrote:

I have a question regarding finding an insurance policy for my equipment. i can't take out a home owners policy or a personal articles policy because, well it is a long story - my "address" is in utah, my license is from minnesota and i had personal articles policy from illinois where my mom lives. now it sounds like they are going to drop the policy and I am leavig for asia in two weeks! i dont want to be without a policy because on my last trip to south america i had all my camera equipment stolen.

Does anyone know of a carrier who handles my type of situation???

cheers,

dave

Many associations offer their members a group rate on insurance.

I know that members of wedj.com (for dj's & photographers) you can get equipment coverage at $1.04 for $100 covered with a $156 minimum for a year. So for $156 you get $15,000 of equipment covered. I think the membership is like $40 for a year.

jdryan3

I would make sure any policy you get SPECIFICALLY covers overseas travel. Check your auto insurance -nada coverage in Mexico. Health insurance is often very limited in what is covered overseas, if at all.

Having read your earlier SA posts, I know you are fairly young, but re: the health insurance, there is catastrophic coverage you may want to look into. It gets you out of the country and back to the US.

I will see if I can find the story but there was a fairly well known female photographer who had an accident while (I think) in Vietnam. Cost her something like $25K just to get out of the country. It all worked out, but she had a long recuperation. Anyone else remember this?

dangin

i have a small busineess policy through traveler's insurance. it's a bit pricey at $500/year but it covers all of my work-related equipment including computers and peripherals. and i have a local rep so i can strangle him if i need to.

Dbl

I use Tom Pickard and Co for my equipment. Hill and Usher is another widely used agency. Mine runs around $500 for the year which gives you worldwide and earthquake coverage at full replacement cost. This also covers rental equipment as well as your own.

wheresdavid

Actually i know quite a bit about health insurance and coverage outside the US. Actually most if not all policies cover you outside the US since health care is so cheap everywhere else in the world. I actually changed my health insurance to cover me only up to 6 months in the US and 6-12 months outside the Us at a fraction of what i was paying here and my coverage is a lot better.

I think what you were referring to is "a life flight" type of situation which usually isn't covered in the US. the policy that i have actaully covers this. if it didn't i would get a travel insurance policy from a company like nomads which includes medical, personal articles (only up to $500 for electronics) and life flight. i actually had a claim that i filed with nomads and they were excellant, they issued a payment within 2 days of my claim.

check them out here http://worldnomads.com/

cheers,

Dave

jdryan3 wrote:

I would make sure any policy you get SPECIFICALLY covers overseas travel. Check your auto insurance -nada coverage in Mexico. Health insurance is often very limited in what is covered overseas, if at all.

Having read your earlier SA posts, I know you are fairly young, but re: the health insurance, there is catastrophic coverage you may want to look into. It gets you out of the country and back to the US.

I will see if I can find the story but there was a fairly well known female photographer who had an accident while (I think) in Vietnam. Cost her something like $25K just to get out of the country. It all worked out, but she had a long recuperation. Anyone else remember this?

rwells

I don't know if you use your equipment for "business" purposes, but if you do, MAKE SURE the policy that you get covers business use. I know that you stated for other reasons that you can't use homeowner's insurance, but homeowner's insurance will not cover business use items anyway.

If you even offer pics for sale online & use your equipment to make those pics, that is considered business use.

NavyMoose

I joined Professional Photographers of America mainly because they offer discounted equipment insurance. I got insurance on over $12K of equipment for around $320.

My homeowners insurance shot me down because the equipment is used for business purposes.

Hope this helps.

wheresdavid wrote:

I have a question regarding finding an insurance policy for my equipment. i can't take out a home owners policy or a personal articles policy because, well it is a long story - my "address" is in utah, my license is from minnesota and i had personal articles policy from illinois where my mom lives. now it sounds like they are going to drop the policy and I am leavig for asia in two weeks! i dont want to be without a policy because on my last trip to south america i had all my camera equipment stolen.

Does anyone know of a carrier who handles my type of situation???

cheers,

dave

wheresdavid

thanks for all the input. the reason i can't get it through my homeowners is because i am homeless. really, i sold everything i owned about a year and a half ago and hit the road traveling so no homeowners. my equipment isn't for business (yet). i also heard of clements, has anyone used them for insuring camera equipment?

Cheers,

dave

NavyMoose wrote:

I joined Professional Photographers of America mainly because they offer discounted equipment insurance. I got insurance on over $12K of equipment for around $320.

My homeowners insurance shot me down because the equipment is used for business purposes.

Hope this helps.