Travel Insurance to the USA inc Baggage AND gadget cover?

Underboss
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I've been looking at Travel Insurance to USA for 17 days, and I've been trying to make sure I have all my baggage AND electrical items all covered, but I'm not having much luck

What do you guys do when you go to the USA and take photography equipment with you?
 

Nix

Nix

Soldato
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I think you have two options, either select one policy that covers you for exactly the things you need and pay the premium, or take out a separate policy just for your stuff.
 
Soldato
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Do you have home insurance? If you have the cover outside the home bit, then you it's worth checking with them if you're covered overseas.
 
Man of Honour
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I just have an annual policy for about £30 which has some element of baggage cover and some cover for personal possessions. The reality is that you probably don't need specific cover any more than you would normally. If you wouldn't insure your camera when out and about with it normally why would you need to just because you are abroad?

People tend to over-insure for trips and I'm not sure I understand why. They go out every day with piles of stuff thats completely uninsured yet as soon as they stop on a plane to somewhere else it becomes a no brainer to insure everything for that short period of time?

Keep your valuables with you in hand luggage. You wouldn't check-baggage a camera anyway.
 
Caporegime
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Because you're far more likely to be carrying far more stuff with you on holiday than day to day. Carrying one camera and one lens around your local town you know is very different to carrying all your lenses and one camera to a strange city. The same with a weeks worth of clothing and other equipment - many policies wouldn't actually cover everything in your hold luggage if it wasn't just a weeks worth of clothing from Primark.

You wouldn't argue for underinsuring on your home contents insurance would you? So why argue for underinsuring on travel insurance. :confused:

That said, as much as its a positive to fully insure for luggage and equipment when you are away, the cost could be astronomical so that's one of the reasons many don't.

The biggest worry for me is that many people take out those cheap travel insurances and end up way underinsuring themselves on the medical side of things. Now there's a potential for some serious wonga losses.

Op, for photography equipment you should be able to find cover with a photography specific insurance, if, as already mentioned it isn't already covered under your home insurance.
 
Underboss
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Because you're far more likely to be carrying far more stuff with you on holiday than day to day. Carrying one camera and one lens around your local town you know is very different to carrying all your lenses and one camera to a strange city. The same with a weeks worth of clothing and other equipment


exactly right, that is why I want to make sure all my stuff is covered, ive never been on a plane before, so no idea what do expect, and how to do things.

I'm taking my DSLR and my compact camera, and both are over £500 each, not including accessories, and my phone I bought outright, and that's £200 too !
 
Man of Honour
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The biggest worry for me is that many people take out those cheap travel insurances and end up way underinsuring themselves on the medical side of things. Now there's a potential for some serious wonga losses.

Exactly 100% this. On a US trip particularly your major concern is that you have adequate medical insurance - not having such a thing could be a major life changing event, whereas losing a £200 phone, for which you'd have to pay a £50 excess anyway probably, really isn't.

You are no more likely to smash your phone up or lose it than you are normally so don't pay extra to get cover for it - most decent worldwide annual policies will include personal possession cover anyway.

If you have thousands of pounds worth of pro grade camera gear it's a different matter entirely but then if thats the case you'll probably insure it already anyway?

My approach with travel insurance is to make absolutely sure I have cast iron medical cover and anything else is a bonus and frankly unlikely anyway. You'll know if you are the sort of total klutz who can't go more than a month without flushing an iphone down the toilet or absent mindedly leaving a DSLR on a park bench. It's likely you are not.

If your airline loses your bags they are liable under the Montreal Convention anyway and they usually take it very seriously and pro-actively offer things like prepaid credit cards to get you sorted out.
 
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Caporegime
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exactly right, that is why I want to make sure all my stuff is covered, ive never been on a plane before, so no idea what do expect, and how to do things.

I'm taking my DSLR and my compact camera, and both are over £500 each, not including accessories, and my phone I bought outright, and that's £200 too !

all electricals must be with you in your hand luggage, they aren't allowed in the hold.
So they will never be more than a meter from you
 
Caporegime
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[TW]Fox;29435831 said:
Exactly 100% this. On a US trip particularly your major concern is that you have adequate medical insurance - not having such a thing could be a major life changing event, whereas losing a £200 phone, for which you'd have to pay a £50 excess anyway probably, really isn't.

You are no more likely to smash your phone up or lose it than you are normally so don't pay extra to get cover for it - most decent worldwide annual policies will include personal possession cover anyway.

If you have thousands of pounds worth of pro grade camera gear it's a different matter entirely but then if thats the case you'll probably insure it already anyway?

My approach with travel insurance is to make absolutely sure I have cast iron medical cover and anything else is a bonus and frankly unlikely anyway. You'll know if you are the sort of total klutz who can't go more than a month without flushing an iphone down the toilet or absent mindedly leaving a DSLR on a park bench. It's likely you are not.

If your airline loses your bags they are liable under the Montreal Convention anyway and they usually take it very seriously and pro-actively offer things like prepaid credit cards to get you sorted out.

It's not just "how many $" but also what activities. Many of the cheaper ones will cover the usual driving around, but as soon as you decide (for example) to go on a day white water rafting tour, that awesome looking quad biking half day, kayaking, that Bungi jump you just drove past then many insurance companies go "you're on your own there". Worryingly many people don't seem to realise that. Usually a more comprehensive (expensive) travel insurance policy will cover more of those activities by default. Heck, it worries me how many people don't take out winter sports insurance when going skiing/boarding - need a helicopter, thats ~£5000!:(
 
Caporegime
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all electricals must be with you in your hand luggage, they aren't allowed in the hold.
So they will never be more than a meter from you

Depends on the flight. Got on a domestic flight and they made all passenger with a bag larger than a laptop bag to put their hand luggage in the hold right at the gate, that means my pelican 1510 case with 2xDSLR, 5 lenses and 4 flashes.

When I got it back the latch was opened and only held shut from my padlocks!
 
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