Who has insurance for their camera gear?

[Tikira]

Ours is insured as an addition to our contents insurance. It is covered anywhere in Aus & NZ.

Wayne

[Irru]

I don't have my stuff covered yet - up until a week ago I'd been overseas for 18 months and things were covered under travel insurance. I'm going through a claim now, for a camera, wallet and phone stolen from my bag. I think it will be refused though as they will say the bag was 'unattended' (it was sitting on the grass behind me, I only unhooked it from my arm for about 10 seconds, but unfortunately the police report doesn't state that part). I may be lucky, we'll see.

Now I am back home, I'm looking around. I haven't chosen anything yet because it will be a few months before I move into my own place and have my own contents policy. Someone mentioned something through the Commonwealth bank - I'll look into that for the mean time. A specific camera gear policy isn't really an option unless they also cover laptop etc. It isn't just that multiple policies cost more - if everything in my backpack went I'd be making two claims, and have to pay two excesses.

I read through some older discussions on the topic on the Whirlpool forum though, and a number of people recommended GIO for contents/portables insurance, saying they had a good experience when making claims. Also, I've learned when dealing with AAMI in the past, if you get a better deal with someone else, call AAMI back and ask them why? It happened several years in a row with my car and the response was always "Oh sorry, I made a mistake looking at your situation, it's actually cheaper than I told you the first time."

[Bax]

I'm definitely going to look into insurance now as well. I've got home and contents, but unfortunately we voluntarily put the excess a bit higher.

As it happens, some opportunistic thieves saw an open door or unlocked window and took off with my camera bag. Fortunately the 40D and the 70-200, and the 580EXII were out of the bag. But it just sucks knowing that I need to replace some gear. Doubly sucks knowing the little mongrels were in the house, AND that they wouldn't have any use for the lenses.

[smallfooties]

I just got mine covered!
hehehe... cos it is worth more than my car now too!

[Bax]

So, for somebody that is looking at getting covered. What's the general consensus for the best route to go. I don't think RACQ would help me but I've emailed them anyway. How much are people paying and what is the excess.

Accidental breakage, theft etc.

[mechawombat]

mine is part of my contents like Tikira

[Bax]

I'll have to call RACQ to see if they'll cover it as portable equipment.

[crf529]

* removed : members with less than 50 posts cannot discuss commercial companies : see site rule 19*

Even when you know you don't own a lot of gear, not even prosumer or pro level gear, the insured/replacement value quickly adds up to a formidable number. if anyone's on the fence or doesn't yet have insurance, they need to sit down and add up the replacement cost of every item they own, it will most likely open your eyes as to how important it is!

[Dazz1]

My home insurance has an extra that covers photographic equipment (amongst many other things) both in and away from the home. Unspecified items up to $1000 are covered. Good.

However, if a camera bag full of gear gets stolen, what constitutes an "item" I wonder. Is a second telephoto lens a different item to the camera with original kit lens, or is everything in the bag one item?

I need to clarify this I think.

[calloyd]

I have a similar policy to yours (and have claimed successfully when I damaged my lens by dropping the camera) and was told by the insurance company that items that are bought separately would be claimable as separate items. So if you have a separate receipts each for camera body, lens, and other equipment then you can claim for each individually. I haven't had to test their theory yet though and hope I never have to!

[Dazz1]

I have a similar policy to yours (and have claimed successfully when I damaged my lens by dropping the camera) and was told by the insurance company that items that are bought separately would be claimable as separate items. So if you have a separate receipts each for camera body, lens, and other equipment then you can claim for each individually. I haven't had to test their theory yet though and hope I never have to!

Thanks for that. Yes, it's logical that it should work that way. It just occurred to me that an excess might apply to each item, so I should check that out too.