Camera & equipmente insurance

Leo

Here’s a link from Hays insurance, NPPA endorses them so they can’t be that bad. The service and protection offered sounds good, take a look

http://nppa.haysbenefits.com/home/

Cheers

Hays is actually quite good. I’ve had insurance with them for the last 5 years. And more importantly they cover rental equipment as well (my policy is up to $15,000). A lot of rental houses won’t rent to you if you don’t have insurance. 3 years ago my car got broken into in Miami and they stole all the rental gear + my own stuff out of the trunk. The entire cost of the rental gear was covered by Hays and there was a small deductable on my own gear. I can tell you that there was no way in hell that I was going to be able to cover all $25,000 worth of gear that I had with me.

EVEN IF YOU THINK YOU CAN’T AFFORD IT, BUY INSURANCE!!!

word up…hays is good. i use them, they don’t even drop you right away if you pay late as they know that they are dealing with photographers.

I’m insured in Canada by CG&B Group, which used to be Unionville Insurance. They offer a comprehensive package customized for photographers, called fittingly enough, “Photopac”. I have the basic package, and get $25,000 in personal equipment, $20,000 in rental coverage, and $1-million in liability. There are other bells and whistles as well, including (if memory serves me right) studio insurance, etc. It costs me $700 a year.

The person I deal with is
Louise Jones: 905-305-9541
louisej@cgbgroup.com
[www.cgbgroup.com]

Hope that helps somebody!
JC

Does CG&B insure Americans or is it limited to Canadian citizens?

Thanx everybody for the help … i liked the policy of Hays , im still looking around but it my be it.

thanx again!

Keith:
I’m pretty sure they can only insure Canadians, but they might have a subsidiary stateside. No indications on the website, though.

so to use hays services do i have to be american citizen?

I Don’t think it matters but you could always fire off an email to them with any questions you might have. They are very helpful.

Jim Koenigsdorf
jkoenigsdorf@hayscompanies.com

Thanx Nayan , I will certainlly do that .

Taylor and Taylor in NYC writes policies through St Pauls for ASMP members that includes, equiment, rentals, studio and bailee liabilities ( stuff on loan to you).

Not sure if they offer it without ASMP membership

I got mine with Thomas C. Pickard and Co.. They pretty much deal strictly with photographers and the film industry. Their base package covers $15,000 camera and lighting gear plus extra coverage to include computers, laptops, rentals, and $2 million liability. Coverage is worldwide but excludes warzones, and oddly enough, 60+ passenger ships. Rates are between $500-$800 depending where you reside. I must say though that I have yet to make a claim (knock on wood), so I don’t know how they will respond. I have heard good things.

They are at http://www.groupinsure.com/ I dealt with Casey Berry. He was able to communicate in very plain language what was covered, and what wasn’t

K, so here is the puzzle I am dealing with. I am an American living in England. I won’t be able to apply for lots of American based insurance schemes like renters/home owners insurance. Which if you can, really sounds like a great less expensive way to insure gear for only like $250 a year! I have not found a local plan that seems better than NPPAs Hays and CO. But for any expats out there, how do you insure your gear. From the states or locally? I did find one plan through ePHOTOzine that seems like it is very affordable, but they don’t have an online form to get a real quote.

http://www.ephotozine.com/articles/viewarticle.cfm?id=11

Any Ideas?

Leo,
look in to this: Go to PPA (professional photographers of America) you join them for about $200 a year and get all sorts of info about being a wedding photog and family portrait guy, blah blah blah, BUT, they then give you access to a company called Marsh, who has a great deal for replacement cost pro camera insurance. I have $12,000 worth of gear insured for about $270 a year with a $100 ductuctable, thats un-matched in my research. Add that to the PPA dues and it’s 4 or $500 bucks a year depending on how much gear you have. You are insured any where in the world for theft, accident etc, except for an “act of war” Meaning that that if you are in Iraq and a car-bomb blows up your gear, your screwed, but then you screwed anyways because you are dead. But if some kid steals your bag in Baghdad, you are covered. In my experience, theft is the big issue. I have not made a claim with them yet, but theyre customer service seems very good. Much cheaper than NPPA deductable of $1000.
Eros

I’m a bit late chiming into this post, but I insure all my gear through my homeowners insurance. It costs me $80 per year to insure $12,000 worth of gear. They are all “scheduled” items meaining if something happens I don’t even have to pay a deductable.
This all paid off last month when my D1H flew out of my bag and shattered in my driveway. No questions asked, I had a check for replacement value of the camera body plus repair cost for the lens in my hands 10 days later. When I traveled to Cambodia earlier in the year I checked and it was all fully covered any where I am. I highly recommend have your gear insured regardless of who you get it through.

hey amy, welcome to the hood, I bet you love the weather already…

wiliamson carson 0208 650 9222
camerasure alliance 0870 411 5511

call these guys, compare what they quote you and take it from there.

May not apply in this situation but others may want to check into a State Farm personal policy. I’ve had about $10K insured with them for about $200 a year. I had two claims in the last year one for the bulk of my equipment when it was stolen. Good news is, they had me a check within the week with no hassles. Bad news is they dropped me. So, I’m shopping for new insurance now as well.

State Farm refused to cover me when they found out I was a stringer. They said they would only cover full-time staff photographers. I guess they think freelancers are less concerned about their gear…I don’t know?
I’m not surprised they dropped you. If you’re a stringer be sure you confirm they will cover your gear so you don’t end up filing a claim that they refuse to pay.
My coverage is through Indiana Insurance. They were great with my claim and they didn’t drop me.

Well, I take that back. I just got the letter today that they were dropping me. They said it was becuase I own 3 snakes, but that it crock if I ever heard one (and I owned them before they signed me up for the policy).

like if they were to chew on your camera???

I am also an American in London. I will be going back to school in the fall, and will therefore have renter’s insurance that will cover my laptop and camera. However, I will be going to Bosnia from June 27th until July 15th, and need these items (and myself) covered. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to go about this?

Thanks in advance.

Amy and Geoff and you other americans…

Why dont you give Towergate Camerasure a call?.You can get pro or amateur insurance here in the UK and 45 days overseas (or however longer you may be out of the country).theyre good…


http://www.towergateunderwriting.co.uk/Default.aspx?sID=707&lID=0

Hi
Revisiting this topic. I am having a hard time finding an insurer for my equipment. I am going to Africa (Kenya) with lend cameras and need insurance coverage.
Any advice?
thanks
Patrick

hi leo,
I used Marsh,true PPA (professional photographers of America)as Eros was saying, again I did not have any claim with them, you can periodically upgrade your equipment list and there process is fast.
check it out
dominik

Hey everyone,

Wanted to resurrect this topic to see if anyone has any updated info or quotes. The NPPA Hays deal is running about $300/yr or $350 without membership. Never made a claim with them yet but they seem helpful enough over the phone. Apparently they have a different offer separate from the NPPA deal altogether which they’re emailing me tomorrow. I’ll post the particulars here when they come in.

Hi all, this is an interesting thread… I’m from the UK but struggling to get insurance for my equipment as i’m now living in cambodia but also traveling a lot. (no fixed abode :-S )

Those of you based in the UK, please give Photoshield (Winsover Howden) a ring, ask to speak to Steve Beveridge and please mention my name as recommending you – yes, it wins me brownie points!

Seriously, though, insurance is all very well but the proof of an insurance company is how they deal with any claim that you have to make. I am going to be writing about this in more detail on my blog in the next few weeks, but for the moment lets just say that I have been insured by various companies for over 15 years and never had to make a claim until last year, and it was a whopping claim approaching 6 figures.

Photoshield were brilliant, smooth, quick and professional, and they did not hit me with a punitive premium increase when renewal time came. I cannot rate them highly enough.

Is NPPA still the way to go? Does it include laptops?

look in the archives. there have been many threads relating to these topics previously discussed on LS.

Hah, this is the archives, Eros. Thread started in 05.

Hays (not technically NPPA) does cover computer/editing/backup equipment.

haha Thanks, Rick, you are right. So the laptop is going to be the issue…

any suggestion for a war zone equipment insurance ?

I might be heading to Nepal for a 6 mth photo internship and I’m planning on acquiring a whole bunch of new Nikon equipment.

I’m a student, so while insurance is rather expensive, I’d rather have peace of mind with an insane premium rather than worry about recovering my losses should anything happen to some or all of my cameras.

Are there any companies that provide insurance overseas? I’m Singaporean BTW.

Hays remains the dominant player in the business (note this thread began over five years ago). But you have to belong to NPPA to get it. NPPA is worth the $110 annual membership fee, not just for this benefit but also for discounts from other vendors such as the Apple store (and the other equipment suppliers).

for german photographers i can recommend.

http://www.pundpgmbh.de

very good :)

for german photographers i can recommend.

http://www.pundpgmbh.de

very good :)

I have learned something VERY IMPORTANT about Hays since I wrote the post above.

HAYS’ INSURANCE DOES NOT COVER PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT IN A WAR ZONE!

Period. When Lynsey Addario was taken by the Libyan government forces last year, they took her equipment. The Hays insurance did not pay anything, even though she had been carrying it for years. I looked at the policy and sure enough it had a big exclusion for war coverage.

So don’t buy that insurance if you expect to do any work in a war zone.

Hi all. Very new here, but I think you are giving some bad information. I had a personal protection policy with everything scheduled, and when all my gear was stolen 4 years ago, after a simple google search I was denied my claim. The reason? I’m a professional, not an amateur. They said that since i earned more than $100 from my work that I had the wrong policy. Funny, when they took my money them never mentioned that. I now have one through Philadelphia insurance for $650/yr that covers $25k of equipment and 15k of rental, and world wide coverage. I was in a hurry though and needed it fast. If PPA covers replacement cost, not depreciated value, that is a great deal!

OK, I’ll keep this thread going. My suggestion for insurance is Hill and Usher (www.hillusher.com). I switched to them after several years with TCP (Tom Pickard). Suggest you check them out if you need coverage.