Insurance on Gear?
Hi, so I was walking through my city the other night and I came to the realisation that I have quite a substantial amount of money sitting in my backpack!
Do you guys have insurance on your gear and am I crazy not to?
Or is it just a BE CAREFUL situation? Because I doubt that I could afford to pay insurance but then again, I definitely couldn’t afford to replace my gear!
Only thing I have is regular insurance on it. As in everything is covered short of being stolen lol. All my equipment is insured against water and accidental damage. From my MacBook Pro (The MBP costed $1000, the insurance was $450 lol) to my Maschine, to my Mouse lol.
An Equipment Floater is the type of policy that you’d be looking for…coverage can be provided on a Worldwide basis, and it can include theft. Generally you’d want to purchase a separate policy for those who are relying on their Homeowners or Renter’s policy to cover a loss. An Equipment Floater Policy will have far less exclusions in term of use and territory.
a mate of mine also from melbourne has house and contents insurance with CGU, and he has his dj gear and computer covered if the are stolen or damaged away from his house. i dont remember how much he pays a year, but it wasn’t that expensive from what i recall.
jesus man, where did you buy your macbook at that made the insurance that much?? lol
There’s a couple downsides to this if you’re going to use your Homeowners Policy.
Most of the Homeowner policies usually have deductibles around $1000, at the least.
They will also have certain sub-limits to how much it will pay for a particular type of item. Jewelry, Fine Arts, Electronics, and some other items have sub-limits regardless of the total limit on the policy. Even if your policy insures a total of $200,000 in contents (household possessions), it will have sub-limits for those items I mentioned above, i.e. $10,000 in jewelry, $15,000 in Fine Arts, etc. To get around these sub-limits you could specifically schedule each item. But this will cost an additional premium.
I don’t know specifically about domestic coverage in Australia, but I don’t think his policy will completely cover him if his car is stolen with the gear inside. He should ask his agent, and I think he’ll be surprised. My advice would be to look into an Equipment Floater policy, they are also referred to as Inland Marine sometimes. Insurance terminology continually changes, but an Insurance Agent should know what I’m referring to.
hmm.. good to know. i’ve copy and pasted your reply and passed it onto my mate so he can have a chat with his insurer and see what he’s actually covered for.
For those in the UK I heartily recommend djguard.co.uk - covers your gear at home, in a club, and locked in the car or a secure area in somewhere you played, and gives you public liability insurance and accidental damage (which has just paid out on my last laptop)
there are similar options here in Australia too I believe. but they cost a fair bit more than putting it through house and contents (if you can - refer to GrahamO’s post above).
You might save a little by including it within a Homeowners policy, but I’ve issued floaters with a minimum premium of $200. The $200 insures approximately $24,000 in equipment, without all the stipulations of a Homeowners policy. The Homeowners policy is not intended to insure equipment away from the house. It is meant for Fire, Theft (and wind, depending on your state) to the house itself. Not to say it doesn’t cover other occurrences, but that is not it’s intention. The Equipment Floater is a policy specifically designed for this exposure.
I’ve just been looking at their site and think I might get covered by them. How was your experience with claiming for your laptop? Were they easy to deal with?
Also, do you mind if I ask how much you pay for your policy? If you can remember that is!
Another +1 for DJGuard…fantastic service.
Phoned them up, described what had happened, showed them the reciept and sent them the laptop for assessement. They then sent me out to buy a new one and I sent them the reciept to show I had … easy
Sounds really nifty, do you know if they cover theft?
That would be niccceee.. Buy a DB4, it gets “stolen”, now you and your best mate have DB4’s!! :eek::eek:
(This is theft and I am in no way encouraging anyone to break any laws.)
Also fraud too. I wonder if the insurance company will mind?? 
Bah, I’ve never missed a car payment and only totalled one car.. I think we would be about even after they bought me a DB4.
Haven’t read any responses but I spent about £140 on a years insurance. The good thing is I pay in monthly instalments so it’s not like I gotta fork out in one lump. I highly recommend it. Soon as I got the email confirming I was insured it felt like a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I was in Tenerife when I took the policy out as I heard apartments got robbed all the time. Plus like the OP when I walked through certain areas of London I kept thinking to myself I got like over a grand & a half in gear in my bag. Potentially easy pickings for a knife wielding crack head.
I am also covered for laptop breakdown so should my laptop die for what ever reason regardless of where I am they will replace it for a new model within 24 hours (or maybe its 48) either way, Im happy with that. All my gear is covered from my audio 8 to my launchpad to my laptop and even my external Lacie hard drive which never leaves the house unless Im goin to a studio.
DJ guard is who I am insured with. Believe me I rang around quite a few companies and they couldnt be beat not only on price but with the level of cover.
I was more asking about theft since I think besides spillages the only way my laptop or sound card would vanish is through theft.