I have to admit that I hate insurance. The insurance industry is designed to profit from the fear that something will happen to something that you perceive is important to you, uses complex risk assessments on the likelihood of that something occurring and then adding a nice bit of juice on the top to cushion the blow for them.
Furthermore, you can pay into insurance for years, and once the year is up, if you do not renew that money is wasted, let the wriggly buggers off the line for a second and you’ll get nothing for your loss. To make matters worse, even if you are up to speed on your payments, and have a loss or claim they will do anything they can not pay through some sort of clause, or better still have a minimum deductible that is worth more than the cost of buying a new item – making it pointless to claim.
So… I hate insurance. What’s more I live in a Co-Op in Brooklyn that demands I have home owners insurance for my personal property, and in case my lethal Jack Russell/Beagle mix attacks one of my fellow cooperators (many of whom I believe are hoping this will be the case to supplement their medicare income). They made me get additional liability insurance for personal injury – or if I don’t want to do that I can muzzle the beast… you can see her here just thinking of attacking.
But there is one thing we have in our favor to level the playing field and make Insurance potentially a good option for us. We are one of the clumsiest couples I know, an average breakfast includes slipping on banana skins, stepping on lego bricks, a good toe stubbing on the edge of the bed and banging at least 3 elbows on the way out of the door. So for that reason, along with needing a general insurance policy we added 3 riders:
1. Jewelry – I actually have managed to lose a $5,000 watch in the past 3 years, prior to insurance and live in the constant hope that it will appear down the back of the couch one day along with some still edible candy bars and some loose change.
2. Art – We got a little drunk and picked up some great (at least it seemed so at the time) art for auction – valued at over $10K.
3. Camera – We have a great Nikon D90 with several lenses, and an underwater camera for diving, total value is around $2K We took a rider for $1K as each item costs under that amount (D90 plus lens attached is around that figure) so we thought that it would cover most cases of loss or damage. This camera is a great piece of kit, you can check it out below:
During our recent trip to the Maldives we knocked the D90 off the table and broke the Lens… and this morning I got in touch with Travelers to make a claim – I was considering not claiming at all as I felt it might do more harm than good to do so- making claims on your insurance raises risk profile – which could raise your annual premium, and after several claims could actually make you uninsurable.
However, when I priced the lens this morning it retails for $400, so with a $1000 Camera Rider I thought it worth using this insurance and making my first claim. The process was simple, I spoke to a real person quickly, and they took the details of the claim. After doing so they informed me an adjuster would be in touch within 1-2 business days to discuss the claim. Now, lets see how they process things from here. I’m hoping, since I have paid for everything in full, have a special rider for my Camera equipment and confirmed 3 times before leaving for vacation that if I drop the camera whilst on vacation that it is covered I should have no problems with the claim… the way they handle it will certainly affect how I view insurance from here on out… more soon!
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