Trip Insurance with expensive camera equipment?

February 4, 2011 2:36 PM

Two Brits and one American are taking a ten month trip around the world (inc. America) to document street performers. We need to insure ourselves for the standard backpacking trip, but we are also carrying expensive camera equipment - WHAT IS THE BEST VALUE-FOR-MONEY INSURANCE?

We are independent travellers and do not have house contents insurance. We are working to a fairly tight budget. We are going to some places where we could well get robbed. We are mainly in towns and cities (no adventurous sports). We are aged 28, 28, and 32. The additional electronic equipment will be valued at a total of $10,000 (ish), we will have one high-value camera of around $5,000.

I am the project manager of this trip and am working with director, Nick Broad, who has already asked these questions about the trip:

http://ask.metafilter.com/176548/Pimping-up-a-camera

http://ask.metafilter.com/175397/Creating-an-internship-for-a-smallbudget-documentary

http://ask.metafilter.com/167663/I-want-to-be-an-Inspector-Gadget-filmmaker-pimp-out-my-trip-around-the-world-clothing-technology-etc

Cheers

Chris Smith

posted by smythe82 to travel & transportation (2 answers total)

[removed link - put it on your profile if you want people to look at it, thanks.]
posted by jessamyn at 2:54 PM on February 4, 2011

I think what you want to do is to get yourself a renter's insurance policy. They're pretty damn cheap; I pay $83 a year for pretty generous coverage. What you then want to do is get an inland marine* endorsement, sometimes called a "personal property floater," scheduling your equipment and providing for worldwide coverage. That latter is almost always available, it just isn't standard. But there are industry standard forms for providing exactly what you're looking for.

This might be just as much as the base policy if not more, but we're still talking about tens to low hundreds of dollars. Considering how much this might cost you if you don't get it, it's a steal.

I assume you all own at least one car between the two of you. Call up your agent. I'm sure she/he will be happy to sell you a policy, and once you explain what you're looking for, it shouldn't be all that hard to get done.

*"Inland marine" coverage is for weird extra coverages not typically part of a traditional policy. Doesn't have anything to do with boats anymore, though the name comes from a time when it did.
posted by valkyryn at 6:28 PM on February 4, 2011 [1 favorite]