Insurance companies are driving me nuts. My current equipment insurance has a geographical limit; Asia Pacific Region and as I’m travelling to the US in a few days I rang the broker to get the cover extended. The quote looked high and so they suggested I used expanded travel insurance to cover the equipment.
Nice idea but the Travel Agency we use had included the travel insurance with the ticket price. So I called the existing travel insurance company to ask if they would cover the equipment. After a few days of exchanging e-mails and equipment lists they were kind enough to explain that the value was too high for them on a travel insurance policy. They were even kind enough to offer me full refund if I needed to use a different Travel Insurance company – how cool is that (IAG in NZ – very good people and the only plug in this message I promise).
There is a double claim clause in most insurance policies. Something like “we will cover you unless there is another insurance policy covering the same risk”. So already having travel insurance I needed to get out of one policy to use another company.
Armed with my get of out jail free offer I went back to the broker who then quoted me almost twice the original cost to use another company. Okay it did include travel insurance, but even when I subtracted that from the higher cost, it was still more that the quote to extend my existing insurance.
So, having gone around in a huge loop, I extended the cover on my existing insurance and the paper work duly arrived.
There is a clause in the cover that states that cover does not apply unless I have the equipment with me – If I check it with the airline or any other transport operator then it isn’t covered.
At this point I was ready to start loading the shotgun. I live in NZ – I’m extending the cover to go out of the Asia Pacific region – That is what I’ve paid for and unless there is a new way of travelling I’m going to have to use an airline to get out of NZ.
It seems I'm expected to take all of the equipment as hand luggage, despite it being packed in Pelican Hard Cases. So I go back to the broker and explain this and I now have an e-mail from the insurance company, via the broker, saying if I use the Fragile Items check–in I’ll be covered. Hummm pardon me for not being convinced it would be just that simple.
So the “moral” of this post. What ever happened to insurance, you know the stuff where you go to a company, explain what you do and what you want; pay a premium and they cover your risk accepting the world we live and the way it operates.
