Kit Insurance

[Yazzyfooty]

Hiya Folks
ANy suggestions for best place to look to insure my diving kit? Or shall I just get it covered when I get household insurance? What do people think?

Yaz

[Adrian Kelland]

Household insurance may not cover it when in use or in the shed etc. You should look at the detail...

There are specialist insureres too. I can think of Westfield (we use them for our RIB), but there are others.

Adrian

[Fiona]

I use DiveMaster for my kit, they give a small discount to BSAC members.

£5000 cost be just over a £100 per year (I do have some no claims discount)

I have only had to claim once when I lost my dive computer and they paid up with no problems.

[Mike Halligan]

For the last 10 years, my kit has been covered on my household contents insurance and it is covered at home, in a locked car and in use. This last is a very rare feature of only the best household policies. Otherwise, I would have gone for Divemaster - as they are excellent in their travel/trips/kit insurance, and very nice people too.

It is worth checking at renewal that privileges such as this haven't been deleted from the policy. One broker did that to me, denying cover when challenged on the phone despite writing to me that "All cover remains the same as before". The lessons are (1) specify that a particular feature of the cover contracted is "of the essence" and (2) don't believe what your broker says, even in writing (specially if it is the high street bank that cracks on it is customer facing).

HTH
Mike

[Mike Rowley]

Hiya Folks
ANy suggestions for best place to look to insure my diving kit? Or shall I just get it covered when I get household insurance? What do people think?

Yaz

Hi Mike

Some time ago we, along with some other people had some kit stolen. Ours was covered as sports kit by our home contents policy. This paid up in full with no qualms. The others were insured with a specialist dive insurance company. They refused the claim because the kit was being used on a boat! Since then I have continued to use the home contents policy although it doesn't cover ditching kit in an emergency.

Cheers

Mike

[mark - sandman]

I got my rebreather covered on the house insurance. I told them I’d be using it abroad, and in the uk & required insurance for those periods when I was away from home. Its covered for a 2-month non-stop holiday out of the county at full value & for UK trips. The quote still came in £100 cheaper than a well-known dive insurance firm for 12 months. Insurers are Halifax, so far no complaints, but then I haven't had to claim. I was thinking about putting the rest of my gear on the house now I’ve gone CCR technical, but then the wife would know I’ve been spending the contingency money. :)

[Taff Griffiths]

Hi

Shop around for the best quote, but make sure that they know what kit you are talking about and make sure that you know the conditions of policy.


BEWARE OF THE SMALL PRINT :mad:

[Paul Morris]

I can vouch for Nationwide travel insurance, we took worldwide cover (included UK trips as well), and on a return from Mauritius in 2002 we had rather too many G&Ts on the night flight back to Heathrow.

Some miscreant took advantage of this fact and lifted my carry-on bag somewhere between baggage reclaim and the car park (I wasn't driving, thank god!). It just so happened that bag had all the really expensive bits that we couldn't possibly risk packing like regulators, dive computers, torches, digital camera.

Nationwide payed up full retail replacement cost for all items. I didn't even have receipts for some items as they were bought cash from my local dive store, which closed down whilst we were away! Total claim was around £1800 paid out, no quibble.

Policy wasn't too expensive at the time, maybe £100-120 for the two of us for 12 months unlimited trips. They also provided cover for sport diving subject to 30m depth limit.

Maybe worth considering as a backup to your home insurer. My home insurer (Halifax) then sent me a letter out of the blue (Nationwide must have told them) offering to pay my £100 excess on my travel insurance because I didn't claim via them for personal posessions.

Take this reccomendation at your risk. I am talking about my experiences in 2002. I'm sure they have all revised their policies by now, but at least you know what to look for.

I'm not usually a fan of insurance, but its nice when it works :)

Paul.

[Yazzyfooty]

Thanks Paul for that informative posting.

Yazzy