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Travel Insurance for birders (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter maria_gr
- Start date
Welcome to BF.
Have you considered how you would ever actually claim on your travel insurance for such things? Insuring something is (obviously) pointless if you can't claim, and making any loss/theft claim requires a local police report - which may easily require devoting a half or a whole day to securing. Will you (and your companions) be prepared to lose this much of a trip that you've all paid thousands of GBP for? My advice is to focus on the medical aspects of insurance, and to see any other benefit that you might accrue from it as being sheer good fortune. And to keep all the stuff you're desperate not to lose constantly on your person.
Have you considered how you would ever actually claim on your travel insurance for such things? Insuring something is (obviously) pointless if you can't claim, and making any loss/theft claim requires a local police report - which may easily require devoting a half or a whole day to securing. Will you (and your companions) be prepared to lose this much of a trip that you've all paid thousands of GBP for? My advice is to focus on the medical aspects of insurance, and to see any other benefit that you might accrue from it as being sheer good fortune. And to keep all the stuff you're desperate not to lose constantly on your person.
All of my optics are covered by my 'House Insurance Policy'.
On some policies you have to declare certain high value items (ie optics) and then subject to your policy, they are then fully insured.
regards
Merlin
My advice would be the total opposite - for optics that cost thousands of pounds, a couple of hours at a local police station is worth spending. Can't advise exactly, but if based in the UK, also I would say check your house insurance to see if this does include such, or can if an additional premium is paid.
My credit card includes insurance to cover medical and losses to theft etc, but I am not sure if UK cards do.
If no better advice comes on the forum, insurance broker?
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
Ditto
Calamity Jane
Member
I have just renewed my travel insurance and it includes up to £2000 gadget cover, this is total and not per item.
James Lowther
Well-known member
I did exactly this after having my scope stolen in Tenerife and was able to get a large insurance cheque to contribute to an upgrade rather than a like for like replacement.
It was a couple of hours hassle but saved me ~£800 on a replacement or thereabouts
Cheers
James
Steve Babbs
Well-known member
I agree with the house insurance. I have to specify how much I want cover for and the cost is adjusted accordingly. I have been lucky and, despite frequent travel, haven't needed to claim for nearly 40 years.
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jurek
Well-known member
In over 20 years of travelling internationally, I made use of only two types of insurance. First, delayed / cancelled flights. These are best sorted with airline. Second - full insurance in car rental. I spent quite a lot of time before figuring that my credit card covers it.
Have you ever consider that people's optic equipment may be well beyond ten thousand bucks, and thus tipically much more expensive than the average-good birding trip?.
My birding equipment is worth at least a couple of Birdquest papua trips, and spending half a day for it is not a waste of time.
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There are plenty of covers in credit cards under the radar. One of them is in regards trip booking-buying with it.
Indeed, my credit card includes full medical coverage worldwide, travel delay and cancellation, including of due to covid, and theft (to some limit, though I can't remember exactly the amount). And also covers any family members travelling together.
My individual card doesn't however cover car rental excess - so you do need to check what is/isn't included
Jon Gallagher
Well-known member
The main problem with credit card coverage as car insurance is that if you were unfortunate enough to total the car, the car agency would want to charge you that and you would then have to claim it back. And would your credit card maximum be enough to cover the charge?
All European car rental, and most worldwide, have CDW as compulsory. You only need to cover as far as the excess level - which is typically somewhere between zero and 1200 euro, depending if you have taken various excess waivers. If higher than 1200, then I would certainly recommend taking full coverage or a reduction waiver.
I believe it is possible in the US to decline CDW, but then liable for full car value ...bad option, I would always take CDW to some level.
Jon Gallagher
Well-known member
I would repeat my experience in Guatemala that I outlined here:
www.birdforum.net
This was insurance for the full value of the car, not to cover any excess beyond a CDW.
Car hire in Guatemala
While the basic cost of hiring a car in Guatemala is low (see Ross Gallardy’s trip report from 2021) what shocked me was the cost of insurance. Europcar offered three levels of insurance, running from basic third-party at $40 per day up to fully comprehensive at $125 per day. Obviously this...
www.birdforum.net
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
If you're a homeowner, you probably get better cover for high value items on that insurance and most, cover away from the home.
jurek
Well-known member
It is more complicated. You may be not covered also for other things, like damage to undercarriage, to windows etc. Some car rental companies don't list what exactly they include / exclude from CDV. Some sell the full coverage for approximately as much as the price of the car rental itself. Apparently they attempt to show artificially lowered rental price on price comparison websites. Later you can also be a subject to pushy tactics at the counter (I had it with Budget in Texas and Costa Rica) with people trying to scare you, push you or manipulate you to buy the full cover insurance. Of course, to pay double the price you though you would pay.
My credit card covers it all. Also several cheap travel insurances cover it all, too. This is one real case where knowledge on travels saves serious money.
There are very few countries in the world which don't demand CDV. The only one I was to was Georgia / Tbilisi. Here I purchased the full cover which turned to be wise - a Russian driver pushed a big dent in the side of our car on the car park at night.
Remarkable. (I take 'all' to mean all aspects of hire-car accident and theft insurance including total loss of car and consequential/third-party losses.) As far as I'm aware, this absolutely does not apply to UK credit cards or to travel insurance taken out in UK.
