Instrument Insurance

[Jamie]

Just had a quick insurance quote as I am quite nervous having all of my instruments at my place (Student area of Hull were theft is rife). For £6100 worth of guitars and amps its only £4.64 a month! That only covers theft from my house and accidental damage, but that's all I need. I do wonder if the quote will shoot up once I am asked to provide my residential details. Sounds like a bargain at that price though.

[Alex]

As with all insurance, the real stuff is in the details, not the insured values. I would suggest you read the t&c carefully and try to imagine how you'd claim when there was actually a burglary at your place.

Many instrument insurance often are sticky about instruments stored in cars, especially overnight.

On the other hand, why not a general insurance, rather than a specialist one?

[Lew]

I have mine on my house insurance. I was shopping for deals and could get less with the same company but they wouldn't adjust it. I had to cancel my insurance then take out a new policy with the same company - madness!

[Twinfan]

I used MusicGuard for a couple of years as they had great cover, but it's not the cheapest.  Look for details such as the instrument has to be stolen from behind a locked door, or has to be locked out of site in a car boot, to be covered.  The devil is in the details!

All mine are now covered by my home insurance policy, which is with John Lewis.  Surprisingly, they offer great home contents cover and you can specify the things that are taken out of the house e.g. gigging guitars.

[Philly Q]

I'm (slightly) ashamed to say none of mine are specifically covered. I think my home insurance schedule still lists a Fender Strat Plus Deluxe which I sold in 1990....

[Jamie]

I used MusicGuard for a couple of years as they had great cover, but it's not the cheapest.  Look for details such as the instrument has to be stolen from behind a locked door, or has to be locked out of site in a car boot, to be covered.  The devil is in the details!

I live in a student house so every bedroom door has a lock on anyway so that should be fine. I will make sure I read all the details first as I was screwed with an insurance claim I tried to make a couple of years ago from my trip to Florida. $450 went missing from my room whilst I was out. I mentioned it to the receptionist and her boss went ape shite, within an hour I had spoken to 3 different levels of management, 2 Disney 'Investigators' and then a deputy sheriff. The Disney investigators went all out and took card readings for my room and looked at external surveillance footage. Nothing turned up so Disney offered to give me some money to tie me over for the rest of the holiday, which I stupidly refused as I still had some, plus I had holiday insurance and a valid crime number.
Anyway returning home the insurance company would not accept the crime number as I also needed a full report from the County Sheriff's Dept. I rang them and they weren't allowed to send details over the internet, but I was more than welcome to fly out there and pick one up!

[Lucifuge]

In my experience insurance is mostly a scam as the insurance companies are experts in finding some technicality that means they don't have to pay you anything. I'd only ever get it if it was compulsory, eg car insurance or home insurance if it was required as part of a mortgage deal.

[CommonCourtesy]

I'm with Allianz and they give me a month free so i'm only paying for 11 months. The amount is about £12 a month for over 3 grand's worth of gear. I take photos of everything and write a description with it, obviously make sure its locked away as it'll fail against a claim if you don't.