Hello!

Has anyone got any tips on whether it's better to get travel insurance with some kind of add-on to cover camera gear (normal theft/loss stuff and floods), or whether home insurance would be better? I'm assuming home insurance covers you if you go overseas too?

The one DAN offer seems to be good but it's for US residents only and I'm in Australia

Thanks!

Depends a lot on your home insurance. Many folks have reported that their homeowner's insurance premiums have increased after they made a dive housing claim. We live in Los Angeles and it our homeowner's rates went up since the fires. We self insure by creating a small ($15K) investment account that we keep mostly liquid. Over the last 10 years and 1500+ dives with no major user errors, we are quite a bit ahead of the game but also recognize that we are quite lucky.

Bill

Yeah, as Bill suggests, a lot depends on where you live. Home insurance can work and, for the UK, there is a specialist dive gear insurer - but rates are pricey.

I'd suggest talking to your home insurer and get a clear steer on whether dive gear - and what elements of it - would be covered by a home policy or by an add-on policy or addition.

Currently I don't have either 😁

It sounds like home insurance does cover gear when you're away though so I'll check that option out and maybe just get some standard travel cover for the normal stuff like non-diving medical stuff.

I do like the idea of just having a pot of money just in case though - good motivation to take extra care with setting up too!

Thanks!

You really need to read the fine print, used to be that a lot of policies specifically exclude water damage for cameras for example, including specialist camera gear insurance. Regular travel insurance includes riders limiting the maximum value for individual items in particular categories, so you end up needing to list items and it can get very expensive very quickly. For example you might have $10,000 cover for valuables but are limited to a maximum value for any one item of $1500 as an example.

You could look in to a Personal Articles Policy which generally offer broad "all-risks" coverage.I imagine they have them everywhere. As Chris says read the fine print.

Also there is a line with Insurance of equipment being used professionally or personal use when it comes to coverage. So watch out for that.

Can only speak for Germany - here the HUK has a good home insurance that saved my a.. now for the second time in 5 years. I don't need any travel gear insurance.

Theres alot of fine print on the policies aswell. I had luggage stolen from a car (housing ect ect) and insurance covered only up to 3500€ as it was somewhere in the fine print that only up to 3500€ if its stolen from motor vehicle.

Im sure theres other similar exclusions also.

Long ago the DAN camera insurance was inexpensive and covered all kinds of loss. Every time a new camera came out there were a ton of "my camera/housing fell overboard and was lost" claims. After a couple of years of this camera loss was no longer covered. The DAN insurance used to let you decide how much to cover an item for, but I haven't looked for quite a while.

Bill

After looking at the options, I chose to insure my dive camera stuff under a personal items policy through the same company that does my automobile and homeowner's insurance. The rates are relatively reasonable and it covers pretty much any loss, from a flooded housing to the camera falling off the boat or loss or theft in transit, such as by the airline. How much difficulty I would face in pursuing a claim and what they ultimately would pay is anyone's guess. Insurance companies don't make money by paying out generously on policies. I have added and removed gear from the list pretty easily, so there is that.