Insuring your gear?

ryanverbena

I've just come to the realisation that the value of my gear is well north of £10k and insurance is long overdue. I've never actually had contents insurance, nor do I own a home or car. The only insurance I've ever gotten is when we go on holidays. 

I don't gig so it only stays in my flat. We tick a few of the boxes regarding extras in that we are the sole occupants of the building, have a double locked gate in front of the door and all that - hoping that will help lower the costs. 

Can anyone suggest me a ballpark figure of what I should expect to be paying? (Let's assume the gear is worth around £14k). Even better, recommend a company that they have had good experience with?

Apologies if this isn't in the right thread, wasn't sure whether to put it in the off topic section. 

danishbacon

Have not had to claim thankfully but have found Allianz instrument insurance to be very clear to understand tcs and good service. Not very expensive either. 

andy1839

I'm paying around £1000 to insure about £100k in gear with New Moon Insurance.

Covers the whole of the UK and unattended vehicle cover.

fretmeister

Top picks are Allianz and New Moon.

Both do fully itemised policies with cover for theft from cars etc.

Both do online quotes.

I did find New Moon to be a lot cheaper than Allianz - about 50% of the price. But I had been with Allianz for years and the premiums had crept up as they always do.


3rd option - if you are an MU member then they can arrange cover too, often more cheaply.

Yoggie

My Mum used to work at an insurance broker.. she always said go with a decent company. You may save a few quid on the price but when you need to claim that’s when the difference matters.

Also read the small print. Not certain on musical instruments but often you are only covered in certain situations. If something is stolen outside you home you may not be covered. By the sound of things this may not be an issue for you though.

After all that I’d look at a separate policy just for your instruments as per @danishbacon said above

maltingsaudio

3% of total value insured approximately from Music Guard

rlw

And get some proper contents insurance too...........

PonchoGreg

For anyone with dedicated insurance, would you say it's worth having on top of a contents policy that already includes high-value items? I have named my one guitar worth more than £1.5k on our policy, technically the rest should be covered under the general contents, right? For clarity, I'm not looking for outside-the-home cover.

PolarityMan

I have allianz coverage, it gives public liability insurance too which is good.

skunkwerx

PonchoGreg said:

For anyone with dedicated insurance, would you say it's worth having on top of a contents policy that already includes high-value items? I have named my one guitar worth more than £1.5k on our policy, technically the rest should be covered under the general contents, right? For clarity, I'm not looking for outside-the-home cover.

Depends on your insurance. 

Your contents will have a sum insured, and within that usually a valuables limit and a single article limit. 

Instruments arent usually classed as valuables. 

The limits will be percentages usually of the sum insured. 

So if all your individual items of gear are under the single article limit for contents then they ‘should’ be fine but check what your contents covers, where, and the exclusions.

Also worth checking your sum insured is enough to cover all your contents, not just the total amount of Music gear you’ve got. 

danny_777

M&S Premium (or Premier, I don't recall the name).

Unlimited cover, no need to list or declare your valuable, global, inside and outside home (up to £10k on my person outside home), +£100k of jewellery etc.

I spent a lot of time looking into this and that's the one I went with. I pay around £25 a month.

Roland

rlw said:

And get some proper contents insurance too...........

Check out whether your equipment can be included as named items within the contents insurance. If you’re not taking it out of the house then this might be a cheaper option than musical instrument cover.

danny_777

maltingsaudio said:

3% of total value insured approximately from Music Guard

That's ludicrously high. My policy works out around 8x cheaper than that (using the value I've got insured) through M&S. Check out the policy I referred to above.

Eski

I use Musicguard - cover is OK, possibly a bit pricey but I’m always to late/lazy to check the options.  As far as I know specific instrument insurance is only a must if you’re out and about playing and gigging.  If you are purely playing at home then you hopefully you’ll be OK with household insurance.

ryanverbena

Thanks everyone, that was super helpful. I've just ran the numbers through a few online quotes and it seems very affordable in all cases. I've just a couple of extra questions:

A few of you mentioned public liability - why would this be necessary for gear that stays in my flat?

Also, @danny_777 - yours was the only suggestion I couldn't locate online mate. The M&S Premier for £25 a month only comes with travel insurance from what  can see. They also have a "Premium" bank account, but similarly I couldn't find anywhere that mentioned contents insurance - this was only £10 too so probably not what you were referring to. 

skunkwerx

ryanverbena said:

Thanks everyone, that was super helpful. I've just ran the numbers through a few online quotes and it seems very affordable in all cases. I've just a couple of extra questions:

A few of you mentioned public liability - why would this be necessary for gear that stays in my flat?

Also, @danny_777 - yours was the only suggestion I couldn't locate online mate. The M&S Premier for £25 a month only comes with travel insurance from what  can see. They also have a "Premium" bank account, but similarly I couldn't find anywhere that mentioned contents insurance - this was only £10 too so probably not what you were referring to. 

ryanverbena said:

Thanks everyone, that was super helpful. I've just ran the numbers through a few online quotes and it seems very affordable in all cases. I've just a couple of extra questions:

A few of you mentioned public liability - why would this be necessary for gear that stays in my flat?

Also, @danny_777 - yours was the only suggestion I couldn't locate online mate. The M&S Premier for £25 a month only comes with travel insurance from what  can see. They also have a "Premium" bank account, but similarly I couldn't find anywhere that mentioned contents insurance - this was only £10 too so probably not what you were referring to. 

https://bank.marksandspencer.com/insurance/home-insurance/landing/ppc/?cid=HBEU:ma:P0:HI:NA:1811:003:Brand

Possibly there bud. 

fretmeister

PonchoGreg said:

For anyone with dedicated insurance, would you say it's worth having on top of a contents policy that already includes high-value items? I have named my one guitar worth more than £1.5k on our policy, technically the rest should be covered under the general contents, right? For clarity, I'm not looking for outside-the-home cover.

Yes.

Some insurers somewhat abuse "item limits" and claim, for example, that as an electric guitar is useless without an amp, then the guitar and amp fall under 1 item limit together.

A specialist policy may well cost you less than the nicest pedal you own but cover it all properly.

1983

If you’re insuring old guitars then use Allianz, other companies were a bit vague on whether they would cover vintage instruments. 

MU is great option too!

Also, Allianz let me change my policy when covid started and we couldn’t gig from uk/abroad to premises only. Music Guard didn’t let other friends do that! Saved a lot of cash on that. 

Good luck!

danny_777

ryanverbena said:

Thanks everyone, that was super helpful. I've just ran the numbers through a few online quotes and it seems very affordable in all cases. I've just a couple of extra questions:

A few of you mentioned public liability - why would this be necessary for gear that stays in my flat?

Also, @danny_777 - yours was the only suggestion I couldn't locate online mate. The M&S Premier for £25 a month only comes with travel insurance from what  can see. They also have a "Premium" bank account, but similarly I couldn't find anywhere that mentioned contents insurance - this was only £10 too so probably not what you were referring to. 

Here you go mate: https://bank.marksandspencer.com/insurance/home-insurance/

I also went through the T&Cs of all the policies when I took this out, and this is the least hassle (no need for valuations, declarations, etc).

midlifecrisis

ryanverbena said:

Thanks everyone, that was super helpful. I've just ran the numbers through a few online quotes and it seems very affordable in all cases. I've just a couple of extra questions:

A few of you mentioned public liability - why would this be necessary for gear that stays in my flat?

Also, @danny_777 - yours was the only suggestion I couldn't locate online mate. The M&S Premier for £25 a month only comes with travel insurance from what  can see. They also have a "Premium" bank account, but similarly I couldn't find anywhere that mentioned contents insurance - this was only £10 too so probably not what you were referring to. 

public liability is nothing to do with the value of gear. Its in case someone falling over your mic stand or a speaker falling on top of them and they sue you for injuries etc.

CarbonCopy

The main reason I have specific musical instrument insurance is because I'm semi-professional in that I earn money from gigging. The instruments would therefore be classed as business equipment and not covered under a household policy.

As you don't take the instruments out of the house, I can't see the benefit of specific instrument insurance. A comprehensive contents policy which covers all of your possessions should suffice. Make sure you read the policy wording before purchasing.

Contents insurance will usually come with an element of public liability cover (occupier's liability) but usually only covers you within the home. As you are not gigging, you are unlikely to need more extensive public liability cover.

fretmeister said:

PonchoGreg said:

For anyone with dedicated insurance, would you say it's worth having on top of a contents policy that already includes high-value items? I have named my one guitar worth more than £1.5k on our policy, technically the rest should be covered under the general contents, right? For clarity, I'm not looking for outside-the-home cover.

Yes.

Some insurers somewhat abuse "item limits" and claim, for example, that as an electric guitar is useless without an amp, then the guitar and amp fall under 1 item limit together.

A specialist policy may well cost you less than the nicest pedal you own but cover it all properly.

As for insurer's abusing item limits and claiming a guitar is useless without an amp so must be one item, it's incredibly unlikely this would happen. If it did, the Financial Ombudsman would almost certainly be on your side and the claim would be paid properly.