slbazza

Hi,

Has anyone out there not bothered to take out removals insurance? We are moving to Sydney in the next few months & have been quoted 3% of total worth of shipment by the removals people. I have seen some posts about Merseyside Insurance at 1.53% which is obviously much better but am wondering if it's worth taking the risk of not having any at all? How many people out there have had to make a claim?

Thanks very much

Sarah B

Bix

Sarah,

We lost our 32" Widescreen tv and a carver chair. so obviously my advice is to take insurance.

Check the small print carefully though...I am currently in dispute with the insurers and they probably have me nobbled on the small print.

Moral for me is don't believe what they tell you; read the small print.

Spindels

We have been quoted from 2.8% to 4% of the replacement value, has anyone used a company not associated with the removal firm?

Bix

Here ya go.....

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=230418

kakadu chris

on the subject of insurance. we have put our stuff in storage and we
asked at the time of signing the contract to ensure the stuff was insured
whilst in storage. turns out when we arrive in australia that our contents are
not insured. we have taken out the extra insurance now but we dont really now we stand if we make a claim. we made at least 2 requests for storage insurance whilst in the uk to not done by shipping company (pss) to our knowledge. beware get it in writing.

Chris

slbazza

thanks Bix.....Who were your removers? Were you using part of a shared container?

What do you think happened to the stuff - was it broken or do you think that some bugger has their feet up in front of your telly as we speak?

I guess that insurance is only worthwhile if you have read the small print as you say.

Wol

We insured with the carrier only because the independent wanted an itemised cost of everything - imagine doing that!

We are making our claim now for breakages but they want initial price, present price, quotes for repair etc etc - in $US! My advise would be to just ship the things and accept the odd breakage. If the ship goes down blame me!

Flying Banana

I ended up insuring through John Mason who I used for my removals, mainly as it was convenient and I figured they would be more likely to pay out for any breakages with minimum hassle.

They asked for a detailed inventory and I spent a couple of weekends puttin git together. Made it a bit easier as I set up a spreadsheet on Excel with different pages for each room and automated the addition of all the totals onto a final page which calculated the insurance premium etc. then went round with the laptop and itemised pretty much everything. (If anyone wants a copy PM me your email addy and I'll send you a copy)

One thing I would advise, if you have access to a digital camera use it. I photographed everything, with date and time visible, as I went round itemising it and sent the insurers a cd rom with the photos and spreadsheet along with the proposal form.

Whe I unpacked the other end I followed a similar rule, if any boxes/packages showed any signs of damage I photographed them before opening them, and then took photos of anything inside that was broken, both in the position/state it was found and then a closeup once it was out the box.

There were a few broken pictures (glass cracked) and a couple of pieces of IKEA furniture damaged, the claim was for £600 and they paid up in full within 2 weeks of sending in the claim.

The only thing I didn't do which they said I should have was when I signed the delivery docket I didn't note on it that most of the stuff was left boxed for to unpack and I had not inspected it all at delivery.

RReed

You don't have to insure for 3% of your total shipment. We went with Crown and only insured some items, saving loads of money. We filled out a list of what items we wanted insured, added up their total value and paid 3% of that. The companies imply you have to insure all items, but you don't. Everything arrived safely anyway except once picture had a crack in the glass.
Rachel

kirsty&al

Hi Sarah

We made a claim of around 1250 pounds, which was paid without any problems. The bulk of this claim was for a king size mattress which the packers folded in half, but there were a few other bits and pieces - mostly glass and china. We took out insurance with Cunningham Lindsay via our removers, Doree Bonner. The insurers were great, wish I could say the same for Doree Bonner! We shipped a 40 ft container and estimated our stuff to be worth about 40k so obviously insurance was worthwhile for us becuase if the whole ship had gone down we would have been seriously out of pocket. Depends what/how much you are shipping though.

Regards

Kirsty

Bix

Sorry mate, a bad use of words on my part.
When I said lost I meant damaged beyond repair.

It was a dedicated container from Pickfords.

lesleys

We went through almost exactly the same process. Not only did it make you realise just how much your stuff if worth it made making a claim very easy (again John Mason paid in full within days). We also added measurements of the larger pieces of furniture to the spreadsheet - useful in choosing a rented house. The list of items will also come in handy as a shopping list if you lose everything :scared: But wouldn't doing all that shopping be an awful way to spend your first few months here?

Lesley

steveyp

We shipped pretty much everything from Lincolnshire to Perth. At 2.5% for insurance I took the risk.
Payed off too, not so much as a broken plate!

sam&molly

Our stuff went in to store on arrival in Sydney – it has been there for two months, We recently discovered that once it arrive in Oz the insurance ended and that new insurance was needed for storage over here (costing another $150).

Molly

The_Stockwells

Hi Kirsty - we are just about to move to Adelaide and I'm currently trying to decide between using Doree Bonner and Excess International. Can you tell me why you didn't think much of DB?

Many thanks