Hi all - I need some quick advice (as in I need to make a decision tomorrow!)

Any recommendations on a good shipping insurance company, GB Liners are quoting +2.5%, seems a bit steep to me!

Thanks in advance.

Stuart.

A word of caution from our own experience, albeit years ago. When asked to value items and list how many, they take a mean average. If you put down tool box, $500 and 100 pieces, each item may be assumed to be $5 value for insurance purposes, regardless of its true value. So if the box is worth $100 and gets damaged, you'll get $5 for it. Not an issue unless you have a claim of course.

Yep - read the small print and make sure you understand what it actually means.

We had boxes insured at 40GBP each. That doesn't work when they smash up items worth about 700GBP.

It's insurance - it always seems a lot of money - right up to the point when you need to claim.

I am assuming they are charging you for top up insurance, their standard liability will be low, I.e £40 per item, we were told to put everything on the schedule, and insure the lot, had we realized that their standard liability was £40, we would have insured for much less as many pictures, clothes etc were worth much less than £40 and remember the £40 is per piece, especially things like crockery.
We did have a claim, and we there were arguements over average pricing, but they did pay out in full for items way above the average price. I.e handbags that ranged from £10 to a couple of hundred.

Hi just interested in what the claim was for, did stuff go missing or damaged?

Somehow they managed to lose 1 box, but most of the claim was for damage to poorly wrapped antique furniture, unwrapped bikes and for dry cleaning of clothing that had been crammed into boxes too small for the amount they put in.

I had something similar - and this is where I perhaps "mis-read" the insurance cover.

To them, it was 40GPB a "item", ie, a box, regardless of the value of the stuff in the box. Sometimes you can get a lot in a box

We complained that our insurance quote was very high. We had high cost, low volume. Got it knocked from 2.5% to 1.5%.

We went with GB Liners...overall they were £500 cheaper than the other quotes we got and we used their marine insurance cover.

Our shipment was delivered this morning, so not unpacked it yet. But service was great. We had to check off every box with them and both in UK and here in Vancouver, the guys were very respectful of our property and very quick too.

We have insured with a broker - 'Insure-your-move.com' at 1.5% with specified items insured separately, (Andy's clock collection). The insurer is Royal & Sun Alliance.

As someone who spent their life in the Freight Industry, believe me when I tell you that you get what you pay for. Don't baulk at the fact that you are paying more for full marine insurance.

Make sure that you get the small print sent to you, and ensure you actually get a certificate. It was never unknown for a company not to issue a certificate until the goods had been delivered. That means they dont have to pay the insurance company, but they still get the premium from you.

Thank you for that, I have just emailed them to ask for the certificate.

very good advise.