Lion in Winter

Now in serious planning mode for moving back to the UK. With apologies in advance, because there are so many things I don't know. Am doing due diligence searching the forum, but this one I'm not clear on.

When you get your stuff packed up to move across the Atlantic:

• Do you get your insurance from the shipper, or independently?
• If you do some of the packing yourself, does that invalidate all the insurance? Or just the insurance on the things you pack yourself? Other? I'm keen to get ahead - the big things, or "valuable" things such as they are, the shipper will have to do, but we have a lot of little stuff we could just box up ourselves which would help us both get organised and possibly save money.

Thanks for any advice.

vh3

We just had our stuff packed and picked up on Wednesday. For the most part, the movers packed everything as our insurance would have been invalidated which makes sense. I packed only a couple of small plastic containers which were see through and if they wish could open. Our insurance came with the quote. Hope this helps.

SanDiegogirl

I've always had the shipper pack and insure. It's more expensive but as I understand it the shipper won't insure 'stuff' you have packed yourself.

Lion in Winter

I have things like my son's toys that he's keeping, blankets, and other odds and ends that don't require specialist packing. If I pack certain boxes, are just those boxes left out of the insurance or does that invalidate the whole thing? I'm trying to work out how to get ahead and organise stuff.

vh3

for the most part we included those items on our insurance form and they did not question anything. The items we had packed were small and relatively minor and anything that may get damaged we left for them to pack.

durham_lad

That is how it worked for us as well.

Lion in Winter

Thanks all. We have only a very few large things that have to go, but A LOT of small things (mostly OH's fault). Things would feel more under control if I could get those boxed up. I feel an Excel spreadsheet coming on.

Siouxie

When I moved to Canada I self packed 90% of my belongings - my goods were in storage in the UK for several years before being collected by the shipping agents. The shipping agents 'packed' 3 items of furniture and some lead crystal glassware - everything they packed were found to be broken on delivery..

I obtained the insurance separately, which was much cheaper (shipping companies generally 'mark up' the insurance price - that's how they get their fee for selling it). Some shipping companies will tell you that anything you pack yourself won't be covered by their insurance.

Lion in Winter

As long as it only invalidates the insurance on the things I pack, I can live like that. Something I read suggested that a company might ensure self-packed items for total loss, but not for damage. Also acceptable.

GeneralPowerpoint

Do you have any recommendations for shippers?

We're planning a move back from NYC to London and looking for someone who can just take care of it all for us.

Lion in Winter

Talked with a shipping/moving company today. They recommend umbrella insurance, where it's done by the pound (weight, not currency) and the premium is 2.95% of weight x $12 per pound, and then for any items over $5,000 in value you have to list them individually and there is an add-on of 2.95% of whatever the declared value of those items is.

Does this sound normal/reasonable?

They gave me a rough ballpark estimate (not having seen my stuff) of a 20ft container move, Chicago to London area, of 7-8k USD all in (packing and loading/unloading at both ends, not including insurance). Regarding self-packing, they say leave the boxes open so that the company packers can see what's in there, roughly, and check that it's packed properly, and then they can add that to their manifest and it would be covered by the insurance.

How does this shipping cost sound to others?

I will be getting other estimates, of course.