I'm getting a little confused about this whole topic as I have to decide before next Tues whether to insure all or part of my goods.

Please could I get a general idea about whether people have or haven't bothered with insurance and why?

My quote is 2.5% of the value. I have no time to shop around now & get other quotes, this is it.

So insuring 20k would cost £500. But breaking it down on the form is a nightmare. It looks to me like total loss (ship fire, sinking etc) is possible but unlikely and the exclusions of liability are adequate to negate any responsibility, e.g. Act of god, terrorism, fire howsoever started, explosion, war etc etc.

So we may just look at individual items, e.g. Bike £2,000, bedroom set, £1,000. But I would be very unlucky and lucky, if I insured one item and that was the only item to go missing or be damaged, meaning I was covered.

Don't know if I'm making sense, but others' opinions on the topic who have had experience would be gratefully received.

Thanks, Katie

What's your risk tolerance? That will give you the answer you seek.

From what I've read, containers do fall off container ships in the middle of the ocean, so it depends on whether you're willing to lose everything when the ship goes through a bad storm.

What Mark said...same as when you rent a car, and will be crossing the border or going on some expedition travel. Weigh the risks and go from there

we did take out insurance on our stuff which arrived damaged, but do they want to pay out? No! everything is an argument! We dont have beds because the mattress was soaked on one and the shippers 'lost' the end frame of another, the legs on my dining table were smashed off and the insurers suggest that we have a 'patch up' !!! Loads of items were stolen from our shipment but they dont want to pay for that either!! happy to take your money but they dont like to pay out when necessary!!

That's the downside; I wouldn't really expect them to pay out for much other than an easily provable loss ('uh, my container fell off the boat'). One of my boxes magically became a car parcel shelf on its way over the Atlantic and it wasn't even worth the hassle of trying to claim from them.

At the least, make sure you have absolutely everything itemised, rather than just 'box of DVDs and books'.

We insured almost everything but I did bargain them down to 1.5% I think it was.

We got stuff damaged and broken and I had to fight tooth and nail for any money back. I got about £160 when damages amounted to well over £500.

Like everyone says - its up to you and your risk tolerance. Personally I couldn't stand the thought of all our stuff that we had spent over 10 years building up being lost and being offered a tiny amount back.

We got shipping insurance. I was actually hoping that our container would fall off the ship.

Same here. Either way, it's all your worldly possessions.

It's a while ago, but we insured our shipment too. On the other hand, we weren't paying for any of it.

Nor did I come to think of it ( apart from being tied to the miserable company who did pay for two years ).

I used this company (direct - not through an agent) and found them excellent.

http://www.unirisc.ca/Corp&IntReloca...urance_ENG.htm

Can you afford to lose all of your belongings and not impact your finances? If you can maybe it is not worth it. Marine insurance works completely differently to home insuracne if you have a claim. It assumes average weighted value, to $1000 value on 100 kitchen items, each item is $10 in the event of a claim, each items is assumed to be worth the same. Check your values if you have a claim, be prepared for a long drawn out argument. Don't give in and most will prevail.

We shipped and after reading the small print decided not to take the insurance on any of the items. On arrival to usa, the table was split in 2 and a chair was smashed. We called the shipping company and was told even if we took the insurance it didnt cover damage, only water damage and full loss. We had the items repaired in USA at a fraction of the cost to try and replace.