Insurance on relocating house contents costs 3% of the value of the goods?

[DubaiAnna]

Hi all,
We are moving back to the UK on Friday, and have a couple of insurance quotes from the relocation companies, for 3% of the value of the goods we want insured (we have to set the value ourselves). How have others handled the insurance question? I suppose I just need to hear one horror story to convince me that the £300-500 premium is worth the money.

On the outbound trip, we shipped only about a dozen boxes, no furniture, and didn't insure. A year later, we shipped beds and sofas and also didn't insure. No problems, lucky for us. The relocation company has just told me that their clients do have claims in 5-10% of shipments, which seems quite high. Should I be stumping up waving goodbye to my £500?

We paid it. Think of it this way...what would you do if the ship sank?

We paid it too. Shipping cost us about 3.5k GBP. The most valuable item is a 55" all singing all dancing TV with they've crated. We didn't insure on the way out (I forgot!!). But we have more stuff going back...

Good luck with the move.

Oh god, the day after we sent our shipment a bloody ship beached off the Cornish coast with BMW motor bikes and all sorts of stuff spilling over the beaches and being picked up. We have no furniture of value (all ikea shit except the Natuzzi sofas) but we do have a number of items that are personal, pictures that my mother had when I was a small child, items of furniture of no real value but loved by us as a family, that sort of stuff. Insure insure insure and I say that as someone who believes that insurance companies are a bunch of thieving shysters,

Isthiscorrect I remember that happening! When was it? Probably much longer ago than I think!

That's what it cost us last year, pretty standard it seems (though gutting at the time). You wouldn't want to lose anything though, would you, so worth it for that peace of mind, I'd say.

I would insure. On our last move the following items were damaged:

• Denon hi-fi
• Play station 2 stolen (left the box though!)
• jewelry box smashed to pieces
• broken photo frames
• damage to antique cabinet. All resolved quickly with insurance company.

Pay the insurance, someone else we know went back to UK recently to find her antiques that have followed her worldwide for the last 25 years where now matchsticks and not salvageable. This was her final trip home to retire, and she didn't get insurance this time.

Letton Percival charge a lot less and were very straightforward. We didn't have to claim thank goodness but it was peace of mind.
www.lettonpercival.co.uk/emigration-insurance

3% is pretty standard

Irrc shipping companies (well the one we used) do have a minimal insurance built in to the basic shipping cost but this goes on weight .. So a plasma tv damaged you would probably get back about £10

I also know someone in dh's company who lost everything (thankfully they had insured)

Sinkings are surprisingly common.

Eek- off to book insurance. Thanks for all the helpful replies. Will check out Letton Percival, good tip, thanks.

This week is one of the most wincingly expensive of my life. I'm about to get 5-6k from the sale of the car in half an hour, and will be handing most of it straight over to Pickfords.