insuring your MBA and gadgets in bad economy and increasing crime.

[freelancier]

I want to know what insurance i should get.

The Customers Priority Service was offered at 99$ for 4 years by the Econoelectronics place where i bought my MBA, the offer sounds too good to be true....Does anyone have any expeirence with them?

If not, suggestions??

Thank you all very much.

Ideally, I want something that covers damage and theft too, since i'll be traveling with it internationally at least a few times a year.

But my work always buy a travel insurance from Seven Corners so i wonder if that should cover it too.

BTW, my boyfriend just got mugged of his iphone. He worked out of a subway station in broad daylight on MLK day, three teenage boys just snatched the phone off his hand with the headphone and ran off. He ran after them and got tripped to the floor!! Other people waiting at a bus stop just stood there and watch...

With the economy this bad, i think crime is only going to be more and more prevalent, which is why i am thinking of buying such an insurance...which i don't normally think of...

 

[LinMac]

This is actually a very good question.

Does anyone know of a company that sells this type of insurance? Traveler's insurance is one thing, but I would love to be able to insure my computers for trips to a local Starbucks that won't qualify under traveler's insurance due to distance from my home.

Please don't reply with the obvious answers of "home owners insurance", "renter's insurance", or "car insurance". It can be problematic to add devices to these in some cases if you even have the type of insurance that these can be added to.

I don't mean to thread hijack. I am just very interested in getting some useful (to me) information.

 

[Applespider]

Please don't reply with the obvious answers of "home owners insurance", "renter's insurance", or "car insurance". It can be problematic to add devices to these in some cases if you even have the type of insurance that these can be added to.

Sorry but while obvious, they also tend to be the easiest and cheapest for most people - not least since you already have a relationship with the company so it's a minor policy change or premium increase although I'd doubt car insurance would cover you for more than it being stolen from the trunk! Speak to your insurance company/broker and ask what your options are. All my gadgets are covered under my home contents insurance for accidental damage (although I pay a slightly increased premium for that) and theft whether from the house, from the coffee shop or while abroad.

One thing to be wary of is if you use it for business since many consumer/home policies specifically exclude business use.

 

[LinMac]

Speak to your insurance company/broker and ask what your options are.

That is standard-forum-answerese similar to "talk to your lawyer" when asking about legal questions.

I don't have an insurance company except a 1-800 number that dials a customer service representative who has no clue what I'm asking about.

Now those three suggestions are fine and good (albeit useless) unless you have that type of insurance to begin with. There are many people (including me) that have renter's insurance without those options because it is what the complex requires us to buy.

There must be other options other than the standard answer of those three that I've already specifically requested not to see.

 

[Applespider]

There must be other options other than the standard answer of those three that I've already specifically requested not to see.

While you asked not to see them, the OP (whose thread it is) didn't specifically exclude not hearing about them so telling the OP about the most common and cheapest way of generally doing it, seemed sensible.

If your current company's customer service is so poor that they can't answer a simple and relatively common question, I'd consider changing anyhow. I've never called my insurance company and not have them understand the concept of adding a laptop with accidental damage coverage to my policy when I was renting, had contents only or was a student. The answer/price might not have been what I wanted to hear but they knew their business.

Another useful piece of information from both you and the OP, is where in the world you're based so that people from those specific areas can try to help out and don't end up suggesting companies that don't operate in your locale.

 

[LinMac]

While you asked not to see them, the OP (whose thread it is) didn't specifically exclude not hearing about them so telling the OP about the most common and cheapest way of generally doing it, seemed sensible.

If your current company's customer service is so poor that they can't answer a simple and relatively common question, I'd consider changing anyhow. I've never called my insurance company and not have them understand the concept of adding a laptop with accidental damage coverage to my policy when I was renting, had contents only or was a student. The answer/price might not have been what I wanted to hear but they knew their business.

Another useful piece of information from both you and the OP, is where in the world you're based so that people from those specific areas can try to help out and don't end up suggesting companies that don't operate in your locale.

It is the OP's thread and I specifically want to avoid thread hijacking. The annoyance here is that your replies are carbon copies of every other thread similar to this one. The only answers you ever see are "homeowner's insurance" or "renter's insurance" with "car insurance" included on rare occasions.

That isn't helpful to everyone for a variety of reasons such as: There have been cases where insurance companies have told customers their home owner's insurance could be dropped or their premiums increased over too many claims. I wouldn't want to risk my insurance over a notebook or phone.

My renter's insurance here is nearly worthless and I know that. It is cheap, mandatory, and that is that. That is why I'm looking for something else to cover what is actually valuable in here.

I've found a couple of different options I'm going to look into today:

1) http://www.safeware.com/

2) http://www.statefarm.com/insurance/other/personal.asp

I'm not sure if State Farm will sell that policy independently of the other policies, but I'm going to call today to see if they will.

 

[ducatidoc]

my state farm policy (added to my renter's insurance) for my mba for $2500 of coverage against damage, theft and loss was $55 a year.

 

[LinMac]

In my endless search for useful information, I've found some interesting information.

Inland Marine insurance is a type of policy that can cover these if you don't qualify for a Personal Articles Policy with your insurance provider for whatever reason.

I'm going to talk to an independent agent that deals with these policies tomorrow.

Does anyone have any experience with inland marine policies specifically?