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What are my options, as a U.S. citizen, for insuring professional equipment (camera and laptop, specifically) while traveling outside of the U.S.? Most of the traveler's insurance policies I've found have a very low coverage for personal items (usually $500 to $1000; the highest being $3000). This makes me wonder if there are better options specifically for covering damage or theft of such equipment. Lets say the equipment I carry with me has a new value of up to US$10,000.

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    In the UK you can get world wide contents insurance as part of you house insurance so this covers items like laptops and cameras equipment. I have a friend who is insured for £10k of camera gear with Zurich I think including world wide cover. I don't carry as much and those policies aren't worthwhile if you're under £3k so I use specialist photographers insurance from photogaurd.co.uk. None of this helps specifically but gives you some ideas on where to look. Also try asking in the photography.se I'm sure some of them would know.
    – Stuart
    Dec 27, 2011 at 20:09
  • I checked my own policy. Coverage of bagage is at 3000 EUR. As a side note it is stated that I should be aware that expensive professional stuff like camera's, laptop's should be insured separately. Apparently you can get insurance for each item. So I can confirm Stuarts suggestion, the same strategy applies in the Netherlands/Belgium. If you can get insurance against alien abduction (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_abduction_insurance), extra insurance for prof equipment should not be that difficult
    – user141
    Jan 4, 2012 at 23:04

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There is a slew of travel insurance companies the most known of which is:

http://www.travelguard.com/travelinsurance/index.asp

Depending who you book your travel arrangements through you can buy insurance from them but if not follow the link I posted they can do that for you. If not take a look at this:

http://www.accessamerica.com/

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I use World Nomads for my world wide insurance, and I was a UK resident, so all good to use. They allow you to specify the value of individual extras - I specified my SLR, Kindle and Netbook, and the policy cost adjusts accordingly. Seemed fair.

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    When I tried to add my camera it said: Single item has a limit of GBP £400., which is below the value of most laptops and better DSLR-s. Also this insurance seems to make sense only for people traveling for months - otherwise its ridiculously expensive.
    – Grzenio
    Jan 23, 2012 at 10:54
  • That's a shame, as they've been really good. I guess it just never came up with my gear - old Nikon D80 SLR, and netbook and Kindle - all each under 400 quid in today's value, and yeah, I was travelling for a few months. Might be worth looking at specialist camera insurance as @Stuart mentioned - photoguard.co.uk for example.
    – Mark Mayo
    Jan 23, 2012 at 10:59
  • It will always be "ridiculously expensive" to insure your "ridiculously expensive" electronic gear. No matter what company you use, you will never be able to get travel insurance that covers a full value. £1500 is actually not that expensive when it comes to photo equipment and if you want, you can probably insure your body and your lens separately.
    – rlab
    Jan 23, 2012 at 16:14
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    That policy has a US$1000 per-item limit, and a US$2000-total limit. So insuring body and lenses separately may get each item below $1000, but $2000 is still a pretty small total cap.
    – Flimzy
    Jan 24, 2012 at 1:57
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    @riesko ridiculously expensive as in the price of the policy is extreme in comparison to the price of the insured items and the coverage provided. I've seen camera insurance that effectively offered coverage only during transport (it didn't cover damage or theft if the camera was not inside a locked case for example), yet cost about half the retail price of the insured equipment per year. Cheaper to set aside funds to replace the gear unless chances of theft or destruction during transport are extremely high and you don't have the full amount to replace the gear handy but do have half.
    – jwenting
    Feb 2, 2012 at 6:42
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Be sure to contact your home insurance provider. My policy includes some (named) items from my contents coverage, even when they are out of my home. Many years ago I used to list my laptop, for example. A quick call to your home insurer might take care of the problem at minimal or no cost.

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