Theft insurance for electronics?

You don't say where you will be traveling but, in general, you are more likely to lose something than to have it stolen. Take the same reasonable precautions you normally would in traveling around at home. I have never considered theft insurance, but you might look at www.insuremytrip.com to see if any companies cover that as part of travel insurance.

I have never considered extra insurance to cover such items, though I only travel with an iPhone, camera and tiny Ipod touch, and only use that on the plane. Lock up any electronics you don't actually need on the street and be attentive to the ones you do feel you need with you--I don't use a phone for navigating, prefer a map, but it gets used for some photos and then back in my bag.

Check with your Homeowner's Insurance company. They might cover loss or theft of these items by default. You can purchase a rider to be added to that policy covering your small electronics when traveling. In my experience, it is much more affordable than the per-trip options.

I am a fairly avid photographer so I have put a special insurance policy on my cameras and assorted photo equipment. For some outdated reason, my insurance company calls it a "Marine Policy" although it has nothing to do with boats. This covers my equipment all of the time, not just when I travel. The policy is surprisingly inexpensive. Last time I checked it even covered a camera which got soaked when a whale dove in front of the boat we were using.... (fortunately it dried out and I did not have to replace it!)

As Mark suggests, I found that my homeowner's policy would, indeed, cover this sort of thing by default. Yes, I was surprised too.

Ray,

If it was not a "marine" policy, would it have covered getting splashed while on a boat? ;-)

If it was not a "marine" policy, would it have covered getting
splashed while on a boat? ;-)

One would hope so! Before the camera dried out and became usable, I phoned my agent with the details to see if it was covered. He said in all his years in insurance this was his first case of "Damage by Whale!"

Mark and Dave, the OP says that they did check with their insurance carrier, could not get a rider for this equipment, and their deductible for theft of personal items is $2800. You can buy several iPads, Kindles and iPhones with $2800.

Thanks Nancy-I'm wide awake now, though it won't last long ;-). Still, for others reading the thread, it is a surprise for some and good info. I learned of it from a post by Ken a couple years back.

Nancy,

I thought about that, but it was not mentioned what TYPE of insurance they were referring to. Might be travel insurance, might be homeowners. So I just threw that out there as general info.