djmoll Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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I have had a State Farm Personal Articles policy for years. I just renewed it for another year, paying about $160 for a year's coverage on $9000 of equipment. I am not a professional.
Unlike homeowners insurance, the Personal Articles policy covers damage, dropping, falling in the river, etc. (This is important to me because I do a lot of wilderness hiking and photography.) The Personal Articles Policy also has no deductible. Both homeowners and the personal articles cover theft.
I also like keeping my camera equipment insurance separate from my homeowners policy, since a claim is less likely to affect my homeowners premiums.
My policy is replacement or full repair. I give them prices from B&H for purchasing a new equivalent item, along with descriptions and serial numbers. They have never asked for an appraisal, receipts or photographs. If I set the value too high, they would simply give me a new item and I would lose the "over insured" value. If I set the value too low, they would give me only the insured value, and I would have to make up the difference.
Several years ago, I fell on some slippery steps, and my Canon 7D and Canon 10-22 USM lens were damaged. They had me go to a local camera store who sent both to Canon factory service. (They paid the camera store extra to use them as a third party handling the repair.) The quote for repairs was less than the value, so they simply paid for the repair. No questions. No complaining. No premium increase, No arguing. No request to get a second quote on the repair from a second-rate operation. They told me if the repair cost exceeded the new price of the equipment, they would have purchased new replacement equipment for me or just given me the equivalent in cash (so I could apply it to an upgrade).
My experience with State Farm and their Personal Articles Policy has been very good, including a claim for two items that resulted in a repair. Don't use it if you sell photographers or are a photography business. But it is great for a serious amateur.
I hope this helps those who are wondering about the State Farm option.
djmoll
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