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I am looking for a solution to how to insure my possessions against theft while doing a road trip in the USA, maybe camp now and then but mostly using airbnb.com vacation rentals. I want to do this for several months, maybe six or eight months. But how do I insure my possessions (laptop, camera, etc) should someone break into my car or into the airbnb rental?
The thing is, I am going to do this when my apartment lease ends in a few months, and then I would have no apartment, no house, so I could not really have homeowner insurance, could not really have renters insurance. I do not believe auto insurance covers possessions stolen from a car if thieves smash and grab.
I plan on leaving lots of my stuff at my brother's house nearby, i wonder if i could 'rent' a room from him for $1, somehow get renters insurance that way? idk.
If I’m remembering things correctly, my homeowners insurance has an umbrella policy protection to cover things on trips and while away from home. You might check with yours and see if you have it, or if you can get that umbrella coverage for trips.
I am looking for a solution to how to insure my possessions against theft while doing a road trip in the USA, maybe camp now and then but mostly using airbnb.com vacation rentals. I want to do this for several months, maybe six or eight months. But how do I insure my possessions (laptop, camera, etc) should someone break into my car or into the airbnb rental?
The thing is, I am going to do this when my apartment lease ends in a few months, and then I would have no apartment, no house, so I could not really have homeowner insurance, could not really have renters insurance. I do not believe auto insurance covers possessions stolen from a car if thieves smash and grab.
I plan on leaving lots of my stuff at my brother's house nearby, i wonder if i could 'rent' a room from him for $1, somehow get renters insurance that way? idk.
Any ideas?
You can and should get renters insurance for the property being left at your brothers. Typically the minimum is $25K in coverage, and and it should cost about $150 a year in premium. It might not, however, cover your belongings (both stored and with you) while traveling long term. Be sure to explain to the agent what your plans are.
You could also check one of the travel insurance aggregator web sites (insuremytrip.com for example) and see if you can find a policy that will cover your belongings that are with you at an affordable cost.
You are also correct about your auto insurance, typically they do not cover personal contents in cars, although some will, again you need to check.
Emailed my insurance agent this morning, hoping he can find a solution-- I will report back what he says either way. I need to explore that option of renting a room from my brother for $1 and then using renters insurance there, just need to explore if renting a room from his is legal, if it would raise his insurance or property taxes. Geesh gotta be a solution to this-- there must be others like me wanting to be nomads for a time to scout out the USA for where to live, at least that is my goal. Being I am retired, I figure why pay $$$$/month for rent and utilities when that $$$$/month can just go towards weekly/monthly vacation rentals in some areas I want to check out for possibly settling at; i have the best of all worlds, can leave almost all my possessions at my brother's house ten miles away, put a few things in my car and head out and vacation in a half dozen states, see things I have not seen, consider new places to live. Sold my house in northern MN last autumn and tried out Oregon, now in IL, and I really do not want to move back to MN (ice, snow, bitter cold)-- let's not sidetrack this thread on that, the issue here is insuring my possessions for a nomadic road trip, hopefully help others wanting to do the same.
Emailed my insurance agent this morning, hoping he can find a solution-- I will report back what he says either way. I need to explore that option of renting a room from my brother for $1 and then using renters insurance there, just need to explore if renting a room from his is legal, if it would raise his insurance or property taxes. Geesh gotta be a solution to this-- there must be others like me wanting to be nomads for a time to scout out the USA for where to live, at least that is my goal. Being I am retired, I figure why pay $$$$/month for rent and utilities when that $$$$/month can just go towards weekly/monthly vacation rentals in some areas I want to check out for possibly settling at; i have the best of all worlds, can leave almost all my possessions at my brother's house ten miles away, put a few things in my car and head out and vacation in a half dozen states, see things I have not seen, consider new places to live. Sold my house in northern MN last autumn and tried out Oregon, now in IL, and I really do not want to move back to MN (ice, snow, bitter cold)-- let's not sidetrack this thread on that, the issue here is insuring my possessions for a nomadic road trip, hopefully help others wanting to do the same.
You don't need a signed lease to get renters insurance. They don't ask how much you pay. You don't even need to pay anything. Renters insurance will cover you if you live in a home owned by someone else and you are not a family member covered under their contents policy.
You don't need a signed lease to get renters insurance. They don't ask how much you pay. You don't even need to pay anything. Renters insurance will cover you if you live in a home owned by someone else and you are not a family member covered under their contents policy.
I hope that is true, I hope my insurance agent confirms this. That would solve my nomadic traveler issue!
I hope that is true, I hope my insurance agent confirms this. That would solve my nomadic traveler issue!
One thing to note--you will have a deductible and the lower it is, the more expensive the policy. You need to weigh your threshold of risk versus what you are willing to pay. I would also point out that often insurance policies have strict limitations on what they will pay out for certain valuable objects such as cameras and electronics unless those items are specifically scheduled (and you pay extra premium for them). So you might want to check the scenario of having a $1000 laptop and a $800 camera and $800 worth of clothes stolen.
They might call the camera an electronic and you might have a limit of $1000 per occurrence with a $500 deductible. They would look at the value (which unless you buy a full replacement value policy would be after depreciation) so they would say the value of the two items combined was $900 and you'd only get $400 after your deductible.
One thing to note--you will have a deductible and the lower it is, the more expensive the policy. You need to weigh your threshold of risk versus what you are willing to pay. I would also point out that often insurance policies have strict limitations on what they will pay out for certain valuable objects such as cameras and electronics unless those items are specifically scheduled (and you pay extra premium for them). So you might want to check the scenario of having a $1000 laptop and a $800 camera and $800 worth of clothes stolen.
They might call the camera an electronic and you might have a limit of $1000 per occurrence with a $500 deductible. They would look at the value (which unless you buy a full replacement value policy would be after depreciation) so they would say the value of the two items combined was $900 and you'd only get $400 after your deductible.
Food for thought.
I'm down for a plate of thought, lol. yeah, difficult decisions. i was thinking of getting this nice $2500 laptop to do music composing while doing the nomadic road trip, but i might just have to keep using my crappy laptop worth a few hundred, leave my DSLR camera with my brother and take a $300 pocket camera, so if electronics and some minor things were stolen well it would not be much more than the deductible meaning i could probably just forget about paying for any insurance policy, just take my changes and figure I will have my stuff stolen but it will be a cost of travel. And in fact if the main valuables were my used laptop and $300 camera, well the camera I can take with in a backpack if hiking, encrypt the hell out of the laptop data, so worst case i lose the laptop and auto insurance pays for broken window glass, etc. Probably the way to go, won't have the laptop i wanted for the road trip but i will likely enjoy the road trip more not worrying about an expensive laptop, will be more likely to park and hike/photography.
I would still put insurance on the property in storage. Your brothers policy won't cover it if there is a fire or other incident.
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