Protect Your Fine China By Comparing Local Moving Companies' Insurance Policies

It's always important to properly insure valuables like heirloom china. When moving, though, your insurance coverage may change. If you don't have an insurance policy with worldwide coverage for your personal possessions, you'll want to protect any fine china or other valuables you have by comparing local moving companies' insurance offerings. Even if you're only moving around the block, taking the time to compare insurance coverages and costs when selecting a local moving company will ensure your china is protected throughout your move.

Worldwide Coverage for Personal Possessions

Most homeowners and renters insurance policies include coverage for personal belongings, although the level of protection provided varies from policy to policy. Some policies will only cover your belongings when they're in your house or apartment. Others offer worldwide coverage, which Investopedia explains, extends protection beyond the walls of your home and throughout the entire world.

Some insurance companies include worldwide coverage for personal belongings as a standard coverage in their policies, and others offer it as an optional coverage that policyholders can purchase. Other insurers, however, don't offer this coverage.

If you have worldwide coverage, then the protection you already have for your personal belongings will be extended throughout your move. When they're in your current home, the moving truck and your new home, they'll be protected.

If you don't have worldwide coverage, though, your belongings may not be protected in transit. When they aren't in either your current or your new house, they may not be insured by your homeowners or renters policy. If this is the case, you'll need to purchase moving insurance from the local moving company you hire.

Local Moving Companies Offer Insurance

Most local moving companies offer insurance options to protect your valuables while they're in transit. The insurance policies may provide protection if a mover drops a box of your fine china or if the moving truck is in an accident. The amount of protection varies depending on the type of insurance provided.

Local moving companies often offer three insurance options:

  • declared value coverage, which protects your possessions for a fixed amount per pound
  • assessed value coverage, which protects your belongings for a value that's agreed upon beforehand
  • full value coverage, which protects your possessions for their entire value

Declared value coverage rarely provides enough protection for valuables, especially heavy ones like fine china. For example, a company's declared value moving insurance might give you $1.10 for every pound of your possessions. If a 60-pound box of china was dropped and broke, you would only receive $66.00 in insurance coverage — hardly the value of a big box of fine china.

Assessed value coverage is typically reserved for individual, highly valuable items. After all, it would take too long to come up with a value for every one of your belongings. You may use assessed value coverage to protect a single box of china, but it'd be impractical to insure all of your valuables with assessed value coverage.

Full value coverage provides the most comprehensive level of protection, and therefore, will give you the highest level of protection for your fine china and other valuables. Full value moving insurance policies are like homeowners or renters policies, in that full value policies also have deductibles and exclusions. They're only for the duration of the move, though.

As you get price quotes from local moving companies, ask them to include full value coverage in their quotes if you don't have worldwide coverage. Without protection from your homeowners or renters insurance policy, you'll want full value coverage from the moving company you hire. Therefore, you might as well include it in the cost of hiring the company.

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