Those That Have Dealt With Insurance (Getting Equipment Insured / Making Claims)
 

So I've yet to have my gear stolen but I'm certainly fearing that day, especially since the equipment I'm investing in is going up and up in value ...

So, I have a few questions.

How did you go about declaring what you have in your car? You tell them about the whole system, top to bottom or did you leave some parts out?
If and when you have to make a claim, as in you're vehicle is broken into and you want to be compensated, how much of a pain is it?

Do they want receipts? What if I have a combination of new and used products, how can I put a value on this with them?

I'm just trying to figure out what to do, since I basically have no additional coverage for the audio equipment in my car and I'm beginning to wonder if I should talk to the insurance company or just buy a really expensive alarm and hope for the best.

Please share your knowledge and experiences.

Ok, I'll bite. I hadn't gotten any quote on my first car/system. It burned to the ground (long story) and I was VERY lucky that I had all of the reciepts to prove what was in the car. In hindsight, I would have had the car re-appraised so that it was properly insured, as I did lose a lot of coin. You may think that's normal with insurance, but by doing it their way I would have had a better return. The trade-off here and why you would want to omit info is directly related to what you want to pay for the ins each month. Obviously a higher valued vehicle costs more to insure, so it's really up to you. Do you be honest and tell them what you have in the event that you do lose everything, in turn paying more... Or do you leave things out and risk not getting as much or nothing at all if you do lose everything? In my case, the alarm was as useful as an impotent bull, but when you're talking theft, I always, always recommend a 2 way alarm. Your call

Does anyone have any info on stolen items through insurance.

I just posted in the stolen section of the forum a few pictures I have of my car after my stereo was stolen out of it.

I didn't go through insurance because I don't want to be classified as high risk and have my insurance go up.

So is the consensus then that people are just "Winging It" and at most they're installing alarms in their car and "Bolting everything down" ...

I mean realistically, you start putting thousands of dollars in your vehicle, I begin to worry. I would have thought that more people would have had this conversation with their insurance company.

Sooooo ... everyone else just has an alarm?

I just bought a 2way alarm. Best $400 I could invest.
I talked to my insurance company and I would have to pay ~$$50-100 (thats a 50%-100% increase a month!)extra a month for $1500 worth of stuff. No receipts, no money. (online stuff or 'used' is worthless to them = no money) Equipment would be appraised what the insurance company thought would be fair. They never gave me a straight answer on what they would payout for it. To top it off, if anything got stolen I would have to pay more for insurance.

So why bother? I'm paying to have the privilege to have my system replace (This is laughable as you know they're going to nickle and dim you every where) then with the insurance increase I would be paying them back for it. And I'm paying monthly for this service.
Cheaper to rebuy and rebuild.

2way alarm, and turning your stereo down a few blocks before your house will do a lot more for you then the insurance company would.
I would ask your insurance company though. They might be nicer.

Blasting ur stereo anywhere is a risk, its not hard to figure out where u live with a plate number. Some people dont realize that. Not all potential theives live on your street.

As far as the insurance goes, couple companys i asked would only insure up to like 1500 bucks, so if ur system is 2k and up whats the point?

Your points make sense and they're points in my own mind when I've been giving this idea thought.
I'll definitely ask but I think a serious alarm is going to be the answer.

Just dont buy a house in the ghetto

BESIDE the ghetto ... I told you a million times, I live BESIDE the ghetto.
It's like half and half. I have my freedom, but my sh!t gets stolen if I leave it on my front lawn.