Insurance clarification (sorry!)

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Floxie

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Still don't fully understand it, sorry!

Mine has gone up by about £10 a month from last year, which is annoying - so I'm wondering mainly - should I bother having my tack insured? Since looking at the fine print I can't meet the expectations for how it should be kept?

Don't get me wrong, it's in a secure stone building under the owner's bedroom window surrounded by pointy dogs :) But it doesn't have a '5-lever mortice deadlock' so if it did go missing I couldn't claim. I suppose it could still be 'damaged' but I dunno... has anybody ever claimed for that? My saddle is the only thing I can imagine claiming on, nothing else seems worth it.

I assume death/theft/straying, public liability, personal accident & dental and vets fees are all worth keeping though yes?

And - do I need rider insurance? I've never really known what this is..! Is the above sufficient? Every time I search here I just see replies of 'I joined the BHS for their insurance' but that's still another expense I could cheerfully forgo if it isn't necessary :)

Cake & appreciative noises if you can shed any light for me!
 
To be honest I gave up with insurance a few years ago. It is so expensive with so many exclusions I don't think it's worth it (8 horses). Previously I had claimed for stolen tack and vets fees and had been rejected, them had paid the premiums and also had to foot the expense!

The only things that worry me are vets fees and third party liability, I have been lucky I guess (touching wood) that my vets fees have never exceeded what I would have paid in premiums and my BE membership covers me for third party.
 
You might be better off insuring your tack under your house policy. Most do a better deal than equine specific insurance - and don't require a specific type of lock.

You might want to look closely at Vets fees too. Bear in mind insurance is not designed for you to make a profit - but for the insurer. So most people end up paying more in premiums than they would in bills. Plus when something goes wrong the insurance promptly excludes that bit of the body going forward. We found we would be better off paying the equivalent sum into a savings account and taking the risk ourselves.

You do need to keep public liability; whether through a main insurance policy or through membership of an organisation like BHS, Pony Club, an affilliated discipline etc.

Personal accident / rider insurance depends on your own position and how you would meet the bills if you were off work for a prolonged period. But if you look around you may find that cover cheaper in connection with house or car insurance. Mine is part of a wholly seperate group insurance scheme.

Death, theft and straying - personally yes. But if you look at your own particular circumstances you might not need it.

By looking closely at what we actually need and what we already had covered elsewhere we dropped the insurance bills for 2 competition ponies by over half.
 
If you can't meet their criteria for tack storage and your tack is worth less than £1000 then no, not worth paying the premium!
You need public liability (what if horsey kicked someone's car/child/prize show pony??). Vet fees cover useful, depending on age and health of horse (check exclusions), death/theft/straying up to you to choose if you want it. My policy covers me for riding him and anyone who rides him with my permission. I used to have rider-only insurance when I was sharing and for my daughter loaning. Hope this is helpful.
 
The reason people recommend the BHS is that for £60 a year you can remove, personal accident and third party liability from your horse insurance - if this reduced your premium by more than £60 it's worth it - if not stick with what you've got.

Best way to find out whether the circumstances you keep your tack in would be covered is to call and ask them - if it;s not covered anyway you may as well stop paying premiums!!

I'm another one who doesn't insure (other than third party) as insurance costs and rules made it daft for me. But I have plenty of savings/ credit card space should a big vet bill arise - if you don't have this insurance is probably worth it.
 
In reality your tack probably isn't costing you that much a year to insure - less than £30 possibly. However, as you've rightly said, if the security doesn't fit the criteria then you wouldn't be covered should it get stolen. You would be covered if there was a fire/water damage though that resulted in the loss of your saddle.

Your policy premium will have just gone up (like other insurances if claim free) with standard rate increases incorporated so it's always worth ringing and seeing if you can get it reduced (better if you get a more competitive quite elsewhere).
 
Thanks everyone, that's a lot clearer now! I'll definitely look into taking the tack off and see if the personal accident & 3rd party comes to more than £60 a year. I despise this time of year with the car and that's a lot more straightforward!

Achingly stupid question but my tack would need to be kept in my house to be covered by my household insurance, yes?
 
Hmmm if I removed cover for all the extras it leaves death & theft covered by default at a very managable price! Vets fees adds around £20 a month.

My brain hurts.
 
No your tack would come under the personal possessions/contents away from the home section, you may want to check your single article limit to see if your saddle etc need to be specified :)
 
Lol, I don't think insurance is ever very easy to understand! Do check the small print though as some insurers may impose minimum req's on where items can be stolen from. If your handbag was stolen from your car for example, the claim might not be covered if the car wasn't locked etc!
 
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