Do I Need Moving Insurance?

When starting to plan a cross country move or cross border move, move many people wonder if they should get moving insurance. Almost all moving companies will offer valuation protection, but in some cases it’s a good idea to get additional coverage on top of that so that you and your belongings are protected.

Valuation Protection

What moving companies offer isn’t insurance. There’s no deductible or policy. It’s just a standardized valuation of your items so that if your items are damaged during a move you will receive some compensation for that. There are two types of valuation protection:

Released Value

Released value coverage is usually included in your move cost but doesn’t offer full compensation for your belongings. Released value protection will pay you $0.60 per pound per item. This coverage usually doesn’t provide enough money to replace an item that has been broken because it’s flat rate per weight. For example, if a $4000 TV that weighed 100 pounds was damaged you would only receive $600 for the damages with Released Value.

Full Value

Full value coverage will cost a bit more and is an add on to the moving costs, but with Full Value coverage the actual cost of the items will be paid if items are damaged during the move. Even though there is a slight cost for this protection if you have expensive items that need to be moved it’s smart to choose the Full Value protection.

Additional Insurance

You may want to purchase an actual insurance policy to protect your items if you have a lot of very expensive items like heirlooms that cannot be easily replaced. Insurance can also cover valuables that you will be taking with you like expensive jewelry or electronics like phones and tablets. Homeowners policies typically don’t cover moving, so you can’t depend on coverage from a homeowner’s policy to protect you. Most major insurance carriers offer moving insurance so you can purchase a policy easily with a company that you already have homeowners insurance or auto insurance with to get additional savings. When it comes to protecting your treasured possessions it’s worth paying a little more to get full protection.