How to Choose Your Caravan Insurance

July 10th, 2010 4 Comments   Posted in Caravan Insurance

caravan insurance is an essential part of protecting your valuable asset. A caravan gives you the open road to explore, provides you with a way to get away from the hectic life you live and, it helps you create a unique way of life for your family. It also needs insurance protection to keep it providing this to you. When you insure your caravan, look for an insurance provider that offers the highest level of coverage to you and is well known for being able to provide quality, reliable service.

Having the right type of caravan insurance is essential. You may require two key types. One type of insurance is Touring Caravan or Trailer insurance. This type of insurance is the most commonly used as it is used for all types of caravans that are mobile or moved. The second is for onsite caravan protection. On site caravan insurance is designed for those caravans that do not move and are permanently at your site.

Coverage Under Caravan Insurance:

In Touring Caravan or Trailer Insurance, the premiums you pay will be based on a moving vehicle. This type of insurance is right for folding trailers, campers, demountable camper units, and slide on campers as well as horse floats. This type of insurance provides for coverage based on the agreed value of the caravan. It usually provides protection of all types when you are on the road or off, but is limited to use within Australia. Your basic policy will include a small amount of cover for the contents of your caravan, but you may want to consider adding additional value onto the policy here to cover your contents based on what you have in it. Most policies also provide you with temporary accommodations when you cannot stay in your caravan.

With on location caravan coverage, instead of motor vehicle insurance, you possess more of a home kind of insurance protection. This kind of protection gives many similar advantages, though. For example, the caravan insurance will be based on an agreed value that is fixed upfront. A majority will give you standard caravan content insurance however this could be a minimal number especially for static locations.

Questions for Your Provider:

When getting caravan insurance, it is essential to consider the costs of the plan but also the amount of covered provided to you. Not all things are inclusive in many of these policies. Be clear with your insurance provider on what is included and what is not.

* What is covered under the comprehensive motor coverage? Areas like accidental damage, fire, flood, keys, liability, storms, theft, vandalism and glass damage are usually included.

* What is not covered? In most situations, the cost of hiring a motor vehicle will not be covered, accidents outside of Australia will not be covered, and accidents that happen because of road cuts, punctures, bursts or braking will not be covered. Most policies provide do not cover mechanical failures either.

* How do you file a claim?

* What method is used to calculate the value of the caravan to determine the amount of cover needed?

Get a good overview of what is available from the company and choose the best policy for you from there.

Ways to Save on Caravan Insurance:

The best way to save on caravan insurance is to shop around and get quotes from several insurance companies to compare. This process only takes a few extra minutes, but will provide you with a clear picture on the real needs you have and the costs out there.

Most insurance providers offer discounts for no claims for an extended amount of time. Also, premiums are often reduced for those who are over the age of 55, which can help you to get a much lower payment.

Beware Before Signing:

With all insurance policies, know what the policy covers and what it does not. Spend some time talking to several insurance companies to find the best rates available.

Additional Coverage to Consider:

With caravan insurance, there are various types of protection available to you to add to the policy. One of the most important areas to consider is not just getting additional types of cover but getting more of it. Contents are generally covered by the basic policy at about $1,000, but this may not be high enough. Also, think over what types of events are covered by your contents insurance.

In addition to this, you may want to consider Hire Car Cover, which will provide you with protection to pay hire car costs. This policy is generally an add-on to the original and basic policy.

Windscreen Option is an additional option which can be added on to your caravan insurance. If you have a windscreen or window glass incident, and that is the only area that has been damaged, the insurance policy will provide you with replacement costs or repairing costs.

Static Caravan Insurance Factors

November 13th, 2009 4 Comments   Posted in Caravan Insurance

Purchasing static caravan insurance can be complex. Most often, insurance providers have a slew of questions to ask of you to determine what the best rate for the insurance will be. If you look at it from the point of view of the insurance provider, they need to assess the risks associated with your vehicle. Anything you can do to reduce those risks will help to decrease your costs. Before you actually request a quote for static caravan insurance coverage, know how to answer the typical questions that insurers have.
Often, the first question and the primary factor in determining the cost of the insurance is the value of the caravan. The amount of coverage you obtain should be equal to, and not less, than the amount you owe to a lender or at least the value of the caravan itself. In this situation, if you were to lose the caravan completely, what would be the cost of replacing the vehicle? More so, if you need content coverage for the interior of the static caravan, insurance providers need to know the worth of the contents. The coverage amount is the largest factor in the cost of the insurance.
In addition to this, the risk of something happening to the vehicle is also important. Here, you want to do everything you can to reduce risk.
• Are there any security features on the static caravan? Security alarms, for example, would help to protect the caravan and therefore reduce the risk to the insurance provider.
• Where is the caravan? If you have the caravan in an area that has a particularly high crime rate, the risk is higher that something will happen to it. This raises the costs substantially. In addition, if the caravan is in an area where it is gated and monitored, this reduces the risks to the insurance provider.
• Has the static caravan been covered or modified in any way? Depending on the changes made, this may reduce or increase the costs.
As you can imagine, there are many things for a static caravan insurance check. It is an understanding that you need to be honest and upfront with your caravan provider to ensure that the caravan will have proper coverage in case there is a problem. The better protected it is, the better protected you are financially should something unplanned occur to the caravan.