insurance excess

[Chris]

Hi,

Just to check what sort of insurance policies other schools have related to laptops. Teacher's laptop got stolen and I have just found out to claim the laptop back I have to pay excess of 750 pounds to the insurance company. Is there any point of this insurance as the only laptops in the school are with teachers and there are no trolleis or bulk storage of laptops in school.

[limbo]

When we looked at insurance it would cost the same as buying about half a dozen laptops every year. So we decided to take the risk figuring it was unlikely we would have that many stolen in one year - and for the last five years we have been right.

We do, however, ask staff to make sure they are covered under their home insurance (and generally they are as standard because they are under £1000 in value) and on at least one occasion staff have managed to reclaim the money for us this way (they generally have to pay an excess for other items that are stolen so it makes little difference to them).

Most staff would see this as a small price to pay for the benefit of have a laptop they can take home to use - we have the odd one who would probably fight it as in most schools which is why it is an informal understanding rather than a direct policy.

[Chris]

The sort of policy my school has taken out for the whole school, it will make no effect on the insurance premium even if we drop the insurance for the laptops out of it.

Bottom line is school has provided me a non workable insurance policy and every time anybody loses a laptop I have to provide a new one out of my budget.

[steveg]

Our pupils laptops which go home are insured individually, at a cost of 13% of the purchase price of the laptop for 3 years cover. This covers theft and accidental damage. The policy has an excess of £70 for screen damage, and around £40 for everything else.

Our staff laptops are not insured, we've never had one stolen, and it would work out cheaper for us to just replace any that were damaged or stolen.

Steve

[SimpleSi]

I beleive that most schools have a large excess on their insurance policies. (all mine do)

This has to be in order to get premiums to a reasonable amount.

Its not the schools fault or the insurance companies - its just economics.

regards

Simon

[steve]

Our LEA negotiated a special deal for laptop excess charges.

We only pay £50 excess on laptops now. Only valid though for accidental damage or theft. Where theft must have had forced entry - not from an unlocked classroom.

[enjay]

Exactly as SimpleSi says - the excess on our insurance policy means that it is cheaper to replace individual computers if they are stolen, but having the excess any lower would make the policy inaffordable. It's cheaper for us to pay the lower annual figure plus the occasional additional purchase or high excess than to have a policy with a low excess. I'm sure that's what the insurers want - it means we pay them for the insurance policy but never actually claim on it!

That said, it was invaluable when our Library got turned over, and we lost a laptop, projector, camera and DV camera. however when we had just one PC stolen recently we opted not to involve the insurers.

[kylewilliamson]

Generally, iirc correctly, equipment that belongs to an employeer is usually exculded from a home insurance contents policy..

[eean]

Our insurance is run by the LEA (we deal with the LEA when we want to claim). The excess is about £500 so it's useless for single purchases and it doesn't cover laptops and projectors unless there has been forced entry AND they are locked in a cupboard. They did pay out when we had 2 laptops and 2 projectors stolen - they wern't locked into a cupboard but they did have Kensington security locks on them.
Most of our laptops have been stolen where there's been no forced entry or from cars and there are very few insurers that are going to pay out for that.