Give the insurance company who currently insures your house or apartment to see what they will cover. Then you'll be able to determine if you want or need additional coverage. f

The time to select a moving company has arrived. You've met with several moving company representatives and have decided to go with one. You're on a tight budget and wonder do you really need a lot of coverage. There's no easy answer. Ask yourself if you could afford to replace everything in your house if it was lost?

You generally do need insurance when you are moving your furniture and goods to another state or locality. However, before you get too far, we suggest that you call your local insurance agent who handles your current homeowners or renters insurance policy. You might just be covered adequately.

If you are covered, get the details such as whether the policy covers loss and repair of damaged goods, the deductible, etc. After doing this you’ll be in a better position to determine whether you’ll want additional insurance coverage from the mover, your existing insurance company or an independent agent.

What is the basic insurance coverage offered by Interstate Moving Companies?
The basic insurance that an interstate moving company offers is not going to cover you adequately, especially if you have pretty good furnishings. This basic policy doesn’t cost you anything, but the coverage generally limits the liability of the mover to about $0.60 per pound. So if a piece of furniture weighing 15 pounds is damaged, you would only be paid $9 even though its value may be $90.

What Additional Insurance is available?
Most interstate movers, however, do offer additional insurance and we think you’ll need to take this. There are various forms of coverage, including declared value, lump sum value, and full value protection. Some movers will also offer separate liability insurance through a third party.

Before we discuss the different kinds of coverage, please remember that the information provided below is only for educational purposes. The prices quoted by interstate and local moving companies, insurance companies and third party agents may differ from the price quoted here. Also the insurance companies may have different policies altogether.

• Released Value- we talked about this in our $0.60 a pound example above. This coverage is based on the weight of the item and costs nothing. You must request it in writing on your bill of lading. Don’t worry about what a Bill of Lading is right now, we’ll cover it shortly.
• Declared Value- this coverage doesn’t rely on the weight of items, but instead the declared value. This is the cost less depreciation. So if your one year old washing machine was totally damaged, it wouldn’t be replaced with a new washing machine. Instead you’d receive an allowance in cash for a comparable washing machine less 1 year’s worth of depreciation.

If you say nothing about declared value coverage, your interstate mover will automatically give you this coverage. Your coverage will be based on your total number of pounds of your shipment times $1.25. So if your total shipment is 7,000 pounds, you’d be covered for $8,750. So if that washing machine with a depreciated value of $225 is ruined, you’d be paid $225 irrespective of how much it weighed.

By the way, your cost for the above coverage is about $7 per thousand dollars of coverage. So if your total shipment is 7,000 pounds, your cost would be about $49.

• Lump Sum Value- this coverage is an extension of declared value coverage. Lets say that you believe that your shipment is really worth $15,000 instead of $8,750. You’d take out an additional $6,250 in coverage ($15,000 less $8,750) and that would cost an additional $43.75 ($7.00 per thousand pounds multiplied by $6,250).
• Full Value Protection- this coverage covers the full cost of repair or replacement of damaged or lost goods. You don’t have to worry about how old the item it or depreciate with this type of coverage. Interstate movers set their own prices. Typically the price is about $8.50 per thousand dollars of coverage and the policies have deductibles. A policy with a $250 deductible will cost a lot less.

Before you take out the coverage, estimate what your belongings are really worth. Take into consideration not only the original cost, but also include delivery charges and how easily the items can be replaced. Also remember that any claims for damages or replacement will have to be substantiated by you so keep those receipts handy.

• Separate Liability Insurance- third party insurers generally offer full value protection. The cost of the coverage varies with the deductible that you are willing to accept. On our last local move, we took out $30,000 worth of coverage with no deductible and the cost was $147.

So far, we’ve discussed obtaining insurance from interstate movers. As you’d expect, things can be very different with local movers. Your local mover may offer full replacement coverage through a third party insurance carrier. Using the information that we provided above on the types of insurance coverage, make inquiries with your local mover.