Insure You Have A Great Glasto
By Esther Shaw |
24 June 2008
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If you're one of the 175,000 revellers planning to don sunglasses, wellies and waterproofs and head to Glastonbury this weekend to see your favourite band perform al fresco, there's one extra thing you need to think about while you're packing -- insurance.
While leafing through policy documents is probably not on on the top of most festival-goer's priority lists, if you're heading off to any of the big outdoor gigs this summer, it's crucial that your personal possessions are properly protected.
After all, there's a good chance that your rucksack will be bulging with iPods, cameras, mobile phones -- and even a designer tent -- worth hundreds , if not thousands, of pounds. Festivals such as Glastonbury are attractive hunting grounds for thieves and pick-pockets.
Check your documents
As a first step, you need to check what cover you already have in place.
Take a few moments to read through your insurance policy and find out whether you are already covered on your home contents policy.
Bear in mind that standard home contents insurance usually provides cover only while in the home. So if your possessions are lost, damaged or stolen at a music festival, you are generally not covered unless you have made specific arrangements to insure them.
This is an oversight that far too many people make -- so make sure you and your fellow festival-goers are aware of this.
Get covered
If you don't have adequate home contents insurance cover, you need to take out personal possessions or personal belongings insurance on top of your standard contents insurance policy.
This optional extra will increase your annual premium, but shouldn't set you back too much, and is certainly a price worth paying for peace of mind.
"Any items that are lost at a festival -- say a mobile phone falling out of a jacket pocket -- would be covered under personal possession cover away from the home," says says Mike Pickard, head of risk and underwriting at Esure Home Insurance. "This is often up to a specified single limit."
Esure has a limit of £1,500 for non-specified items, and this is fairly typical figure among insurers.
This means that if you are planning to take valuable items worth more than this £1,500 limit -- such as cameras or laptops -- you would need to notify your insurer before these possessions will be covered when you take them outside of your home.
"For those festival-goers looking to take items such as mobile phones, digital cameras, MP3 players or portable DVD players with them, it is crucial to make sure they're adequately insured, and that steps are taken to protect personal belongings at all times," adds Pickard.
Lock up your tent
While this may sound obvious, it's vital that you understand the implications if valuables are stolen from a tent which is not well-secured.
If a tent doesn't have a lockable door, any items stolen or damaged probably won't be covered by the insurance. The key is to take every reasonable precaution to prevent loss or damage, as an insurer will generally not consider it "reasonable" to leave possessions in an unsecured tent.
Without wanting to put a dampener on your festival fun, it is important to check you're adequately insured and to be aware of any restrictions of provisos in the policy small print -- to avoid being left out of pocket when you head back home at the end of the weekend.
Guard your gear
There are also some simple steps you can take yourself to protect your belongings, and to mitigate the risk of having goods lost or stolen:
• Try to leave valuable items such as jewellery, Ipods and MP3 players at home and only bring essentials with you.
• Use older and less desirable equipment.
• Make use of the free 24-hour "Property lock-ups" which are prominent around the Glastonbury site.
• Even though camping fields are patrolled by campsite wardens and security teams, never leave valuable items unattended in an unsecured tent.
• Make sure you can recognise people in the tents around you, so you can easily identify anyone suspicious and try to keep an eye on each others' property.
• Mark all valuables, such as wallets and mobile phones, so that if they are lost and handed in they can be returned easily.
• Padlock your tent and baggage.
Managing your money
• Only take enough money for the duration of the three-day festival.
• Make use of the ATMs on site to withdraw money but withdraw smaller amounts on a regular basis so you are not carrying around large sums of cash
• Limit what is in your purse or wallet, and take only one bank card.
• Keep cash separate from your cards.
• Clear your wallet of old receipts and unnecessary loyalty or credit cards.
• Wear a cross-body bag to reduce the risk of it getting swiped.
• Stick together in groups, as you are less likely to be a target of mugging or theft.
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