AUTO INSURANCE ARTICLE

What Auto Insurance Insiders Say About Portable Devices Inside Your Car

By: coppeneur

Many assume, seasoned drivers included, that portable devices inside their cars are covered by their current policy. We have asked auto insurance insiders whether this general assumption is correct.

The answer is, portable devices are essentially not covered by your basic policy. With portable as the operative word. By portable, it means, you can take your gadget on and off from your car, or its cradle inside your car. Take the example of a GPS navigation unit which most drivers bring with them when they leave their car.

While portable equipments in your car are generally not covered, fixtures and permanent gadgets are. Gadgets that are fixed in your car generally refer to factory–installed and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) gadgets. That’s why it’s a different story for higher-end vehicle models with permanently installed GPS units at the dashboard. For these, your auto insurance may actually do cover it.

There are further exceptions of course. What your basic policy doesn’t cover can be had for a premium price. It might be worth checking your auto insurance policy – particularly the clause on “endorsements” - when you frequently use expensive electronic gadgets in your car. This endorsement is called “Coverage for excess sound reproducing equipment, audio, visual and data electronic equipment, and tapes, records, discs and other media”. The endorsement clause allows you to specify items you want coverage for, along with an increased coverage amount.

And yet, even if you are wiling to pay more for this endorsement, some auto insurance providers may not have it as an option. And probably, it is not an option for you as well to switch providers. Or not carrying these gadgets on board is not an option either.

If your policy does not have an endorsement clause, there is another way to protect your high-value electronics in the car. Coverage may be provided by your homeowner’s or renter’s policy under your personal property coverage. However, you should be aware that you need to exceed your homeowner’s policy deductible before you can even have a claim. So for example, if your deductible is $1,500 deductible or more, your lost $500 GPS unit is far way less than your deductible. Or to explain it in another way, you can only recover your $500 GPS if you also lost your $300 portable DVD player, and your $1000 laptop.

Another way then is to do some self-protection arrangements. If you’re carrying portable high value electronics in your car, keep them out of sight when not in use. Stash them away under the car seat, or place them in your trunk. Showing them in broad light for anyone to see is just courting disaster.

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