You surely know how important it is to insure your home and car. But did it ever occur to you that storage insurance is as important for protecting the goods that you put away in storage? These days it is common for people to leave their larger mansions and move into smaller apartments. This means that more and more people are storing their valuables in storage facilities for safekeeping. But how safe are they? For 100% protection of our precious goods which you have stored away, there is no better alternative than storage insurance.
The good news is that most reputed storage companies offer insurance voluntarily as soon as a new customer books space in their storage facility. In the storage industry, 'short term' storage signifies a period of 1 to 2 months. Therefore, during this time, the storage company promises to protect your stored goods against natural calamities like storm, floods and so on. You could easily opt for short term storage insurance but then you have to remember to remove the goods from self storage, once the tenure is over.
The other way of looking at insurance during storage is to check with your existing home insurance company whether they can extend the coverage to stored goods as well. In case your current insurance company is agreeable to extend their coverage, then there is no point in buying extra insurance from the storage company.
In case you are buying storage insurance, you need to be very sure about the kind of coverage you are getting. For example would your goods be covered against disasters like fire, flood, hurricanes, etc? Remember if you are insuring goods worth $2000 and they promise you 40% coverage, any claim in the future could only give you $800! It is also a fact that the more you increase your coverage the more you pay out in terms of premium. Therefore, you need to strike a feasible balance between how much you are paying out every month against how much coverage you are expected to get when finalizing any insurance.
A good option in this area is to look for companies who offer coverage for Goods in Motion or GIM. This is a kind of insurance coverage valid for goods in transit. This is beneficial to you if the storage company agrees to transport the goods to the desired destination after the tenure of storage is over.
One of the redeeming features about storage insurance is that there are plenty of storage companies to choose from and you should not really have any problem in finding the right kind of insurance coverage that suits you and is affordable too. However do not forget to ask your existing home insurance company whether they can take the onus of the goods you have kept in storage and insure them as well. It is always better to deal with one insurance company than many insurance companies for your domestic goods.