Moving Insurance for your Maryland Move

Moving Insurance for your Maryland move may not be as straightforward as you think. Insurance is an inherently complicated issue, and for moving it can be even more complicated. If you are planning to move within Maryland or out of it in the near future, you should really look into your insurance options. You are likely to find that the default, minimum insurance coverage provided by your mover, as provided by law, is not very comforting at all. You could end up losing valuable cargo, and not getting compensated for it.

By law, movers are only required to provide basic liability. And by default, basic liability covers your cargo or a per pound basis. The standard rates are $.30 per pound for short moves and $.60 for long moves. This means that you will receive an amount of money equivalent to the rate per pound, multiplied by the weight of the stolen or missing object, so if the mover loses your sixty dollar, 5 pound game console, he will only have to pay you at most $3.00 for it. Not a good deal at all. Basic liability does have its upside though, in that it is the “default” package. If you are just having your mover move some worthless old furniture, basic liability coverage on a per pound basis may be the way to go.

If you plan to have your movers take care of moving a lot of your more expensive household appliances, or even some antiques, it is best to opt to declare the value of the items. That way, should the movers lose or damage an item, they will need to compensate you for the declared value of the item. This is better in terms of the money you can get should any unfortunate happenstance occur, however it can be problematic. Declared value needs to be mutually agreed upon by yourself and the movers. You may need to get a third party appraisal for some of your more controvertible items. Unless they are really expensive items though, an appraisal is a waste of time and money, and you may end up spending too much on just getting the appraisals.

For shipments with items of exceptional value, the best type of insurance is replacement value coverage. This type of coverage is not available from your friendly neighborhood mover, as federal law forbids it. You will need to obtain such coverage from a Maryland moving insurance company.

Replacement value coverage covers you based on replacement value rather than actual or appraised value. For example: You have a laptop computer which you bought for $1000 two years ago, you have put some “mileage” on it since then and can only get $500 for it If you sell it now. $500 is the actual value of the laptop, and the most you can get for it under basic liability coverage. However, a new laptop with the same or comparable specifications costs $850. Your replacement value is thus $850.

If you are moving high value items such as high-end electronics, expensive appliances or sports equipment, or even fine are and antiques. Replacement value coverage is definitely the way to go. You won’t have any trouble finding reliable and trustworthy Maryland insurance companies for your Maryland move.