PlasmaThis is a tricky question. Most renter and homeowners’ insurance plans offer some measure of coverage for items in your home that may be damaged or stolen but this may not always be the case. Depending on the nature and specifics of your claim and the type of insurance plan you have, you may or may not be able to get coverage for your expensive plasma screen TV. Here are some considerations to take into account when trying to understand whether your renters insurance will be covering damage or loss to your expensive television.

Floods and Earthquakes

Because floods can affect hundreds, if not thousands, of dwellings at a time it is typically not financially viable for renters or homeowners’ insurance to cover flood damage. This could be a problem if the damage to your plasma television came as the result of a flood. Perhaps you have a basement apartment or rec room in your basement that flooded out for whatever reason and it killed your plasma screen. Well, you’d be on your own. You’ll need separate flood insurance for coverage if this happens. Same goes for earthquakes. If you live in an earthquake-prone region and one trashes your TV, then you won’t be getting much coverage for it I’m afraid.

Value Cap

Depending on the type of plan you purchased, you’ll probably have a cap as to how much of the value your insurance will cover. If your damaged plasma was expensive enough, then you might not be able to get full coverage for the device.

Value Depreciation

In many cases, even if your renter’s insurance will cover the supposed “full value” of your plasma screen, they will calculate that based on the purchase price you paid for the device and the amount it has depreciated in value since you purchased it. Since electronic items tend to depreciate in value rather rapidly, this can still leave you significantly behind where you were when you first bought the TV.

Moving

Renters and homeowners’ insurance will invariable only cover items that were lost or damaged in your house. If you had damage occur to your TV while you were moving then you would probably get little or no coverage for your loss. Why? Because it wasn’t in your house at the time of the accident. These types of insurance can offer great comfort to us when it comes to our homes, but the moment we step outside, the coverage offered typically goes out the window as well.

So What Can You Do?

With all of the caveats that are associated with renters and homeowners insurance when it comes to being covered for expensive devices like a large, high-definition plasma screen television, I typically recommend people who own devices that it might be cost prohibitive to replace, to invest in something like Protect Your Bubble TV insurance. Knowing that you can get full coverage for your expensive devices regardless of their value and how and where the accident occurred can be a great peace of mind I have discovered.

 

Guest Author Laura Ginn is a professional writer and blogger. Laura regularly blogs about technology-related issues and has seen many devices (of her own and others) befall tragic accidents so she’s no stranger to what can and can’t be covered when these things happen!

By Techwacky

Editor-in-Chef of TechWacky.com