I almost always self-insure as it saves money in the long run, but for some of my expensive packages that I’m shipping I’d like to insure with third party insurance. Any experiences with or recommendations of third party insurance?
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I don’t use it, I’d rather not put a target on my package
I think one of the main selling points of third party insurance for those shipping high value items (along with cheaper rates) is that there is nothing on the label that says it’s insured. You just fill out the info online about your package and then pay to insure it.
The fact that the item I’m shipping internationally has the customs form with value right on the front makes me want to insure it. If it was domestic I would just self insure because there is nothing on the package that says the value of the contents. I definitely see why people underdeclare on the customs form when sending high value items internationally (I know it’s illegal). In addition to saving the buyer money in fees, that high declared value on the package definitely puts a target on it.
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Just put 15bucks on the customs label then nobody is the wiser.
I see it this way. If insurance was worth it, they wouldn’t offer it to you lol.
yea of course, I brought this up in another thread and got flamed. Insurance is obviously -EV for you or the insurance companies would very quickly go out of business. They measure tail risk and sell it to you for a premium, and they do it because it makes a profit (and their margins are very good).
I sell my friend insurance on his snowboard being stolen (1/100th of the value any time we go inside to eat) every time we’re at the mountain. I think he’s spent 3 snowboards worth on insurance and I can’t convince him to stop buying it :-p, but it makes him feel better because one time in his entire life he had a snowboard stolen. Some people will pay a premium for peace of mind I guess, but it’s definitley not the best financial decision unless you literally CANNOT afford to replace it (house / etc.)
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Well put and I agree with everything you said.
Another example, for our two cars we pay about 2200.00 avg a year. It used to be higher but mines gone down with age. My last claim was in the 1970s lol. I’d like to have that 100k back,
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@garyis2000 @primordialaa yeah, I guess you’re probably right for this circumstance. The only thing that’s making me a little hesitant for putting a low value is the fact that the item is 1) decently large size (graded video game, about 3 pound total package weight) and 2) it’s shipped with such an expensive and fast shipping service.
Just from an outside looking in perspective, if I was the customs agent, it wouldn’t make much sense and would seem very unlikely that the value of the item was so low but I literally have no idea how closely customs looks into things. I guess they probably don’t look into it as closely as people think
Also, fedex international ground is $42 to ship w signature (7 day estimated shipping time) and priority is $162 (no estimated shipping time). Usps international priority express is $62 w signature (3-5 day shipping estimate). Any experience with either service? Was going to save the $100 and go USPS priority express over fedex priority and assumed it’d be a little slower than fedex but I think in the past I’ve read on here that people prefer fedex for some reason.
On many occasions this year I have bought internationally (Mainly US to UK) with the cost of shipping often 3x more than the declared value, never had any issues.
In terms of USPS or FedEx, I have had a couple of issues in the past using USPS Express priority, and definitely won’t use them again for anything high value. Never had any issues with FedEx priority, in fact just ordered a card from America on Saturday, and arrived in the UK today, taking into account the time of year and covid issues, I thought that was very impressive.
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I went with fedex international priority. $150 and estimated arrival is tomorrow afternoon and latest Thursday by 130 pm.
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@primordialaa, that snowboard story is hilarious. Life is all basically weighing risk VS reward.
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