Are you planning a touring holiday with your caravan? Are you planning to go on holiday to your permanently sited caravan? If so, hopefully you’ll have a great time – but have you also thought about your holiday caravan insurance?

Holiday thoughts and caravan insurance

It probably has to be admitted that it’s more fun thinking about holidays than holiday caravan insurance!

To be fair though, insurance doesn’t exist to get you excited or keep you entertained. It exists to protect you and your family financially against some of the things in life that are less pleasant than holidays.

Caravan insurance may not exactly be a barrel of laughs as a subject but it may help save you from financial pain.

What is holiday caravan insurance?

If you have a caravan, it will typically come into one of several descriptive categories:

• something fixed that you live in permanently (this won’t be discussed further here);
• a tourer – something that’s towed, mobile and which typically you live in for short periods during a year when you’re on holiday;
• a motorhome – as per the above except it is an integral vehicle and not towed;
• a trailer tent – typically a trailer containing an erectable tent;
• a static home – something that stays on one site more or less permanently and which you use for several weeks each year for your holidays.

The bottom four categories are all associated with holidays and occasional recreational use. Specific holiday caravan insurance exists to provide cover for all these types.

What does the cover provide?

That depends upon the nature of your caravan. Clearly if you have a tourer, you may require significant cover for road traffic accidents. In the case of a static holiday caravan, such cover may be less important.

Caravan insurance in the UK provides a number of different protections that typically look to cover a caravan’s or caravan owner’s:

• structure and mechanics;
• contents – including fixtures and fittings;
• some external fittings such as awnings (though special conditions may apply);
• total theft (again, conditions may apply relating to security measures);
• third party liabilities.

It may be worth keeping sight of the fact that all insurance invariably carries its own conditions and exclusion clauses. These list any limitations in cover and any special terms that you need to comply with to keep valid your holiday caravan protection insurance.

Making sure that you’re familiar with these is typically a good idea and we pride ourselves on our ability to offer a jargon-buster service. If there is anything unclear in a policy document, we will gladly explain it in detail!

How to take this forward

If you’re concerned about your caravan insurance cover or simply looking for a quotation, we’re here to help. If you prefer to speak to someone as opposed to using out internet caravan insurance quotation service then we’d be very happy to receive your call.

Holiday caravan insurance can’t stop you running into troubles with your caravan but it may help make them less financially painful.

On the way to the office this morning I was merrily listening to Radio 4 when the presenter said that it is rumoured that the reason our airspace opened up last night was that WillieWalsh of BA authorised 24 planes to take off from long haul destinations and this action propmted a change of mind by the aviation authorities as the planes had to land somwhere – apparently the airlines have not been convinced there have been any saftey issues and this decision by BA goes some way to prove this.

Alternatively did BA technically risk the safety of these passengers – that is unlikely but as always where politicians are involved we may never know the answer.

My personal thought is well done BA – it now gives me a fighting chance to get out to Malaga on business next Tuesday for a course on Google analytics which both me and the business need!

I am off to Nottingham tomorrow for one of our regular reviews with our lead Insurer, IGI, and hopefully a good review and a great night out beckons us all!

Enjoy your day.

Richard

Insurance for caravans isn’t simply a nice to have. It may be a virtual necessity – unless you’re very wealthy of course! Most caravan owners may be many things but few are, in fact, fabulously rich.

Caravans – our investment

Most of us have had to work hard to find the finances to purchase and equip our caravan of whatever sort or however humble. Losing it or having it badly damaged without insurance could leave us facing not only heartache but also severe financial embarrassment.

In the case of some caravans (eg. motorhomes), some forms of insurance are required by law. Yet even if this weren’t the case for your particular type of caravan, would it make sense to try and economise by skimping on caravan insurance or trying to avoid it altogether?

Caravans – the risks

To put it bluntly, your caravan is vulnerable – that’s why insurance for caravans exists.

Although it may make slightly gloomy reading, a whole list of things could go wrong:

• it could be damaged in a storm or by another natural disaster;
• burglars may find your caravan to be a very appealing target – particularly if it’s parked on a site without security;
• if under tow, it may be damaged in a traffic accident;
• if you let out your caravan and someone has an accident on the premises, they may try and sue you for damages;
• some types of tourers are particularly attractive to thieves (which is why some insurers demand the fitting of hitchlocks and wheel clamps).

This list is only a taste of what may befall your prized caravan if your luck suddenly runs out.

Caravans – the costs

Once again, you probably don’t need to be told how expensive it can be to replace interior fittings and furnishings if a thief has stolen or a vandal destroyed them.

Repairing a caravan that has suffered structural damage due to natural disaster or road traffic accident may also prove to be very expensive.

Clearly, if you don’t have a policy providing insurance for caravans then you’ll typically need to have a very large bank balance to cover the cheques you may have to write to get your caravan back up and running!

Reducing your risks

If having good caravan insurance protection means your financial risks are lowered, then you may also be able to reduce the costs of that insurance by taking a few common sense precautions.

The use of hitchlocks has already been mentioned above. Some insurance providers also look favourably on things such as alarms, security locks on windows, immobilisers and membership of an approved caravanning association. These may all help reduce the price of your caravan cover.

All things considered, insurance for caravans may be something best seen as less of a luxury and more as a way of helping you drift off to sleep each night with a little more carefree ease!

Dear All

I hope you have all had an excellent week, as we are here on another Friday I have to ask where the year has gone so far. We have had a good week business wise and many of the Cover4 Team are out clubbing tonight (though not yours truly as I am long since past that)

Our visit to London was excellent and we have made some tweeks to our current policies and also agreed our new Park Home Scheme which goes live shortly. The guys there are great to work with as we pride ourselves on our insurance partners as this reflects on us as well. We also had lunch in London which is a rare thing and it was excellent, although I was far too full at the end!

A quiet weekend looks likely, spent with my loving family and I hope to take my son to the park as he seems to like it there and hopefully the weather will be nice for such a trip.

Happy touring

Mike

You may traditionally have bought your static caravan insurance from the owners of your site. No phoning round suppliers or trawling up and down the high street looking for a good deal. You may just have accepted the level of cover and the price on offer without getting any other static caravan insurance quote, just because it was an easy way of doing things.

Not forgetting, of course, that buying your static caravan insurance elsewhere may have resulted in you being asked to pay an administration fee by your site owners. In some cases, paying the fee may have outweighed the savings you’d made on getting your caravan cover elsewhere.

New ways of doing things

Now, however, things have changed. Being able to buy over the internet has typically resulted, not surprisingly, in a number of changes in the way people do things, with insurance providers more keen than ever to attract your business by aiming to offer competitively-priced static home insurance.

For a static caravan owner, this means that you can compare policies and quotes with a few simple clicks of the mouse – without needing to leave your own home.

It also means that you may be able to access good value static home cover that still works out cheaper than the cover offered by the site owner – even if they charge you a fee for buying your insurance independently.

Keeping prices down

Once you have obtained your static caravan insurance quote online, you may be surprised at how much insurance you can get for your money. You may be able to further reduce your premiums by taking a few simple security measures like installing an alarm in your static caravan or even by becoming a member of an approved owners’ association.

The sites of the specialist providers of caravan insurance will typically highlight further opportunities for savings at the time you’re looking for your static caravan insurance quote.

Locating your static caravan in an official site may also attract discounts and if you choose a site that has no history of flooding, you may see even further reductions in premium prices.

Contents cover

You can also opt to include contents cover in your static caravan insurance.

Remember though that some policies may typically not cover any items that you keep under your awning, as security for these structures cannot be guaranteed. So it may make sense to check the policy out and if in any doubt, it may be advisable to store your contents somewhere else.

While on the subject of awnings you may find that many policies will only cover storm damage to your awning if you are present at the time. So if you are going out and there is the risk of a storm, it may be highly advisable to stow your awning away.

When estimating the value of your contents for your static caravan insurance quote, it typically pays to be as accurate as possible. Too low and you may find yourself underinsured if a mishap happens. Too high and you may be over-paying for cover you don’t actually need.