What does Hugh Wood require as far as receipts are concerned? Does email receipts from Paypal enough? If you have a fire and the collection is destroyed it would burn up the receipts as well.
My annual premium is around .5%. But keep in mind there are different levels depending on how much you need covered, and if you want coverage in vehicles, etc. Anything less than 1% is awesome, really!
I have never gone through the claim process, so I do not know this. But another member (TomB) did state they are not needed. Not sure if he meant at the front of the process (calculating coverage), or if he has knowledge of the claim process.
A couple people wrote this in the in their posts (below) so It looks like they will require some sort of proof, but will may be my Paypal email receipt will be enough? "They ask how much coverage you want and they provide it. However, should you ever need to file a claim, THEN they will demand proof of ownership in the form of receipts showing what each coin was, when you bought it and how much you paid for it. That's when you provide your proof of ownership, but not until then. And should a coin increase in value and become worth more than you paid for it, then they will either ask you to provide evidence that is worth more or they will check themselves. "
The various rates are determined by where you store your collection (all in a safe deposit box, all at home, mixed between home and a safe deposit box), if you have a security system at home, the age of your home and/or bank, if you want coverage while you bring coins to shows or to other places as "show and tell", etc...
I guess the rate 'mixed between home and a safe deposit box' would be about 0.5%? I am definitely getting a safe deposit box.
I have never seen a post from anyone that had to deal with a claim. I'm thinking an invoice would be a must.
Thanks GD I think I will. I sent them an email earlier but they didn't reply so I'll call them. The quality of the documentation is a big worry and probably one of the most important aspects of the process. I have email receipts from ebay and dealers but will that be good enough or will I need to show more. And if there's a fire and the coins happen to be here it would burn up both paper receipts and the coins/currencies. I'll talk with them but I just bring this up so others are aware of the situation.
Post back here when you find out, I know I'm curious. Also, why would a home fire affect you ability to get receipts from Paypal, eBay, and from your email account(s) for these services? Wouldn't you just print them again, or just forward the electronic recipes to HW assuming you had a claim? You should also be backing up your PC(s) offsite, so you could also print every receipt as a PDF and store it in a folder that is backed up offsite in case of fire, or theft of your PC or whatever bad happens. If you don't already use Mozy, or Carbonite, or DropBox, or SkyDrive, or Cubby, or SugarSync, or SpiderOak, you should be using at least one! I use both DropBox and pay for Cubby, and have used Mozy for many years in the past. They are all great, and if your paranoid, I highly recommend SpiderOak. p.s. here are some links: https://spideroak.com/ https://www.sugarsync.com/ https://www.cubby.com/ http://mozy.com/ http://www.carbonite.com/ https://www.dropbox.com/ https://skydrive.live.com/
I back up my PC, too, but would never use an internet based company to do the work remotely. Simply buy a portable hard drive or two, back up the contents and keep one or two of these portable hard drives in one or two safe deposit boxes.
That's where SpiderOak would come in handy, client-side encryption http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpiderOak Also, the way I use and recommend Cubby is "directSync", meaning every file I have resides on multiple PC's, and only uses the internet as a encrypted pipe between my remote PC's. (I dont store anything in the cloud). This is certainly less secure than client side encryption, like SpiderOak, but I balance security with convenience with redundant disasters recovery. (not to mention most of my PC's are also RAID). Plus, anyone could encrypt BEFORE syncing and backing up in the cloud, so even if your cloud storage was breached your files would be safe from prying eyes. There is a backup service for any situation and they all offer slightly different services, the goal is to find the correct service for YOU. In this case, if recovering from a fire is of primary concern, ANY of the services I mentioned above would be excellent. But if doing it old school, (like hauling tape off-site) is your thing, that would work great too. But have you ever had to FIND and recover info from tape? Not fun...
I hope this isn't a problem if I post this info, but some members were asking about exclusions, so here is more specific info (you could find out the same by getting a quote): THE MAJOR EXCLUSIONS TO ALL Hugh Wood Inc. American Numismatic Association POLICIES: War and military action, nuclear hazard or radiation and governmental action. Illegal Acts Wear and tear, gradual deterioration, rust, fungi, mold, corrosion, dry or wet rot, warping, insects or vermin, inherent vice, latent defect and mechanical breakdown. Deterioration or damage whilst repairing restoring retouching or being worked on. Intentional acts (i.e. an act whose consequences could have been reasonably been foreseen) by you, a family member living in your household or a person directed by you or your family. Misappropriation by your spouse or another family member living in your household. Earth movement, unattended vehicles, abandonment.
The exclusions listed above are fairly industry standard. Another exclusion is the unattended vehicle exclusion that states that if you leave your coins in the car and then go in for dinner or anything else and the coins are stolen that the insurance will not provide relief. Again, this is industry standard, but sometimes surprises folk.
Based on this thread, I just went though my records to determine just how many receipts I have, assuming they would be needed for a claim in the future. Here is what I found: 128 coins have electronic receipts only (paypal) 7 coins were purchased at coins shows, with PAPER receipt 30 coins were GIFTS = NO receipt of any kind 27 coins are from my childhood collection (1980's) = NO receipt of any kind 27 coins were purchased at coin shows = NO receipt of any kind 14 coins were purchased from co-workers as junk silver = NO receipt of any kind 7 coins were FOUND = NO receipt of any kind So, what the heck does a person do when filing a claim when there was never a receipt in the first place? 40% of my collection has no paper trail. I do have photos of everything, but Doug has said pictures are basically useless to insurance companies.
You wring your hands and cry woe is me, how could I have been so foolish as to not ask for a receipt when I bought that coin ! On a serious note, call them and ask about that specific question. Several reasons for that, pictures can be taken (stolen) from literally anywhere on the net, so how can your possession of a picture prove that you owned a given coin ? Also, pictures are easily altered and edited, and even if not edited/altered they rarely if ever show all of the tiny details on any given coin. So no coin can ever be positively identified by a picture. Now if you had PCGS do one of their high tech laser scans, that would probably suffice. But that is not a picture in the standard sense of the word.
I sent a nicely worded email a few hours ago, I'll let everyone know what they say. another member mentioned they had a call in as well.
Not sure if ephyfe heard back yet, but I got my answer within a few hours. First let me say, I have sent probably 10 emails to Hugh Wood in the last 13 months, and their customer service is always awesome. I told them I was asking in order to share info with ANA members considering HWI for insurance, so I am fairly certain they would be fine with me sharing this written response: So, really they are wanting a layered approach, so that ownership can be demonstrated in multiple ways if possible. Hope this info helps! Personally, I have a continuously updated electronic Inventory, receipts for ~60% of my collection, pictures of 100% of my collection, and no video of any kind.
I have only ever purchased twice from coin shows, one time the receipt was just standard operating procedure, and for a much smaller show it was not offered. If I make purchases at coin shows in the future, I will certainly ask for a receipt. I think many collectors have coins that were given to them as gifts, and in most cases, I would think printed receipts would not be possible for these items. Another reason to go with HWI over say a Homeowners inland marine policy, as per my previous post, I believe gift coins would be covered assuming your entire collection was not without an inventory or any receipts.
