Does Travel Insurance Cover Jewelry?

Travel insurance cover for jewelry is focused on one issue, and that’s theft or loss of a traveler’s jewelry. When it comes to jewelry there are some limitations that travelers need to understand.

Travel insurance coverage for jewelry is described in your travel insurance plan under baggage coverage, and coverage for lost or stolen items has a per-item limit as well as a payout maximum.

Claims for expensive items must also be accompanied by the original receipt to prove you owned the item.

Travel insurance coverage for jewelry works like this

Here’s a scenario: you pack your bags for a once-in-a-lifetime cruise and decide to hide your dinner rings, necklace, and your husband’s favorite watch in a pouch in one of the bags. After all, you’d like to be properly decked out for those dressy night-time affairs on the trip. Your bags arrive at your stateroom, but the little jewelry pouch you shoved deep in a shoe was pilfered from your bag somewhere in transit.

You’ve been robbed.

As you might expect, this is the reason that most experts in the travel industry recommend that travelers leave their expensive jewelry, electronics, and other important items at home instead of taking them on your trip. Unless you can be in constant contact with those items – as in, you’re wearing them – it’s hard to guarantee they won’t be stolen.

Your travel insurance plan has excellent baggage coverage: a high policy limit ($2,500) but you notice a per-item limit of $300 and a specific item limit of $600. Every single item you packed was well over that special item limit! This means the maximum you’re likely to get from your travel insurance is $600.

Other insurance options to protect your jewelry

A traveler doesn’t have to rely on the minimal coverage travel insurance offers for jewelry. In fact, there’s a much better option: cover your jewelry with a special articles rider on your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance plan instead.

You’ll get much better coverage – often up to replacement value – and you’ll be covered no matter what happens. If the hotel burns down and you escape leaving your jewelry behind, it will be covered. If you look over the railing of your cruise ship just as the clasp of your necklace fails and it falls into the ocean, you’ll be covered.

You may have a deductible with your special articles coverage with your homeowner’s or renter’s plan, but if you make a claim on your travel insurance (depending on the circumstances of your loss) you could also recover the deductible amount.