Camera insurance claim with FWD Singapore

I'm writing this to share my experience with insurance claims with FWD.

For my recent trip to Auckland, New Zealand, for the Urban Sketchers Symposium, I actually bought travel insurance from FWD.

I bought the Premium (which seriously should be called Basic) plan for SGD 34.80.

So during the trip, my camera malfunctioned. Bad luck. I only remembered I bought the travel insurance one week after I'm back in Singapore.

So I filed a claim with FWD for the damaged camera and I received SGD 50 back the next day. The reviews that I've been reading about FWD being fast at paying out claims are true.

My camera is a Panasonic GH5 which is already 7 years old.

According to the policy wording, they will calculate the depreciation for your items, and pay out according.

Phones will depreciate 24 months to $50.

Laptops, tablets, cameras and other electronic devices will depreciate 36 months to $50.

Other items depreciate 60 months to $50.

After some research, I found out that this FWD insurance coverage and payout is not very different from other companies such as NTUC, AIG, American Express (by CHUBB) and SingLife.

Even a secondhand GH5 has a street value of at least SGD 800 so to get $50 back is certainly disappointing. Anyway, I have already sent the camera in for repairs and the cost came up to $650. And since the insurance policy did not mention covering of repair cost, the repairs are not covered.

At the time I'm writing this, there does not seem to be any viable insurance coverage for cameras, laptops or high valued electronics. A basic laptop or camera isn't going to depreciate to $50 after 2-3 years.

Travel insurance right now work well for travel inconveniences, health or liability since those can be documented easily (pretty difficult to fake a broken arm). Travel insurance for electronic equipment or devices is inadequate and it's probably not worth buying travel insurance specifically for them.