Morning,
I know this topic was covered in the old forum but as that’s gone I’m starting it again.
It’s that time of year when I need to renew my P&P liability insurance and would like to shop around to see if I can get a better deal.
Anyone any suggestions on who to use? I am currently with Aviva via Ian W Wallace (Craft Insurance) Ltd. I’ve thankfully never had to make a claim and hope that continues. I know from last time I shopped around that some brokers won’t cover online sales just direct selling at markets, fairs and other events. Many won’t cover products sold to the USA.
Any help, suggestions or advise would be much appreciated.
I get mine through a-n.co.uk which is by far the cheapest anywhere and I feel like I get extra value as I get newsletters and the organisation actively campaigns on behalf of artists. However you need to be a practising visual artist to join, they have criteria that I just about met because my illustration has been published and I’ve recently taught art. I don’t know whether I’ll still be eligible next year, depends how things pan out with the jewellery but I think the guild of jewellery designers is another good option as they seem to have a very comprehensive package including insurance. To be honest I didn’t think I was good enough to get in there this year as not been doing metal work long enough
I probably won’t qualify this insurance with a-n.co.uk but it’s useful information for any other artists out there looking to renew their insurance. Thanks
Dee - you might want to give Direct Line a call and check that you are actually insured to make and sell cards. I say this because I wanted to combine the product and public liability insurance for my cards and cakes / cake decorations and Direct Line said they couldn’t insure me to make the cards as that was deemed to be a fire risk. They have greetings cards as an option for home business insurance, but that doesn’t cover making them. They assume that you will be buying in stock to sell on.
Also, do you sell at fairs or just online? If it’s the former, double check you’re covered as there is a teeny tiny box which I almost missed on the form about working away from home and this is for your Public Liability at fairs etc.
My direct line insurance is about £94 per year but is for the cake / cake decoration making (I don’t sell these on Folksy). Without the PLI element I think I was quoted about £60. Also, when I came to renew it, I could no longer pay interest free monthly installments, so opted to pay as one whole amount.
Thanks Carol, I’ll check up on that. Although how making cards from scratch can be more of a fire risk than buying in to sell on I don’t know (or are cards bought in fire-proofed in the factory?)
I agree it’s totally nonsensical especially in my case where I am using an oven (for my cakes) so I’d have thought that would be a bigger fire risk than card making!
I think it’s more to do with Direct Line not having a category for card makers. It’s a shame as I’d have liked to have sold some of my cards at the fairs where I sell cake decorations. I’ve taken a long break from selling my cards online (my shop is empty) while I concentrate on my ‘proper’ business.
