Pages

Contact Us

Search This Blog

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

How much do YOU spend on shipping insurance??


Are you using ShipSaver's Shipsurance application on eBay to insure your eBay packages? If you aren't, you should be! I've been using them for well over a year, and I wouldn't change that for anything! They are great to work with. I've only ever had to file one claim, and it was so fast and easy. I'd like to take a minute to compare Shipsurance to the USPS insurance.

What Does It Cost?: This is the most obvious benefit. To insure a domestic package valued at $100, USPS charges $2.15*. To insure a priority international package valued at $100, USPS charges $3.35*. USPS doesn't even offer insurance for First Class International packages.

To insure a domestic package valued at $100, Shipsurance charges 79 cents! Yes! 79 cents! To insure an international package valued at $100, Shipsurance charges $1.00. And that's not only for priority international. They insure First Class International too!!

*The chart I pulled these numbers from doesn't have a date on it. Even if it's old information, the rates would only go up from there.

So that's reason enough to switch to Shipsurance. But there's more!

What Do They Cover?: USPS insurance covers the value of the package ONLY. So if you ship a $100 item to Oklahoma, and it's really heavy and shipping is an additional $27, USPS will reimburse you $100 if you file a claim. (And that's if they feel that it's a valid claim.) You'll have to refund your buyer their $100 purchase price and their $27 shipping charges, which means you are now out $27. Shipsurance will reiumburse the value of the package PLUS the cost of shipping. So in the same scenario, Shipsurance will reimburse you $127!

Where Do I Sign Up?: Follow these steps to sign up for Shipsaver. It's quick and easy and free (except the actual insurance that you choose to purchase - there are NO monthly or hidden fees!)
  • Go into My eBay
  • Click on the Applications tab
  • Click on "Apps Center" at the top right
  • Search for "Shipsaver"
  • Click on "Try It Free" and follow the rest of the sign up instructions from there. (Don't be deceived by the phrase "Try It Free". It's not a free trial. The application is totally free forever.)
How Do I Use It?: When you ship an item that you want to insure, follow these steps to add insurance to your package:
  • Go into My eBay
  • Hover over the Applications tab
  • Click on Shipsaver Insurance
  • Find your item
  • Click on the "Actions" drop-down menu next to the item and choose Add Insurance
  • Make sure the shipping method and date are correct (the Declare Amount field already includes the item cost + the shipping cost)
  • Check off whichever boxes you want to check off
  • Click on Add Insurance
One of my favorite features is that you can set your Shipsaver to automatically insure certain packages. For example, I have mine set to automatically insure all domestic and international packages that are over $40. You can change yours to any dollar amount, you can change it to all domestic, or all international, or whatever you want.

How Do I Do That?:
  • Go into My eBay
  • Hover over the Applications tab
  • Click on ShipSaver Insurance
  • Hover over Account
  • Click on Preferences
  • Scroll down to the section about Auto Purchase and fill in the requirements that you'd like to use
  • Click on Save Changes
Super easy! Never give shipping insurance another thought!

It is important to note that ShipSurance doesn't cover every country. Find their list of excluded countries here.

5 comments:

  1. This is a very informative post. I never realize insurance is not as expensive as what I thought it to be. Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you thank you! Perfect timing. Just shipped something to Australia.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Another grwat post. Thank you so much for sharing so many great tips.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I just used Auctiva's shipping insurance today for an international sale. Also very competitive and easy to use.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great info! I used to only ship Priority for int just because it was the only way to get insurance. I now do FC and it has greatly increased my business but I am always a little afraid to send a high value item that way. Now I won't worth. I'm going to link to this post on my blog on the morning I think this is something my readers would really benefit from. Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete