Royal Mail’s insurance: why you should think twice before subscribing

Secursus

When sending a valuable package by the post, it is important to make sure it is properly insured in case of loss or damage. But just like with many other carriers, Royal Mail’s insurance has many limitations.

Indeed, Royal Mail is among the most popular carriers in the UK: they ship internationally and are known to be one of the most reliable carriers when it comes to delivering your packages safely. When shipping a parcel with them, you have the option to use Royal Mail’s Special Delivery Guaranteed with the Enhanced Compensation to cover your more valuable parcels.

However, many carriers do not offer an insurance for high value parcels: usually limited to items worth a couple thousand euros maximum, their insurance also has high prices, a large list of exclusions, and often lacks in transparency. Exactly why Secursus was created.

Why should you use Secursus rather than Royal Mail’s insurance to insure your high-value shipments?

Let’s compare the services !

Terms and conditions

First of all, to insure an item with Royal Mail, you have to use their Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9am service and pick the Enhanced Compensation option. This seems to be a rather straightforward process.

However, going through the terms and conditions, it is hard to understand what the specific requirements are regarding the labelling, wrapping and packaging of your items. Are you allowed to post your item in a simple envelope or should it be put in a rigid box? Can you put your company’s name or should the package be as anonymous as possible? Are you allowed to send it to a parcel shop? All of these important requirements are not specified and are only available on request.

Without any detail on what you are or aren’t allowed to do, you are more likely to fall under their exclusion clauses, thus this will be easier for them to decline your request for compensation.

What does Royal Mail’s insurance cover?

Second of all, after going through their different offers we can quickly discover that many items are not included in the insurance’s coverage. And that the maximum value of an insured package is only up to £2500 – (or £2000 with the Guaranteed Saturday delivery). With a higher valued item, in case of a loss or damage of your package, you will not be covered. Many goods such as jewelry, watches, or art pieces are therefore not covered by their insurance.

Moreover, your packages should not be heavier than 2 kilograms or bigger than 61cm long, 46cm wide, and 46cm deep. Which greatly limits the type of package you are allowed to insure.

How much does it cost?

Last but not least, the price is maybe the biggest issue in Royal Mail’s insurance service.

Even if your package checks all the requirements, the insurance prices are almost twice as expensive as Secursus. Working with a grid system, the insurance price depends on two things: the value of your package, and its weight.

For instance, a package worth £1000 and weighing 100g will cost you £21.59 to insure, but £30.60 if it weighs 2 kilos. And if your package is valued at £1500, you will have to pick the £2500 compensation because there is no option to choose a price matching the value of your item.

With Secursus, the price only depends on the value of your item and is easy to evaluate. Whatever its size or weight, it will cost 1% of the item’s value. For an item worth £2500, you would pay £15, as opposed to up to £34.27 with Royal Mail. This is more than twice our price!

Compensation

With Secursus, if your package is lost or damaged, we will refund you within maximum 30 days. And as long as you followed our simple packaging and labelling requirements and can provide an invoice or a certificate of value, your item will be fully reimbursed.

To know more about how to insure your parcels with Secursus, click here!