Parcel insurance can be very important depending on what you are shipping and its value.  It can be very costly and confusing too.  Since it is not generally discussed, I thought it might be interesting to see what everyone else is doing about it.  Feel free to make comments.

UPS covers the first $100 dollars in value.  So does FedEx and most of the others.  USPS covers only what you pay extra for at the time of shipping.  Over these values you have to pay extra to the carrier or an insurance company.  There are several companies that cover this at a discounted rate even if you ship with UPS or any other carrer.

UPS, FedEx and USPS carrier information on insurance (or Declared Value) can be found at:

http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/shipping/time/service/value _added/declared_value.html

http://www.fedex.com/us/services/options/dvx/index.html

http://www.usps.com/all/insuranceandextraservices/welcome.ht m

And you can find alternate insurance companies by using Google or Yahoo! and search the key words "parcel insurance".