Newcomer / Intro How Does Insurance Work?

[kinnerc]

Folks:

The very first thing I ever read about Elite: Dangerous from any player when I first turned on the game was, "Don't fly what you can't rebuy!" It was a great phrase - and pithy! - especially coming from EVE: Online where the equiv. is, "Don't undock what you can't afford to lose."

I've seen a couple of posts lately that have had the phrase, "I was flying without rebuy..." and my brain sort of stopped right there.

How do you fly without rebuy? How do you fly with rebuy?

I guess I ask because, for me so far, it seems to have been automatic. I've lost a few ships so far, and always a screen has come back up saying, "OK, you can either get a new Sidewinder, or I can completely replace your ship for this fabulously reasonable amount of money!" And it always has been reasonable - maybe 30% of the original hull cost.

In getting a ship I've never seen a screen saying, "And would you also like to buy this amount of insurance?" Conversely, I've never had a ship destroyed and had a screen come up saying, "You never got rebuy, so replacing your little Eagle is going to now cost FIVE MILLON CREDITS!"

Do how does rebuy work? Is it something you have to get or is it automatic? If it's automatic, how (and why) do people fly without it?

THANKS!

 

[aRJay]

The Pilots Federation that we are all part of gets us our insurance automatically, in the event of the loss of the ship we just have to pay the insurance excess (rebuy) for that ship which is 5% of the cost of the ship and modules.
Usually people run without rebuy in the period just after buying a new ship and whilst upgrading it which is when the bank balance can get very low. Whilst in this situation loading up with expensive cargo can also take your remaining bank balance lower than the rebuy of your ship.

Apart from the start of the game in your first Sidewinder I suspect the next most common time to get caught by this is buying a Python where there is a tenfold jump in the price and therefore also of the rebuy.

 

[Lucius-Darcia]

There is no relation to real insurance models

For most players the amount is 5%
If i have a ship worth 100mil and i loose it, i need to pay 5 mil to get it fully back. But this works only, if i have 5 mil in my Pocket
Many people just throw away all their money and don't have this 5% shipvalue in cash left. So they loose their ship and without enough cash, there is only the new lend sidey left as option xD
That's the point where (mostly) they come to forum to make a whining post

 

[Wyaston Hypatia]

As someone to whom rebuy is irrelevant* I'll add a few things.
If you look at your RH side panel you will see in the bottom LH corner: Balance …… CR, Rebuy Cost …… CR.
If Balance > Rebuy Cost then you get the insurance rebuy.
If Balance < Rebuy Cost then you DON'T get the insurance rebuy.
So you if you haven't got the Credits, you don't get the option to buy back your ship at a fraction of it value.
There's a couple of things that you can look at here though. There's a chance if you nearly have the Credits that you can get a loan to cover the difference. You can also look at not having some of the expensive modules refitted onto your ship.
If these things still leave you short, then you are back to the starting Sidewinder in the Starting system. However you don't lose the credit balance you have, nor any other ships you have stored.

Also when outfitting it will tell you the rebuy cost before you buy a new module so you know if you have enough for a rebuy.

*Ironman - Reset save upon destruction - never worried about rebuys .

 

[kinnerc]

Guys:

Many thanks! This agrees with what I've seen so far, and you guys were actually able to give me a percentage figure, which was great.

Thanks!

 

[Winterwalker]

It's probably worth having 'a couple' of rebuys in the bank, just in case. (I'm not happy unless I have at least three).

Biggest problem is being in a hurry to get into that new ship, overdoing it in the outfitting store or struggling to fit your new ship into a money making career niche (eg. thinking you can kill everything in sight and then finding, you can't). Flying without insurance can get very expensive, really quickly so 1) good question and 2) good luck! o7

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Going to throw this in just in case you don't know already:

https://coriolis.edcd.io/

Click a ship in orange and tada you are in a ship build program. Takes a bit to get used to the interface and where all the information is but basically build your current ship or a future planned ship and see the stats. There's a whole box bottom right on cost and insurance cost.
It's also an amazing tool for working things like cargo capacity, jump range, power management etc of various builds before you pull the plug and actually build it. Finally it's great for sharing builds and getting advice.