Insuring Laptops

Margaret_Millne

My daughter is about to buy a laptop before going into her final year at uni.  She intends to use it for her dissertation, but also plans to travel abroad for a year afterwards, taking the machine with her.

She is veering towards buying a machine from PC World, where she can take out insurance with worldwide cover for around £320 for 3 years.  This covers machine failure, and accidental damage.

The advantage of this (if we bought it through our business) is that she would be provided with a loan machine if hers had to be repaired in the UK - a big help in her final year. Also, if she has problems whilst abroad, she can take it to any dealer authorised by the manufacturer to repair it, and claim the costs back through the insurance.

I guess my question is can she get a better deal by buying elsewhere and taking out separate insurance.  Does anyone know if this kind of worldwide insurance is available through the normal insurance chanels?

edit: Posting this in the insurance thread also as there may be more insurance minded people on there.

sans_2

I would check out your household contents insurance for additional cover. My husband has his laptop listed seperately but I'm sure the person I spoke to about the insurance said it was ok just to have it under the household contents.

It would be worthwhile phoning your current insurance company and asking.

tommo_5

I would be very wary of any insurance policy from the Dixons Group, I have had bad experiences, it took them 3 months to replace my laptop when it was damaged.

My advice would be to look at Student Insurer for example Endsleigh.
https://www.endsleigh.co.uk

Also when looking to buy a laptop look online, you will be suprised how much money you can save by shopping around, especially for computers and electrical goods. Apple offer discounts to students at http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukInd

Margaret_Millne

Thanks guys, will check these out.

jonathan_d_2

it depends what sort of insurance you want.

places like pc world offer warranties but at great expense and usually not very good t+c's.
if you buy an acer laptop you can get worldwide warranty from their own site for about £100

if you want theft and accidental damage cover try this:
http://www.insureandgo.com/computer-insurance.html

nic.stone

student-laptops.co.uk can supply accidental damage and theft insurance from £50 for one year (or £120 for three years), this includes collect and return of repaired or replaced laptop and covers for every kind of damage apart from theft when left visible in a car. They also sell new Toshiba Laptops from £499 all inclusive. It's a good deal.

Margaret_Millne

Thanks, we'll look into all your advice. At present she has decided to wait a while for a laptop, and gone for a pda instead. She mainly wants it for presentations, but will look again at a laptop later if need be.

Kev_3-2

I agree with the Endsleigh suggestion. They usually do the best deals for students and are approved by the NUS.

peter65_2

hello,

i'm at york sj john university, just going into my second year. if the reason (like mine was) that you're considering a laptop is that she'll be able to bring it home and work and stuff, i'd reccomend simply buying two desktop machines, which can actually work out a lot cheaper.

I decided to get a laptop, but in retrospect, think the 2 desktops solution would have been a lot better - the university has more than enough computers to do work on when on campus, and i can just save my work to a flash disk and take that back to my accomodation to work with.

Maybe other people will find they use them differently, but I know that my laptop has rarely left my room.

Margaret_Millne

Originally yes this was the idea, and your reasoning is exactly why she decided in the end not to go for a laptop.  In fact our business is related to computers anyway, and we are not short of desktops etc.  She shares a house with her brother when she is at home, and he has three computers there alone.

We pointed out that she could just save her work to disk, cdrom, or whatever, and carry that about with her.

Since she sometimes has difficulty remembering her mobile phone - or it won't fit in her pocket or whatever - so we were also pretty sure the laptop would remain in her room.

Thanks everyone for there input.

lellie

Have a look at her accomodation.. if she is in halls often insurance with endsleigh is included with the price.. I get insurance from manchester (and obviously it costs the uni a lot less to take out policies for all students than it does to buy them individually) and you get very good cover!