Insurance: Worth it or not?

Rev

Just got my new 6280 from o2 and am thinking of cancelling my insurance.

I've had it since taking out my contract and have claimed once when my first phone from them decided not to turn on one day. Filled the insurance form it three times and sent it off, called a few days after I'd sent each form only to have them say they'd not received it, or when I sent one recorded, they'd lost it.

I Had to use a friends fax machine to fax in the fourth one whilst I was on the phone to them to get them to admit they had it.

Soon as they had the form, paid my £25 excess and got the phone a few days later. So in total I paid £85 (excess, plus insurance I'd already paid) and waited a month for a phone that was going for £50 on ebay at the time.

Needless to say I wasn't impressed.

Now, two years later I've just changed my house insurance and the policy offers insurance for you mobile (insured against everything but water damage). Although they recommend keeping my existing mobile insurance.

So basically, although I'm sure it's been asked hundreds of times I'd just like some opinions on whether insurance is worth it or not.

Have you had bad experiences with insurance? Or good ones?

Any opinions greatly received.

Thanks

vansboy

I'd say if you do want fone insurance, think of getting a bank account with one of the premium accounts.

It'd mean a monthly fee, but would also include AA cover, plus other offers which MIGHT just make it worth having.

Lloyds TSB do a selection IIRC.

& don't forget, if you were to make a home insurance claim for the fone, it'd probably have an excess to pay, as well as upping next yers policy costs!!

VB

Alltheloginsaretakenappar

I don't bother with insurance any more. I get a new phone every 12 months, if I lose it I can use an old one or buy a cheap one until the next free one, or just take out another 12 month free deal. Also the point you've mentioned - 6 months down the line the phone won't be worth as much anyway.

The one time I did make an insurance claim, years ago, an error by one2one meant the insurers wouldn't pay out (insurers said I hadn't reported it lost to one2one, I had but one2one hadn't recorded it correctly - whatever that meant) and after 3 months one2one eventually admitted their error and sent me a phone but wouldn't refund the 3 months line rental I was unable to use. Since then I haven't bothered with insurance and don't really think it's worth it anyway unless you've paid for a very, very expensive phone

fiish

As a student, I aim to save money, so I usually just keep the insurance while it's free and then cancel it. I find it more worthwhile to take better care of my phone. That being said, I keep a spare (cheap old) handset handy all the time, which, should anything happen to my primary handset, can tide me over until it's time to upgrade

Also, I enjoy customising and modding my phones, and get them unlocked as soon as I buy them, which voids my warranty and excludes my phone from cover anyway, so insurance doesn't give me any benefit.

heat_3

Well i believe that if someone has got a mobile which is worth £60 or less and is paying £5 per month for insurnace, he/she will be betteroff putting the £5 in a saving acc e.g ISA.

He/she will earn the interest + saving at the end of the year. And if ever he/she lost his phone...well use the saving to buy a new phone.

the bottom line is that u must be someone who do take care of ur phone if not, got for a normal insurance.

heat

Rev

I'm getting the feeling people think phone insurance is pointless.
Thanks for the replies. I think I'll go ahead and cancel it.

Rev

vansboy wrote:

I'd say if you do want fone insurance, think of getting a bank account with one of the premium accounts.

It'd mean a monthly fee, but would also include AA cover, plus other offers which MIGHT just make it worth having.

Lloyds TSB do a selection IIRC.

& don't forget, if you were to make a home insurance claim for the fone, it'd probably have an excess to pay, as well as upping next yers policy costs!!

VB

Is TSB the only bank that offers this type of insurance?

vansboy

Guess there may be others, but I didn't take up their offer!!

VB

T8RSP

I think it is a good idea personally.

I use CUSC (https://www.cusc.co.uk) and they aren't bad. Luckily I haven't had to use them, so I can't say how good or bad they are at dealing with claims, but I have just had to renew my insurance, and as I haven't claimed, I have been given a 10% reduction.

You will have to pay £25 for a 2G phone and £50 for a 3G phone per claim, which I suppose is on the expensive side, but it does seem to be worth it if you were to lose it or have it stolen or broken etc.

It costs a maximum of £59.88, so it's not too bad either, as some can be £5.99 a month.

I value it for peace of mind, but it depends on whether or not you can afford to be without your phone and can afford to pay the bill that may be run up on it.

Rev

T8RSP wrote:

I think it is a good idea personally.

I use CUSC (https://www.cusc.co.uk) and they aren't bad. Luckily I haven't had to use them, so I can't say how good or bad they are at dealing with claims, but I have just had to renew my insurance, and as I haven't claimed, I have been given a 10% reduction.

You will have to pay £25 for a 2G phone and £50 for a 3G phone per claim, which I suppose is on the expensive side, but it does seem to be worth it if you were to lose it or have it stolen or broken etc.

It costs a maximum of £59.88, so it's not too bad either, as some can be £5.99 a month.

I value it for peace of mind, but it depends on whether or not you can afford to be without your phone and can afford to pay the bill that may be run up on it.

I pay £5 a month for o2 gold insurance which works out the same price as their cover for a 3G camera phone. Plus with o2 the excess is £25 no matter what phone you have. So I'd be paying exactly the same if I used them plus I'd have to pay a bigger excess if anything went wrong.

So not really a good deal for me. Thanks for posting though.

reehsetin

will never take phone insurance, pay at least £60 a year plus whatever claim charges, for that u can buy a phone to live with until your next upgrade,
lost a phone once in about 6 years, prob because i was a kid. if i had insurance it would have cost me at least £360 pounds in insurance over the 6 years, i could have easily replaced my phone with that, - ok the phone i have at the moment is a very high value phone, about £600+ value. but the insurance also goes up and the claim charges would be ridiculous. so even now dont think theres any point