Mobile Phone Insurance

RevTheory

What it is, im looking for cheap insurance for my mobile phone, and that best place to ask is there,

so what is out there then?

Oscar_The_Grouch

Hi there

There have been so many posts about this, that I'm surprised you haven't been jomped on with the "Go use the search facility" response. Perhaps everyone is out voting.

What is the value of your mobile phone? If it's an iPhone, you can be looking at £400 - £600 to replace (including accessories). Using O2 as an example, insurance starts from £6 per month, but that goes up to £10 for the iPhone. If you have a 24 month contract with O2 for your phone, you will be paying £240 for insuring your iPhone. The policy has an excess of £25, so if you make a claim, you are looking at £240 + £25 = £265 over the 2 years of your pay monthly phone contract.

So is there an alternative? OH MY GOODNESS!! YES THERE IS!!!!

DON'T TAKE OUT SPECIFIC MOBILE PHONE INSURANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Contents insurance comes with an optional extra cover. It's known by many names, but if you speak to your insurers and ask for "personal possessions" or "away from home" cover, they will understand what you mean. We'll call it Personal Possessions or "PP" for now, just because PP is easier to type!

PP covers much more than just your phone. It covers pretty much everything you would wear or carry in everyday life. Cover ranges from £3,000 per claim (usually with a limit of £1,000 per item) to £10,000. The higher the limit the more you pay, but you can get ANNUAL cover for about £60 on average.

PP usually has an excess of £50. In most cases, you can increase your general contents excess to £100 or more and not affect the PP excess, but you need to check the specific terms of your policy.

So let's use the iPhone exampe again. For the specific phone insurance, you paid out £265 for the cover and one claim. Over the same period with your Contents insurance, you would pay (£60 per year insurance and £50 excess; £60+£60+£50) £170, so you are already £95 better off. The thing is that if you lose your iPhone, what are the chances of it being the ONLY item you lose?

So you are going to Yorkshire on a long weekend break. You pack the bags, put them in the car and head off. 5 miles down the road, you realise you left the bag with the valuables on the roof of the car when you set off. In there was £1,500 of jewellery because you didn't want to leave it in the house when you were away, your phone, your spare cash, camera and other bits. Thanks to your PP cover, you can claim for everything (it covers accidental loss). With your more expensive phone insurance, all you get is a nice, shiny phone.

My personal opinion of the service received from mobile phone insurance providers is not something I would want to repeat on this forum. I'm happy to call a spade a spade, but there are limits!!

I hope this helps.