Laptop Insurance/Claim Discussion Area

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?

LabRat_3

Hi,

I am new to the discussion boards, so I apologise if this is covered somewhere else.

Can anyone recommend good, cheap laptop insurance cover. If I want to cover more than one piece of computer equipment, am I better to go for house contents insurance?

Any advice gratefullly received.

Thank you.

maclean2

Good value insurance for a laptop with worldwide cover is available from Compucover.A typical £700 laptop will cost £40.00 per year.For desktop etc try your contents insurance company.Some policies include wide cover for computers including accidental damage provided the equipment is not used outside your home.Even if the policy does not include this ask if you can pay a bit extra to cover it.Ask also about the laptop as they just might do you a cheaper deal on that.

Best of luck

aliasojo

We were in this situation last year. After looking around for a while, we found it was drastically cheaper to go through our house insurance.

The laptop was a specified extra, we had to quote value (£1,500 in this case) and got it covered for all eventualities in or out of the house. I can't remember exact cost at this time, but it was so cheap I had to go over everything with insurer again to make sure we were both talking about the same thing, lol.

Definately worth enquiring I would think.

Good luck, hope you never need to make use of it! (The insurance that is, lol.)

LabRat_3

Hi,

Thanks for your replies re the laptop insurance. I went with Compuinsure and it was exactly £40.

m4x_2

Hi,
Sorry Guys, but i tried a Google search for Compuinsure and had no luck.
Any contact no? web address?
I want to get my laptop insured coz apparantly they go wrong quite abit

maclean2

Hi - the actual firm is compucover as mentioned in the thread.They cover damage and theft etc but not breakdown/defects etc.Are you actually looking for a warranty or guarantee ?

m4x_2

I'm actually looking to cover my laptop for any accidental damage and theft.
Thanks

sarahlouise210

my laptop is covered under my home insurance with no extra cost. My mum also has a laptop that was damaged and she claimed just under £1000 for a new one from her house insurance with no trouble!

m4x_2

that sounds great, which company is the home insurance with, if u dnt mind me asking?

Thanks

zyckel

I had my laptop stolen from a Dollar hire car in Florida a couple of weeks ago. I thought it would have been covered by the rental company as we paid a fortune for Loss/Damage Waiver and Supplemental Liability insurances but after a week of long distance calls, they have denied liability as I didn't have Personal Protection Insurance - it wasn't offered and I didn't know about it.

The travel insurance company, Preferential, have refused to accept the claim as a laptop is classed as a business item and I didn't take out business insurance, just the regular hfamily cover.

The household insurance, Halifax, have also refused as the item wasn't in my home at the time and they don't cover loss whilst out of the home under accidental cover.

Looks like I'm £1,000 out of pocket. At this rate the £40 per annum from CompuCover sounds cheap if just three weeks too late. So the moral of the story is that if you're taking your laptop abroad then make sure you have insurance which specifically covers it. Don't assume!!