MSE Article discussion: Mobile Phone Insurance

sadlybrokeboy

I'd also be interested in other suggestions - was about to click 'go' with insure and go - but this thread has made me think!

Now veering towards Orange's own insurance and seeing what my household insurance will now cover.....

JustW

I just phoned Insure and Go to ask about the difference of "theft" and "loss" on their gold and platinum policy's.

I was told that Loss is covered and force does not have to be used Eg. "If your walking home and your phone is in your pocket and then goes missing then its covered" (is what the girl on the phone said) force does not have to be used in a loss claim.

aaamusements

I recently cancelled my Carphone Warehouse "Geeksquad" insurance on my 9 month old Iphone 4S, nothing wrong with the insurance - just too expensive (and I never used the tech support, why would I when I have the internet to help me!).

I had decided to take out a policy with "Insurance2go" (NOT Insure & Go). Their top policy is only £64.99 for the year and the exclusions are few, and reasonable.

Unfortunately when I checked the policy summary today, I find that they will only cover phones when they are less than 6 months old at the time of taking out the policy.
:wall:

What now? I feel I really should have a policy on such a new phone, although I would be happy to self-insure, my ex had an unfortunate experience with a large phone bill after their mobile was stolen - and I really want something in place to cover that eventuality...
Help!

fizzy_lizzie

Shopping around as renewing my home insurance:-
Quote from Saga for home and contents. I asked re mobile phone cover. Can't believe this but they verify its true and there aren't any exclusions I or they can find in the documents:
iPhone 4S ....£3.22p for the year!!
This is for the phone as a specified item value £500 away from home and covers loss, theft and breakage!! doesn't mention use of phone if stolen so that may need to be looked into. But....!
Worth a try! I haven't
accepted the quote yet.
Anyone got any feedback re this??

aaamusements

fizzy_lizzie wrote: »

Shopping around as renewing my home insurance:-
Quote from Saga for home and contents. I asked re mobile phone cover. Can't believe this but they verify its true and there aren't any exclusions I or they can find inthe documents:
iPhone 4S ....£3.22p for the year!!
This is for the phone as a specified item value £500 away from home and covers loss, theft and breakage!! doesn't mention use of phone if stolen so that may need to be looked into. But....!
Worth a try!I haven't
accepted the quote yet.
Anyone got any feedback re this??

That sounds good, but the main reason I would have the insurance is to cover fraudulent use - so I haven't even bothered to investigate whether or not my phone might be covered on home insurance.

jerry55

I am looking at the T&Cs of various policies and as far as I can see almost all eventualities of "loss" are excluded under policy exclusions even where loss cover is offered at a supplementary premium. This is the case both with my current expensive 02 policy and the cheaper competitors. Am I correct?

JungleMartin

Regarding the theft/robbery question.

Insurers should not be claiming they provide cover against theft when they then, in the small print, say that it's only covered where force or violence was used or threatened. That's not theft, it's robbery.

To advertise theft cover is misleading.

I agree that the MSE article and recommendations should be reviewed in light of this, and this issue should be made a lot clearer.

Pete83

I've been looking into this in detail recently as my last Samsung Galaxy S2, which wasn't insured, was stolen/lost recently in circumstances which wouldn't have been covered by many policies. I've since replaced this out of my own pocket but have decided that insurance might be worthwhile IF it actually covers me for what's likely to happen.

As others have found, InsureAndGo really doesn't seem to be worth it at all. I couldn't believe that their Platinum and Black policies purport to cover "loss" and yet blatantly exclude all reasonable interpretations of the word "loss" in the policy document! I phoned them up and after a lot of toing and froing the girl on the phone pretty much confirmed that they'd only cover you if you lost the phone in your own house!

MyGadgetBuddy looks better but excludes phones bought from online auctions, as my replacement phone was.

I've gone with Insurance2Go for now, as they do at least cover pickpocketing, theft with the "threat of violence" - which would cover any muggings etc - and loss in a more reasonable set of circumstances. I appreciate people have taken issue with the policy saying that you have to be able to specify where and when you lost the phone, which seems counter-intuitive, but it seems to me there is absolutely no way they can ask you to prove the place and time, so that probably doesn't matter. I'm just waiting for clarification from them about the "age" of the phone, as to whether this means time from purchase or time from manufacture, as these can be significantly different (especially as I bought mine off eBay and it's refurbished), and also as to whether the IMEI needs to be specified on the proof of purchase (mine isn't).

The only other issue I've seen raised on here with Insurance2Go is that they didn't honour a claim which was initiated as a Theft claim but the police statement thingy recorded it as "lost". Although this is annoying, any insurance company would do the same thing, and this example just serves to underline how irritatingly painstaking you have to be about dotting the i's and crossing the t's when anything happens that might result in you having to make a claim...

It is definitely time for the article to be reviewed, I don't think there's any way that MSE should be recommending InsureAndGo given their policy wording and people's experience so far with them... Any chance any moderators can comment on this?

doveman

I just paid £69 for a brand new Huawei G300 and was offered 1yr insurance for theft and accidental damage for £19. I haven't examined the small print but these other insurance providers being discussed seem to have plenty of catches, so why are they so expensive in comparison?

Simonsays_2

They are £10 cheaper £59.99 inc loss than Insurance2go and are the same company???
It's a no brainer......... !!!!