Diary of a spendy cow

mooomin

Do I need mobile phone insurance??

I've got a shiny new HTC phone which costs around £500 to buy new (at the moment)

I did have insurance through Carphone Warehouse but felt that £15 a month was ridiculous. It worked out at £179.88 a year (!!) I looked at Insurance2Go from a link here and can get a year's cover for £47 or thereabouts which covers me for everything apart from loss. Is it money well spent do you think? Do any of you have insurance for your phones?

Mara_uk7

Check your home contents insurance, mine covers my phone.

beanielou

I would have it if my phone was that expensive to replace.
The 47 quid one would be ok?

EssexHebridean

Martin has an article on this, doesn't he? Your home contents will cover you, but payment out will be slower than if it was a specific phone policy. If I remember rightly his suggestion is that if you're a "loser or damager" then get the insurance - if not, then "self-insure" as the likelihood of needing to make a claim is that much lower, so stick aside x-amount each month into an account to cover towards at least the insurance excess.

I have an iPhone 4S and don't have insurance - I also have my old 3GS and if the worst happened would get that unlocked and switch back to that in the short term until the home insurance paid out for the 4S. I made a conscious decision to keep the old phone as I use that for music to avoid cluttering the other one up too much.

tomtombeanie

I agree with EssexH (and Martin!) - unless you are prone to phone accidents, don't bother with a policy. I have had my iPhone for a few years now with no insurance, I am careful-ish with it & it has lived to tell the tale of being dropped in the dog's water bowl & getting lost in the kitchen cupboard. Hope I haven't just jinxed myself for a terrible accident with it

mooomin

I had phone insurance on my current account (when I was staff and getting it half price) and the one time I tried to claim I had marinated my phone in a muddy puddle for half an hour before realising it was missing.

They were going to take my phone for up to two weeks to fix it, so for that it wasn't worth it.

I don't have a spare, and am swithering about the best thing to do. I am pretty careful with my phones, puddles notwithstanding. Maybe I'm better to save the cash!

EssexHebridean

You can bet your life that whichever route you take, you'll wish you'd chosen the other.....!

mooomin

EssexHebridean wrote: »

You can bet your life that whichever route you take, you'll wish you'd chosen the other.....!

I'm beginning to think it's a bit of a false economy tbh. I am in a good position in terms of what's in my ISA so if I did damage it terminally I could replace it and paying out £500 would teach me a valuable lesson

girlatplay

I know this is different but I don't have insurance for our 2 cats. I put a little aside each month into an account to cover anything. So far it has worked well (touch wood) so I would use that principle with the phone.

mooomin

I've decided no insurance for now. I'll review it but it feels like the right decision for me.

Only MSE thing today (apart from my packed lunch) is that I've closed a savings account I had forgotten about - £1.01 which will go in my Sealed Pot when I get home Better in my coffers than elsewhere