Mobile Insurance article discussion/feedback thread

jicms

What about www.betterbuyinsurance.co.uk ? Any major problems?

MsK_3

Do NOT, NOT, NOT take out insurance with this company (Protect Your bubble). I have the misfortune of working for them & they have so many clauses & rules, they pretty much never pay out. Even if they do, you only get a refurbished phone. Avoid!

jicms

Oh dear. OH already has insurance with them. Didn't realise they were Protect Your Bubble. No idea who to choose now.

Money_Man_Steve

AmEx do a policy called My Essentials for £9.99/month (or £7.99 - see below!) which is good if you have more than one or two items to cover. For this you get:

• Cover for all valuables up to three years old for the whole family - up to £1500 for each item
• Cover for loss, theft or accidential damage
• No excess to pay in the event of a claim
• Cover for jewellery, watches, glasses, MP3 players, cameras, camcorders, binoculars, GPS units, handbags, briefcases (and even hairdryers) is included
• Up to 90-days cover per year outside of the UK
• £2000 cover for unauthorised usage of a mobile phone
• Key and luggage tags
• Assistance from a locksmith if you are locked out of your home or car

You can also add loss/theft protection for credit/debit cards for an extra £3/month.

You have to pre-register any valuables over £250 with them, but that's no big deal - you can do it over the phone on a freephone number (make, model, serial number/IMEI, purchase price/value and date of purchase required).

I recently got a sales call from them and agreed to take out a policy. They gave me the first month free, and on first impressions it looks pretty good. It's only for AmEx cardholders, but the same provider appears to do a cheaper policy for non-Amex holders called Safe2Go, which is £7.99/month (this was recommended to me by AmEx My Essentials for a friend who doesn't have an AmEx). With Safe2Go there appears to be key or luggage tags, no locksmith cover and valuables over £150 must be registered. They appear to get most of their business selling add-on policies to bank accounts and credit/store cards so they don't advertise. You can however take out a policy direct with the 1st month free and then check the T&Cs to make sure they suit you.

More info at Amex My Essentials.

Safe2Go can be contacted on 0800 917 7680 (press the hash key to get through the prompts!)

Raith2win

Darkangel wrote: »

Hello all.

I'm looking into iphone insurance and wondered if anyone had an opinion on

It's £5.99 a month and the excess looks reasonable....?

This was my review for Bubble after I lost my phone - EVENTUALLY got a brand new phone, only after many calls & complaints - AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

"Protect your bubble is a fiasco! What a complete shower of ***** for a company. The only good thing about them is the price for cover, but as they say you get what you pay for. The customer service is terrible! Without a shadow of a doubt the worst customer service experience I have ever had. I lost my HTC Desire so followed all the correct protocols, I cancelled my number, called the police, received my crime ref no and called bubble on the Monday (closed a Sunday), after 35 minutes on an 0845 number managed to successfully file my claim, this is when the issues started. Process - Put in your claim, send proof of purchase for the phone, I did this and waited a week before I called them (I was assured they would call me when they received this), Once I called I was informed they had received it but needed to do a police check, I asked why this hadn't been done "Sorry it's not been done yet sir, I'll do it just now" So this was my first time chasing up the process.

The police check was done, so now it was time to put my name forward for the conference call between my network provider and bubble, I was told two days maximum before a call was received, I waited over a week! AGAIN I had to chase this up, so again I called and asked why haven't you called "It's busy, your details have been passed, ill TRY find out when the manager will call you" TRY?! How about just finding out! In between I had sent various emails to them with no results, they would quickly reply to the first asking to confirm some details, then nothing for days! The next time I called up I was informed that the guy handling the original emails must not be working on that department today - Are you kidding me?! They don't have an inbox for this department? Unreal.

So I got my conference call and it went smoothly, I was told I would be called back within the half hour to ask what phone I wanted, I waited patiently and no call so 20 minutes after waiting I sent another email, same thing, confirm some details, then here is the phone I would like please order it tonight, (No reply). I called up again after sending more emails to them, asking where we were at with this phone, I got a reply of it will be ordered. I asked when will it be done? No reply. So I called up and was told that it had been ordered, it will be sent to bubble HQ and then it will be sent to myself. They claim after a successful claim they will provide a replacement phone within 48 hours, according to the terms and conditions - LIES.

This was last Thursday - its now Tuesday, I will be lucky to receive it within a week. I am extremely dissatisfied with this company and I will be logging a complaint and asking for a refund for my years cover - after all they have broken terms and conditions by not replacing my phone within the 48 hour agreed contract. My advice - Take out the insurance with your network provider and avoid Bubble at all costs, they are a shambles of a company"

Once I put this review up on a site, someone from bubble request that it be taken down! HAHA!!!!!! They really are this bad guys DO NOT INSURE with them

jicms

Have to be an Amex card holder. Perhaps it's worth applying. Need to research which card's best.
First Direct only cover phones up to £300 with their fee paying account which is pretty hopeless.

tbash

Hello All.

Wow so many options, my iPhone 4 was stolen in august and I did not have insurance [I let my home contents insurance lapse cos at the time I felt I didnt see the value then - silly me] I am a tenant. So buying myself a new iphone but this time am looking to insuring it.

To me it seems that there are 2 options: Amex MyEssentials and the Home contents insurance [if u dont mind affecting your no claims and premiums going up].
Are these the best options?

Home insurance has like 50GBP excess and Amex Myessentials option has no excess at all and also covers personal possessions and your laptop for 10GBP a month.
Most bank accounts have an excess of 75 or 100GBP which is a bit much in my mind and ups the total cost of the insurance even though they tend to be btw 6.50GBP and 12GBP.

Am I missing something here or is my summary accurate do you think.

kevhickeyuk

ok, I have a new iphone 4s and reading this thread and other reviews has given me lots of info on companys to avoid. I am not a homeowner, so no household insurance, I am with santander which means i can upgrade my account to get phone insurance (and a load of other benefits i donts really need) but it will cost me £20 per month. I don't want to go through the hassle of completely changing banks just for phone insurance.

So with all that in mind can anyone recommend an insurance company, that they know won't try to shaft you with the small print when you want to make a genuine claim?

Ta

RJharrow

Definitely avoid fonesure at all costs.....

Monkeeboy

Hi

I am also looking for advice. I have just bought Iphone 4 for my son on Tescomobile contract. he is under 16 and as such some insurance companies will not cover the phone. tescomobile is £12 pm which seems very expensive.

Does anyone have any advice on which insurers might cover at a reasonable cost?

thanks