Mobile Insurance article discussion/feedback thread

HappySad

http://www.talkcover.co.uk/apple/iphone3g/insurance.asp

I am looking for them to insure my iphone.

Are they any good? Has anyone claimed from them? What did you claim for and were they OK or not??? Are they easy to deal with with sorting out your problem efficiently and quickly?


Went into Carphonewarehouse and they claimed that these sort of companies are no good and they when you come to claim they don't pay up and many customers have problems with these sort of companies. Their insurance is just £6 a month compared to CarphoneWareHouse £11 a month.

HappySad

I insured my phone with FoneSafe someting via T-mobile. They were good. I gave them the names of all my family members and they put them on the policy.

My son put the phone in his mouse and the water caused the phone to stop working. They sent an envelope and I posted the phone off via post office. They sent fixed the phone but the camera lens cover would not open. I had to send this back twice before this was fixed propertly. I had to pay no excess.

I would cover with them again but I am looking for a low cost cover. I was paying about £8 month for the Sony Erricson cyer shot mobile.

dacouch

Why don't you all just add your mobile phones to your Home Insurance, the annual cost is generally only £25 instead of the £10 a month you all seem to pay. You may already find the phone is covered on your home insurance and if not when you add it then you are often covered for other unspecified personal effects such as cameras and baggage etc etc.

Home Insurance generally has wider cover, for instance most of these specific phone policies you take out specifically exclude you losing or having your phone stolen when it is not on your person. This as you can see from a lot of the previous posters is where most of the claims come from. A decent home policy will normally cover it if its not on your person eg you have it on the bar or bar table and its stolen while your not looking or go to toilet.

You will normally have an excess of £50 to pay and your premium will normally increase by around £30 to £40 the next year but when you take into account a lot of you are paying between £6 and £10 a month (£72 and £120 a year) then it could save you money and get you better cover.

Note a Home Insurance generally does not cover the cost of calls the thief may make but if you ring and cancel your phone promptly or better still bar international and premium rate calls (Or put a pin on for them) then it reduces the risks of these greatly.

HappySad

dacouch wrote: »

Why don't you all just add your mobile phones to your Home Insurance, the annual cost is generally only £25 instead of the £10 a month you all seem to pay. You may already find the phone is covered on your home insurance and if not when you add it then you are often covered for other unspecified personal effects such as cameras and baggage etc etc.

Home Insurance generally has wider cover, for instance most of these specific phone policies you take out specifically exclude you losing or having your phone stolen when it is not on your person. This as you can see from a lot of the previous posters is where most of the claims come from. A decent home policy will normally cover it if its not on your person eg you have it on the bar or bar table and its stolen while your not looking or go to toilet.

You will normally have an excess of £50 to pay and your premium will normally increase by around £30 to £40 the next year but when you take into account a lot of you are paying between £6 and £10 a month (£72 and £120 a year) then it could save you money and get you better cover.

Note a Home Insurance generally does not cover the cost of calls the thief may make but if you ring and cancel your phone promptly or better still bar international and premium rate calls (Or put a pin on for them) then it reduces the risks of these greatly.

What a SUPER STAR you are!!!!!:T!

I am going to call my home insurance company now and see what they say.

I have looked on http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews.php and it seems that most insurance company have a bad rating. I feel that before you make your purchase you need to read ALL the terms and conditions. Also just before you make a claim read ALL the terms and conditions so you can word your claim to maximise your chance of getting a new /fixed phone.

I was insured by foneSafe and I read the policy so added my 2 children + partner to the policy and insured that I received the updated policy with their name on it before I would let anyone else touch my phone. So when my baby dribbled all over it I got a replacement because he was on the policy.

After doing some reading online.. I have come to the conclusions that insurance company will try anything to NOT pay you any money. If you have not done EXACTLY what they say on the terms & conditions then you are not covered. For example with foneSafe they need to have your mobile ID number (can't remember the proper name for it) and without that number you phone is now covered even though they are taking your money. I had to call this number in and ensure they had it down correctly. I also insisted that they send me paperwork showing that this has been done.

BradNorthrop

I lost my phone on Saturday night and didn't ring orange until the morning. By this time someone had rang up 318 pounds worth of calls to India. I was informed that the insurance does not cover this and that I have no option to pay this amount.

I am a self funded student and obviously have no means to pay this amount. I am on orange and was just wondering if anybody knew of any options that are available to me and if there is any way I can at least cut the bill.

I am on orange and I realise it states in the T & C's that I am liable for any calls made until the phone is reported lost but due to the nature of the international calls and the huge amount surely there is something I can do about this.

Any help on this matter or prior experience would be much appreciated,

Kind Regards

HappySad

My home insurance company said that it would be better to ensure my phone with the mobile phone company and hot with them.

karman_2

Talkcover experiences


I changed to talkcover when the free vodaphone insurance ran out on a Nokia 5800 a couple of months ago. I opted for a years cover to maximise the saving.

The lcd screen cracked while playing a game (it's a touch screen) so I contacted Talkcover immediatly, and was told to forward proof of purchase before the claim was dealt with - I emailed everything off, and expected an immediate response. Nothing forthcoming. I called and was told that someone would call in the next 24 hours. 28 hours later I completed a claim form over the landline, and was told there was an excess of £25 on all claims - this was hidden away in the small print and erodes the saving. A return bundle will be shipped to me today, then the phone will be inspected and repaired. The process is going to take in the region of 10 days with no replacement phone. Not best pleased.
:mad:

Granada210

I am never sure about using my home insurance particularly as mine has supposedly got a no-claims discount (thought it still goes up every year!) and would it be worth losing this for a phone claim?

I took out a policy with CUSC recently which seemed very good but am not convinced you are covered for just unexplained loss, ie you had it in your bag or pocket but somehow lost it, ie dropped it, it left it on the bus etc. I have rung them twice and asked this question and both times I was told that I was covered but the small print is not really clear on this. Has anyone had a successful loss claim like this with CUSC?

dacouch

Happy Sad I'm surprised your Home Insurers have told you that.

The facts of insuring a mobile phone are

A seperate policy covering your phone will cost between £5 and £12 a month which is a total of between £60 and £144 a year.

The cost of Insuring a mobile phone on your home insurance is generally around £25 a year and as well as covering your mobile phone it will cover other personal effects eg cameras, baggage, glasses etc away from the home (You may not even need to pay the £25 as you might already have the right cover on your home insurance)

If you claim on your home insurance you will have to pay your excess which is typically £50 and your premium will increase by around 10% for a couple of years.

The specific mobile phone insurance MIGHT cover upto £100 for calls made by the thief, your home insurance normally does not cover this. There are ways to prevent a thief using your phone.

The mobile phone policies tend to have restrictions in them if they are stolen or lost whilst not on your person they are not covered. Your home insurers will normally be more helpful on a mobile phone claim that was not on your person. They would normally pay if you had taken reasonable precautions eg it was on the bar near you or your friends, you locked it in a gym locker, it was in your bag on the floor near you etc etc.

So if you paid for mobile phone insurance for a couple of years at say £8 a month you will have spent £160 in premiums. If you add it to your home insurance you might pay premiums of £50 in that time (You might not have to pay anything). If you make a claim you pay your excess and your premium will go up by about £15 to £25 a year for 2 or 3 years.

So the costs are roughly the same but you get much wider cover with your home insurance and if you don't make a claim the savings are even bigger.

The other option is to put the £8 away each month and self insure (Pay your own claims)

dacouch

Granada

Foneguard do not seem to publish their policy wording or summary of cover on their website (Which is very unusual) so I cannot read their small print for you.

Here are some reviews I have found on them

http://www.ciao.co.uk/Reviews/CUSC_Foneguard_Insurance__5096076

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews103060.html

Note that on a home insurance policy it would normally cover you if the phone is stolen without violence or the threat of violence