Mobile Phone Insurance

[#1]

We recently carried out a survey that showed millions of UK mobile users could be unknowingly paying twice to insure their handset.  The research showed that approximately 5.7 million mobile customers in the UK  could be doubling up – by taking on insurance from their mobile provider when their handset is already covered by their home insurance policy.  

Of course, it's vital that you check your home insurance to make sure it covers your mobile but with the monthly average Insurance costing £8.20 per month (from mobile retailers), people could be paying £100 a year on unnecessary insurance.

The research also revealed a change in behaviour over the last five years, with an increase in the number of mobile users taking out insurance.  In 2006, only three percent of respondents insured their handset, however, in 2011, out of the people who have an active insurance policy in place, 32 percent have taken up an insurance policy in the last 12 months – a number which is only set to grow as mobile handsets increase in capability and price.

To highlight our research findings we have issued a PR press release, which will hopefully get coverage in the Press, so keep your eyes peeled. (Update - I have attached the mention from today's Sun and Daily Mirror, great stuff).

Which? Mobile, the UK’s leading consumer association offer the following tips to consumers when considering their options for mobile phone insurance here, and below:

• Before you buy, read the terms and conditions carefully, check the excesses and exclusions and weigh up the policy.
• It's worth bearing in mind that if you don't have mobile insurance, you'll be liable for the cost of any calls made if the phone is stolen.
• Some retailers will try to bundle in mobile phone insurance when you sign up for a new contract and handset, especially for high-end models.
• But don't be pushed into buying the first mobile insurance policy you're offered. You could find a better deal if you take a bit of time to shop around. 
• If you do buy mobile insurance, by law the seller must send you a policy summary setting out the key points in the cover and a 'statement of demands and needs' to show why you were recommended the insurance in the first place.
• If you take out mobile phone insurance and then decide you don't want it, you have a 14-day 'cooling-off' period, starting from the day you purchased it, during which you can cancel the policy and get your premium refunded in full.

Tara Evans at This is Money also offers great advice for those who may be considering getting an insurance policy here.

So what do you think about Mobile Insurance?  Do you have it?  Have you claimed? Let me know your experiences.

[#2]

had a look at protectyourbubble.com mobile phone cover from £1.49 a month and for £1 extra mobile loss cover. Has anyone had any good or bad experiance from this company. looks to be one of the cheapest.

[#3]

never had an expensive phone before untill now but still ot unsured i am always careful with my belongings

[#4]

I had free insurance for 3 months with one contract, added by the dealer.

I looked at the details during the second month. There was no cover of calls made if the phone was lost, just replacement at wholesale cost, with a £25 excess, and my phone was only worth £20 retail when new. In other words the policy was completely worthless, and I also reckoned an argument could be made that it was missold with that phone.

I cancelled, but two days later they took the first £8 direct debit payment nearly a month early, as I'd overlooked also calling the bank to cancel the DD. When I complained, I was told I must write in to ask for a refund, preferably using recorded delivery. I told them they could treat the phone call as a request for the refund, or the only place I was willing to write to about this was Trading Standards. £8 cheque in the post the next morning.

Since then I haven't bothered with insurance. I could replace any of my phones except one for a maximum of £50 secondhand, and most aren't worth the cost of the postage to send them for recycling

[#5]

I bought my iphone 4 second hand, it was still expensive so i thought i would insure it. No insurance company will insure a second hand phone......only brand new handsets apply!!

[#6]

After purchasing the iPhone 4S thought it was vital to get insurance as can not afford to buy out a another one - looked into protect my bubble as they were promoting when I was at the London apple launch, did some research and found they are not actually good and find any excuse to not pay out. This has lead me to taking out insurance with Endsleigh who are known as the best student insurance fingers cross made right decession if anything does happen. Suppose insurance is all about "transferring" the risk to someone else and therefore do need to pay quite a bit for that -.-

[#7]

If you have household insurance why bother with additional phone insurance. The most giffgaffers can loose is the amount of credit they have on their phone, its not like having a contract phone which could be a bottomless pit when it comes to unauthorised calls from your stolen phone.

Just check you have personnal possesions cover and save yourselof a fortune.

[#8]

I have always used my house insurance to cover my phone - perfectly adequate.

[#9]

so what the best,and the cheapest then?

[#10]

With home insurance you have an excess, when we knocked our TV off the stand our excess was £200, our TV was worth £1,000 (it was a 28" Dolby Pro Logic Philips widescreen CRT TV), when the insurance replaced it they charged us £200 and replaced it with a TV costing £250 so they only paid out £50, and they didn't even replace it for a TV of the same standard - it was replaced with a JVC 26" Nicam Stereo set, thankfully we already had got a 5.1 AV receiver anyway so no longer needed the Dolby Pro Logic but was really annoyed that the screen size was 2" less than what it should have been, we've since replaced the TV ourselves with a decent 32" Panasonic LCD - in total the claim cost us £700 - £200 for the TV the insurance offered us, and a further £500 for a new TV.

So if your excess is £200 and you have a £200 phone stolen then you will get nothing.  Home insurance is more designed for the major things such as a house fire, or a burglary where they take numerous items, not for one off lost the mobile phone or dropped it downt the toilet or whatever type accidents.  Plus with every claim you make your premium goes up.

Most mobile phone insurance however does cover your regardless of the cost.  But unless your extremely accident prone and tend to lose your phone quite easily it is probably cheaper to just put the money into a high interest savings account so you can go and buy a new phone should anything happen to it, and as for calls someone could make - if you have a GiffGaff phone it's Pay As You Go anyway - what's the most amount they're going to steal? £10-£20, if it's a contract then you've got a bigger problem.  I still remember my sister stealing my phone and going to school, she run up a £200 phone bill calling all premium rate numbers, she was well shocked when I got the headmistress to call her in and nearly call the police for stealing - she didn't see it as stealing 'cos it was a family member, but she hasn't done that trick again!

[#11]

I bought a relatively expensive phone (Sony Ericsson Xperia Play)  from the O2 shop and wanted to get insurance because I am not as careful as many of the bloggers here! They offered a reasonable deal at 35 pounds with a 15 pond excess. Unfortunately as soon as I said that I would be using a giffgaff sim they said we could not have the deal.

Sometimes claiming on the house insurance is not such a good plan - larger excess and increased premium etc and a policy specifically designed for mobile phones is attractive. Have Giffgaff considered negotiating a deal with O2 or another company for its less careful customers? Or has anyone else found any good deals?