Mobile Phone Insurance

[aquarius moon]

I was always under the impression that mobile phone insurance covered breakdown (outside manufacturers warranty.)

Not so. Apparently O2 etc only cover loss/theft/accidental damage.

I've found a few companies on-line that offer both but not sure how reliable they are.

Also, I'm not very keen on getting a rubbish refurbished one if anything does happen to mine.

Any recommendations please. I have a new phone & although I've luckily never had to claim in the past, I feel much happier knowing it is covered.

[Loz]

I always consult the Money Saving Expert on such matters...

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/cheap-mobile-phone-insurance

[vgrant]

Insurance is a scam, but thats another issue. The Sale of Goods act give longer cover than you think - more than the oft quoted 1 year guarantee - if you make a pain in the arse of yourself with The retailer/ Shop. The assistant ho flooged the ophone will unlikely be clued on on this, so expect to have to pull your own hair out.

[Lowlander]

Unless you're prone to losing/breaking your phones or having them stolen then insurance isn't for you (I've never had it in my 15 years of phone ownership).

As vgrant says you can try and get it repaired if it's under six years old...be prepared to put in a bit of effort depending on the retailer!

http://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2013/10/22/how-long-do-you-have-to-take-faulty-goods-back/

[the-e-dealer]

Why not put ?8 a month in a bank account called phone insurance.

[Loz]

I have a simple rule - I never insure anything that I can cover myself (even at a push). As TED said, if people threw the premiums they pay on mobile phone insurance, boiler cover, extended warranties (just another form of insurance) and the like into a bank account, you'd cover all these things yourself (unless you are supremely unlucky).

That includes excesses on things like car insurance - sometimes you are paying around ?100 a year to bring an excess down from ?500 to ?200. Terrible value.

[the-e-dealer]

Nobody has accused me overcharging myself yet!

[aquarius moon]

The thing is, I can't cover it myself.

The phone is worth over ?500 & the contract lasts 2 years.

I haven't had a new phone for nearly 3 years. Before then, insurance always covered breakdown. I know this because I also had insurance for my daughter's phone. It developed a few faults (after a year) & each time was sent away for repair free of charge.

I've never lost my phone, damaged it or had it stolen. But there's always a first time..........................

What happens if?

And what happens if the phone packs up in 12 months time when I still have a year left on my contract. I can't believe that O2/Vodafone etc charge ?12.50 a month for insurance & it doesn't even include breakdown.

Thanks everyone for posting the above links but I'm still none the wiser. Would prefer if somebody had recommendations from certain companies that they used & thought were good/bad if possible.

[the-e-dealer]

Well for a start 12 * 12 = 144 so you would accumulate 288 over two years. Second "worth" over 500. You will see your phone appearing on ebay if it hasn't already at regularly reducing prices. After a year it will probably be ?200. The rapid advance of phone technology can be exploited by the careful user. I bought an htc one for ?100 after my htc sv locked up. And I sold that as faulty for ?50.

[aquarius moon]

I know how much I could accumulate if I didn't pay it t-e-d but what if it breaks in 13 months after warranty ends or it gets stolen next week?!

[the-e-dealer]

You buy a second hand one on ebay.

[Loz]

Check the MSE link I posted - a lot of it (stolen, broken) may be covered by your current home insurance. It's worth checking.

[the-e-dealer]

loz is right yet another way phones are covered and mob phone insurance is a con

[Lowlander]

aquarius moon Wrote:

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> I know how much I could accumulate if I didn't pay

> it t-e-d but what if it breaks in 13 months after

> warranty ends or it gets stolen next week?!

As per the links above, you have six years in England Wales to force the manufacturer to repair it free of charge if it breaks down.

[Sue]

When I renewed my home insurance I made sure I had cover for my mobile included on that.

I got a new phone recently, and the contract came with "free one month insurance" - and, of course, then twenty three months of extortionate payments which they were hoping I wouldn't notice.

They just hope people won't cancel (which I did - earlier today).

As with many things, if you can try to put aside a certain amount a month yourself, it's a better bet than insurance because if you don't need to use it for what you've put it aside for, you've still got the money - whereas with insurance, the money is just lining somebody else's pockets.

But I can understand that if you've got a very expensive phone and you lose it after a short time, that may not work if you've not built up enough money to replace it and don't have any other money you can use.

[DaveR]

Any non-compulsory insurance market suffers from adverse selection - the people most likely to take it out are those who think they are likely to need it - and so doesn't offer value if you are low risk. Products like mobile phone insurance are particularly bad because it's very difficult to build pricing models that reflect risk - you can't really ask someone to tick a box saying 'are you very clumsy?'

[DulwichFox]

The simple solution is to have

A cheaper phone.

I have a windows Lumia 7

It makes phone calls, sends and receives texts

Has Internet access and Wi-Fi

It was free .

It does not make tea.

It does amaze me that anyone would

Spend ?500 on a phone especially

When they do not have a lot of money

Get a cheaper phone that you can afford

To replace

Not having a go Aquarius

Honest

Foxy

[aquarius moon]

I didn't pay a penny for the phone Foxy, just took out a new contract which costs no more than my old one.

My last insurance was from the network provider and was expensive & limited on what was covered, so by finding a cheaper, better one I'll be paying out less each month :)

[Sue]

Fox, you can often get a quite expensive phone on a relatively cheap contract, but if you then lose the phone you still have to continue the contract and so you have to replace the phone (though obviously you could replace it with a cheaper phone).

[Loz]

DulwichFox Wrote:

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> The simple solution is to have

> A cheaper phone.

Quite. Mine cost about 10 quid from a chain electrical store.

It is really good at making phone calls. And is completely unlocked, so I can use whatever sim I like.