Why do I need mobile phone insurance?
The phone you get for nothing (or at a heavily discounted price) when you sign up for a twelve month contract with your service provider can cost a lot of money to replace if you are unlucky enough to lose or break it. This is because your provider network (Orange, T-Mobile, Vodaphone etc) can afford to write off the cost of your phone as you are committing to at least a year's contract with them. Additionally they are ordering thousands of mobile phones each year from the manufacturers, so they can buy them much cheaper than you can if you have to buy one from a retailer directly. However, their generosity will not stretch to a replacement phone if you lose or break your handset - and you will still be expected to pay your monthly costs for the duration of the contract. The only option in this situation to ensure you can get the most out of your remaining contract period is to buy a replacement handset - and at the full rate, which is often in the hundreds for the latest models.
Mobile phone insurance protects you in this circumstance by covering your handset - enabling you to replace it and continue as normal under your remaining contract with your provider.
Most people carry their mobile phone with them virtually all the time, and perversely this makes them very easy to lose - people tend to put them down anywhere, and then get distracted, and lose their phone - it only takes a second for someone to pocket your phone and due to their size they are very easy to conceal. For this reason it makes a lot of sense to insure you phone.
Phones tend to go everywhere with us nowadays, and as a result they can come in for quite a lot of abuse - as well as the usual knocks that they get when we take them out of bags and pockets, mobile phones feature strongly in our social lives and as such are frequently subjected to the rigours of pub and nightclub environments. Most people will also have had the experience of trying to put a phone away only to miss the pocket and drop the phone on the floor - it's embarrassing but it could also be expensive if you do permanent damage to the handset, particularly if you are right at the beginning of a contract and aren't due a replacement handset for a while.
Mobile phone insurance gives you peace of mind that the expensive handset is protected. Additionally many policies can also offer cover against things like unauthorised use if your phone is stolen.
Click here for a mobile insurance quote.
