You may or may not want to buy an iPhone, undoubtedly though you’ll need a mobile phone.
Would you be able to replace your iPhone or other mobile phont though out of your own pocket should it be lost, stolen or damaged?
This is why you need to consider buying mobile phone insurance, either standalone or as part of your home insurance to provide you cover for this unfortunate events.
With an iPhone, Apple offer AppleCare+. It costs but provides two year’s cover for the handset and technical software support.
Is this though your best solution for getting mobile phone insurance? Possibly. There are though other options you may want to consider for an iPhone or any other mobile phone. We take a look.
Table of Contents
Standalone Mobile Phone Insurance Policy
This is a standalone insurance policy that you can buy for your mobile phone that will provide cover if your mobile is lost, stolen or damaged.
The policy may also provide cover for accidental damage, unauthorised calls, apps, games, music and other valuable digital content, protection in the UK and abroad and, for phone accessories.
As with all insurance cover, mobile phone insurance policies can vary widely in terms of what they cover and the level or amount of that cover.
It is important you take the time to understand both what is covered and what is not covered.
Understand too what the excess amount is that you need to pay should you need to make a claim. Often this will be more if your phone is lost or stolen than if it is damaged.
Whilst having many advantages, these mobile phone insurance policies can be expensive and therefore it is worth your while shopping around to compare premiums and cover levels.
It is worth considering whether you want to get insurance for just one mobile phone, perhaps your new iPhone, or whether you want to cover multiple phones in your household.
You may want to extend it to wider gadget insurance, to cover tablets and laptops in your home.
There are a number of options and it is worth first considering carefully what cover you really need.
Opting for multi-device or gadget insurance may well be good value for you.
Home Contents Insurance
The vast majority of home contents insurance policies provide some protection for mobile phone handsets while in the home.
The level of cover though can vary vastly, from not much more than £100 to thousands of pounds.
Equally, invariably a number of exclusions and restrictions will apply.
For example, of those policies that provide cover, whilst theft is automatically included, accidental damage to your phone will only be covered as standard by a small percentage of them.
This means that with the majority of home insurance policies, you will have to specifically extend your policy to include accidental damage in order to cover damage to your mobile.
Be aware too that some policies actually exclude this cover.
Few policies will cover your mobile phone while you are out and about.
The majority require you to buy additional personal possessions cover to insure your personal belongings away from home against loss, theft or accidents.
Cover also applies to the handset rather than data or unauthorised calls and there is a wide variation in the levels of cover provided.
Consider too the need to replace digital information should you mobile phone be lost or damaged.
Any claim made for loss, damage or theft of your phone will be subject to a policy excess, perhaps £25 or £50 or maybe more, and this may be higher on a home insurance contents policy than on a dedicated mobile phone policy.
Finally, be warned, if you make a claim on your home insurance your premium may increase when it comes up for renewal.
Packaged Bank Current Accounts
You may find that your bank current account provides mobile phone insurance.
Some accounts include this, which depending on the policy will pay out for loss, theft or accidental damage to your handset as well as cover for breakdown, phone accessories and unauthorised calls.
You’ll need to check the specifics of your account as the total amount you can claim will vary as will the amount you can claim on the different elements of the cover.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are various options you can explore to get the mobile phone insurance that’s best for your needs. You’ll need to assess the options and take into account your circumstances and any other insurance or bank account packages you may have.
From a personal perspective, currently I have Apple+ for an iPad and have used my bank account package option for my mobile phone insurance. This demonstrates you need to review on a case by case basis and choose the best insurance as a result.
As always, the information in this article is provided as information only, you need to make your own decisions on purchase of products and services and seek professional advice if required