Buy Mobile Phone Insurance - Shop Around and Find the Best Deals

Where to buy mobile phone insurance

Before looking to buy mobile phone insurance it may pay to check whether your mobile is already insured either under your:

Home contents insurance - some policies automatically cover your mobile phone, laptop and other electronic items when they are used outside the home, or alternatively it may be cheaper to add an 'All Risks' option to your existing contents insurance rather than paying for separate mobile phone insurance.

Current banking package - some banks such as Halifax and RBS offer free mobile insurance with their premier banking products, or as a product available to buy for customers with an account.

You're most likely to come across mobile phone insurance when registering or buying a mobile from a phone network or retailer such as:

Orange

T-Mobile

Virgin

Vodafone

The Car Phone Warehouse, Phones 4 U

Argos, Tesco

When you buy a mobile phone or enter into a contract with a network you will usually be offered mobile insurance, sometimes as a free promotional offer or as an optional extra you can pay for. It's a good opportunity to compare offers, if another network is offering free insurance you can use this to negotiate a free deal with your preferred network.

Not all networks offer insurance for their Pay As You Go phones & it's important to check what exactly is covered under network insurance.

If the network or retailer insurance doesn't give you everything you need for example, no overseas or unauthorised calls cover then it might be an idea to shop around as you are not obliged to take their insurance package. However, always check if the network or retailer has a time limit for taking up their insurance, i.e. you must take up the insurance within 30 days of purchasing or registering with them, just in case you do shop around and change your mind, make sure you can still come back to them!

The most comprehensive 'Full cover' policies tend to be offered by specific FSA registered mobile phone insurance companies such as CUSC, Gadget Cover, Insurance2go, Supercover Insurance Ltd, Talkcover, to name a few. They cover the major networks and pay as you go phones and can often be more competitively priced as they are specialists in this type of insurance.

In all cases the cost of mobile phone insurance is predominantly based on the age and value of your phone and the level of cover you select. Low premiums may not necessarily mean you're getting the best value insurance, make sure you know what you are getting for your money.

Apart from checking the terms and conditions for what's covered under a policy some other good things to look out for when comparing mobile phone insurance deals are:

Does the insurer have their own data backup service to protect the contents of your phone?

Is the cost of replacing downloaded applications and media that didn't come as standard with the phone covered?

Do they have guaranteed replacement times, for example within 48 hours.

Is there a minimum policy term?

What excesses apply to the different cover options?

Does the offer include 1 to 3 months free cover?

Can the insurance be transferred to another mobile phone at a later date?

Are there any admin fees when a claim is made?

Is your insurer or broker a member of the Financial Services Association (FSA)?

Most mobile insurance retailers and companies have online sites with application forms and detailed information about their terms and conditions. This can be the quickest way to shop around. If you don't know which insurer you want to use. Just doing a search from your home page, for example typing in exactly what you're looking for, i.e. "iPhone mobile insurance", or "Pay as you go mobile insurance" will bring up several links for you to investigate.

You can also take advantage of independent comparison sites which compare several different breakdown insurers, and can present like for like quotes just by entering a couple of details such as your age and vehicle registration date and/or mileage. It's advisable to compare at least three quotes of the same type of breakdown cover to make sure you get a good deal. We've included links below to some independent comparison sites to help start your search: