Mobile Phone Insurance
Mobile phone insurance is one of the biggest scams ever exacted upon the general public.
We are told over and over again by providers, in-store staff and the endless cold-calling third parties that we just don’t know what may happen … we could end up PHONELESS and stranded! We could lose HUNDREDS of pounds to contracts that we’re bound to if something should happen to our handsets!
Well, this it true.
But that doesn’t mean that mobile phone insurance isn’t BULLSHIT.
If you want to insure your handset, take some sincere advice and do it through a third party of your own choosing or pay for the full coverage from your provider. Do NOT accept the “cheap” basic insurance offers from providers, stores or third parties at ANY cost. You will be paying over the odds for a service that is just about useless. And if you find one that you think is ok, read the small print. It will very likely be concealing a shedload of ways that they’re trying to screw you.
These companies will sell you an iPhone and then sell you insurance for £8 per month that they KNOW doesn’t even cover iPhones … the same is common for BlackBerry handsets.
You should also be wary of calls from people claiming to be the company from which you have bought the insurance. There are companies that make money solely from getting hold of lists of newly issued mobile numbers and cold-calling them offering “additional savings” on their insurance plan. They are the true scum of the phone insurance world.
Phone insurance is a big slice of revenue for a huge number of comapnies like these. They thrive on the fact that, in 99% of cases, people never have to use their insurance policies and so never realize they have been ripped off. They take your money, knowing that claims that are defined as valid in the contract you didn’t read are incredibly rare.
Consider what could possibly happen to your handset.
- You could drop it in a puddle.
- You could put it down on your table at a restaurant and then find it’s been stolen.
- You could leave it in your car and it could get stolen.
- You could simply lose it while you’re out on the town.
- Or it could be taken from your house when some pikey bastard breaks in.
If you think that any of these scenarios would be covered by this basic insurance, you’re sorely mistaken.
Water Damage? … Nope. Not covered.
Theft? … You left it WHERE?? Nope. Not covered.
You LOST it? … Well, clearly you’re admitting culpability there, so … Nope. Not covered.
And burglary? … That sounds like a job for your home contents insurance, not us!
In fact in some cases, every one of these scenarios is excluded from the policy with a blanket statement requiring the user to “take reasonable care” of their handset (whatever that means).
So, for what exactly are you paying that £8 a month?
In all honesty, I wouldn’t even entertain buying a policy from any of these companies – including the “legitimate” ones that sold you the phone in the first place. If you’re seriously not capable of carrying your phone around without dropping it down the toilet, leaving it in random places or God knows what else, I don’t think phone insurance should be your biggest concern!
MisterShouty 