It’s the season to be silly – for those who constantly lose their smart phone or regularly drop it and immerse it in water, you are probably at the stage where you simply cannot do without your phone at any time and will now consider taking insurance to cover these risks. But once you are insured, remember to read the small print – the terms and conditions. You may claim for theft as someone may have stolen it BUT leaving it on the bar in the pub the night before will negate a claim ! However, you still may like to take out insurance in case… there are two types – from the mobile providers directly or third party providers. All mobile providers below allow up to two claims made per year.
- THREE Cost per month: between €1.25 – €13.99 Excess charge: €15 – €75 What’s covered: Theft, loss, accidental damage
- Vodafone Cost per month: €2.99 – €11.99 Excess charge: €35- €65 for first claim, €50 – €125 for second claim What’s covered: Theft, loss, accidental damage
- O2 Cost per month: €6 – €12.99 Excess charge: €20 – €65 for first and second claim What’s covered: Theft, loss (in certain cases), accidental damage
- Meteor / eMobile Cost per month: €6.95 – €12.99 Excess charge: €20 – €65 What’s covered: Theft, loss, accidental damage
- Tesco Mobile Cost per month: €3.49 – €5.99 Excess charge: €15 – €35 What’s covered: Theft, loss, accidental damage
The majority of third-party providers offer gadget insurance instead of just phone insurance. This can be useful if you want to insure more than one device and can cover them under the same policy, but if you’re only thinking of insuring your smartphone, then its use is limited. In the case of gadget insurance, there’s usually a maximum valuation you can give a device which, again, is useful if you want to insure numerous devices like tablets and handheld consoles.
- Insure4less/Gadget Insurance Cost per month: €1.49 – €6.79 (depending on value of phone) Excess charge: €50 What’s covered: Theft, accidental damage (additional €1 fee for covering loss)
- Mobilecover.ie/Chill Insurance Cost per month: €3.50 – €13 Excess charge: €20 – €50 (if claim is made within first 60 days of policy and device is older than 30 days, an extra €50 is added to excess charge) What’s covered: Accidental damage (theft and loss covered by more expensive premiums).
- OneDirect Cost per month: €6.70 – €12.50 Excess charge: €25 What’s covered: Theft, accidental damage
Before you sign up, read those terms and conditions and/or google “exclusions” for individual policies – that might open your eyes to what you can or cannot claim. Keep safe and mind that mobile !