Should I Get iPhone Insurance?

IPhones and other smartphone devices have become a daily necessity. With costs and functionality for devices growing year-on-year (and with this the rate of phone thefts increasing), it makes sense to be as protective as possible for your handheld gadgets; but should you bother with insurance? For starters, there are multiple routes to go down. You could opt for Apple’s native insurance with AppleCare (basically an extended warranty) or tether the device to your current home or bank insurance plan. In what follows, the pros and cons of uniquely insuring your iPhone will be laid out.

The Pros (or, insure that iPhone now!)
IPhones are expensive. Insurance can also be expensive. Deciding on insurance is like judging a balancing scale. If you are prone to losing or breaking phones, you travel often in built-up areas, you wouldn’t be able to afford an outright replacement or if you are on a long contract (say 24 months), insuring may be the most sensible option; so why opt for insurance?

1. Peace of Mind
This goes foremost: if you are dependent on your iPhone for work and home life, you can opt for insurance policies that include a rapid replacement of your device. These may come at a premium, but they will cover eventualities such as loss or damage. If you have an expensive iPhone, this peace of mind becomes ever more needed.

2. Extended From Your Current Plans
If you have home insurance you can often extend this to cover gadgets used out of the house. This again raises the premium but it concentrates all your needs into one easy location. The Post Office offer packages specific to your age, so if you’re under 50 you have 10% extra coverage for weddings. Another similar option can be found in the added value packages of your bank account. This can be a relatively cheap means of insuring your phone and can potentially allow for multiple persons to be covered.

3. Frequent Traveller
If you travel far and often, the chances of incidents increase. Insurance will cover you on these eventualities and put you at greater ease. An extended travel insurance policy will be able to cover loss, theft and breakage.

4. Cheaper Mobile Contracts
If you are on a long mobile contract the outcome of losing or damaging your phone will be an ongoing contract without a device. All mobile contracts offer an additional insurance package which can be charged along with your debited contract. This can be a useful ways of simplifying your receipts.

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5. Breadth Of Coverage
Switched On Insurance offer mobile phone insurance plans that cover accidental damage, loss, theft, burglary and malfunction beyond the manufacturer warranty. Put together, this wide pool of eventualities is often far more generous than a regular extended warranty, which feeds back to point one: peace of mind.

The Cons (or, don’t bother it’s a rip-off!)
Insurance can be very expensive and unnecessary depending on where you live, your day-to-day activities and existing coverage. This singles down to one of the biggest negatives of phone insurance: cost.

1. Expensive
Even with your monthly insurance charges, you will have to pay a deductible when you make your claim. This deductible can be up to 1/4 of the initial phone price. You are also not guaranteed a newer or better phone. In fact, what’s worse is that refurbished iPhones are often used as a replacement. Given this large cost, it may be worth self-insuring your phone.

2. Self-Insurance Works
Simply deducting money yourself and pocketing it away into your own account each month may leave you with substantial credit. If you lose your phone, simply go back to this account. If you are cautious, you may be able to spend this money on something greater or not have to spend it at all. This leads to point 3, general caution.

3. Be Cautious
If you follow simple steps when travelling with your phone, you reduce the likelihood of theft and damage. Do not text and walk, this opens you up not only to being hit or dropping your phone due to poor awareness, but it also opens you up as a target for theft. General safety guidelines have been provided by Ofcom and should be followed at all times.

4. Unnecessary Extras
As with the positives for insurance, the fact that you can get coverage cheaper through home and contents insurance, nulls the need for iPhone insurance; after all, you may already (unknowingly) have it on your home plan.

5. Poor Services
Not all insurance plans are simple or straightforward to report and there are hoops you need to jump through. If you do not report immediately, you run the risk of losing out. A common complaint from customers has been a general delay or even rudeness of staff when making claims. Unfortunately, good service is not always provided.

As with all decisions, insuring your iPhone will depend on a host of factors which need to be balanced out based on cost, likelihood and environment.

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