Is Your Smartphone Insured?

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.ecomworlds.co.uk/index.html' target='_blank'>http://www.ecomworlds.co.uk/index.html</a><br /><br /></div>"Your New Smartphone PDA or other Handheld Computer is just as vulnerable as your mobile phone to being stolen, lost, accidentally damaged (including liquid damage!) or breaking down. Protect Your PDA, Smartphone or mobile phone with the Best Fully Comp Cover You will find."<br /><br />Here is a market that I really had not thought about. EcomWorld is offering you insurance on your Smartphone or Pocket PC. I don't tend to purchase my gadgets in Best Buy or whatever your local big box electronics retailer is. So I don't get the <i>we can offer you insurance on that for blah blah blah</i> speech. However, I am curious about this. How many of you have insurance on your Smartphones? What is the cost of such a thing? And have you ever had to make a claim?

[swbuehler]

Here is a market that I really had not thought about. EcomWorld is offering you insurance on your Smartphone or Pocket PC. I don't tend to purchase my gadgets in Best Buy or whatever your local big box electronics retailer is. So I don't get the we can offer you insurance on that for blah blah blah speech. However, I am curious about this. How many of you have insurance on your Smartphones? What is the cost of such a thing? And have you ever had to make a claim?

AT&T Wirless has offerred insurance coverage on all its phones through Lockline for years, at the cost of around $5 per month per phone. I now wish I had it. My MPx200 was shorted in the rain, and because it was due to water, it is not covered by warranty. For a $25 "deductible" I could have had it replaced within 24 hours. Because I did not have the phone the required nine months, I paid full retail price for a Nokia 3300 (the MPx200 is $409 at retail).

[Ben]

I think phone insurance is a scam. If you are relatively careful with your phone you can keep it safe and develop a habit of always checking for it before you leave anywhere, you won't lose it. There is still the chance that a freak thunderstorm will drench your phone or a mugger will take it at gun point, but the cost to replace is not nearly as bad as the cost of the insurance. The mpx200, for example, regularly (as in every few hours) sells on eBay in brand new condition for well under $200. If you consider the $25 deductible and the $5 per month, you could buy a brand new phone every couple of years with the money you save on phone insurance. Plus, replacement costs go down every month as new technology comes to market.

I personally believe that you should only insure if the loss would be truly catastrophic. So life, health, automobile, and umbrella liability insurance are absolutely essential, but insurance on a phone? Just save your money and "self-insure" (i.e. be willing to replace the phone yourself if you ever have to). No one is going to go bankrupt because they lost their phone, and statistically the probability has to be such that most people DO NOT get their money's worth from the insurance, otherwise it would not be profitable to offer the insurance.

[TANKERx]

My bank has just added free phone insurance for all their customers on a certain account - I certainly took advantage of that one!