Insuring Against Mobile Phone Theft

Insurance

A simple search on Google (http://www.google.co.uk) will reveal pages of companies offering mobile phone insurance that can protect you against the costs of unauthorised calls. Their policies are alternatives to those offered by the UK’s main mobile service providers: O2, T-Mobile, Orange, Vodafone and Virgin Mobile.

Cover can cost as little as a pound or less per week. What cover you get for your money depends not only on how much you pay but also on the seller from whom you buy the insurance.

For example, Carphone Warehouse’s six Lifeline products will all pay out in case of accidental or water damage. However, unauthorised calls cannot be insured against by ‘handset only’ customers and owners of pay-as-you-go phones worth less than £150.

Many companies promise a replacement handset in the event of theft, while others reserve the right to send you a used phone of the same type as the one you lost. Some polices will cover for a few hundred pounds of unauthorised calls, while others will offer a couple of thousand pounds’ worth. Cover for accessories is often not included in the price of insurance premiums.

Mobiles can be added to your home insurance, but this is only useful in the event of burglary, after which the stolen items will be take some time to be replaced. Specialist handset insurance invariably leads to a much swifter settlement.

If you lose your phone…

As soon as you discover the theft, and before you report the loss to the police, contact your phone service provider. The company will place a bar on your number via remote control and the handset will be locked, making it inoperable.

This is also a good idea if your insurance allows a payout for unauthorised calls before the theft is reported to the police.

There may be a delay in receiving your insurance money/replacement handset if the police decide to investigate the loss of your phone by viewing CCTV footage of the area of the crime. This is to protect against the common fraud of false reporting of mobile theft.

Best protection

The best way to avoid losing your phone is to treat it like cash, keeping it safe about your person when it’s not in use, and being discreet when making calls, especially after dark and in areas known for high levels of crime.