Handset insurance

Is it worth paying for handset insurance?

It has rarely been cost effective in the past to purchase a mobile phone tariff that includes handset insurance (sometimes referred to as a "with care" package). However, with the increasing use of smartphones (a blend of mobile phone, email device and PDA) costing £300 and more, these tariffs are now worthy of further consideration. Alternatively, third party insurance solutions are now becoming available tailored purely to the mobile phone market. These will cost somewhere between £3 and £8 per month, depending on the type of handset being insured, but (as with all insurance) make sure that you read the small print!

It may also be worth checking to see if your corporate business insurance covers such devices already - some of our clients have confirmed that their policies do provide cover, providing that the device is described as a portable computer. As these devices run MS Windows and are already treated by HMRC as computers for personal taxation purposes, this is, in our opinion, an entirely fair assumption.