We have seen recent scathing reports about bank accounts that charge a monthly fee. They are supposed to offer extras such as mobile phone, travel and breakdown insurance. There are no such accounts that offer business insurance, but you never know which bank will try to do this in the future.
There have been may complaint as people try to progress claims and then realise that this “free” cover has extremely onerous exclusions and their claim is not met.
The same can be said for some mobile phone insurance covers. The question you need to consider is, should I take out this cover from the mobile supplier, or should I add this to my standard business or office insurance policy?
We would always say that this should be added to your business policy because it is nearly always cheaper and in most cases only standard exclusion apply.
There are two things you need to be aware of though. Firstly, that the excess level is acceptable. Most policies have a standard excess of £100, some higher. The policy you buy with the phone will usually have a lower, £50 or £25 excess. Speak to your broker or insurer and see if they can quote at a £50 excess. You may pay slightly more, but it will still be competitive.
The other point is whether you need to specify the make and model. This can be a pain if your business has dozens of phones which are chopping and changing all the time. You don’t want to have to phone them up every couple of weeks to change from model ahy234567 to model ahy234567B! This can be time consuming and more than likely will not be followed up. The insurers can then say that the wrong model is insured and cover does not apply. Get your policy to be more general and cover “portable electronic equipment” which then removes the need to specify each and every item insured.