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.

Most office insurance policies are designed to be all-encompassing and to provide office based businesses, with the range of covers they will need.

You will normally have certain sections of cover which are included as standard. Removing them does not alter the cover, usually these are money, business interruption, public and employers liability.

In addition to these, there are other sections which you can choose to add if required. The two main types are for buildings and equipment cover away from the premises (such as laptops and smart phones).

The buildings cover is self explanatory. If you own, or have full insuring and repairing lease, then you will need to have a separate section covering the office premises.

But, if you lease the premises, you may choose to make adaptions, adjustments and improvements to the building itself. This may cover, putting in new toilets, partition walls, false ceilings or high tech wiring. If you chose to move away, you would not normally take this with you as they are all improvements to the building.

If there was a fire though, then the cost of replacing these items does not fall under the landlords insurance, it is your responsibility as you have the financial interest or financial ownership.

This is why you have a secondary type of buildings cover, for tenants improvements. It is much cheaper to insurer than your standard office contents, because it is less likely to suffer a loss.

Just sit back and consider if you need to insure any tenants improvements. A good starting point is you lease, it should specify in there what you are responsible for. If you have spent money in these areas, you need to check that your business insurance policy has cover for this. Typically, for £10,000 of tenants improvements, it will only cost you around £30 a year to add to your policy.

Larger businesses tend to supply electronic equipment such as laptops and mobile phones for their staff. They are usually covered under a block business insurance package with the technology provider. If they look carefully at how much they are paying for the insurance they might get a shock, but that is another story.

Smaller businesses though, with just a few employees, may choose to refund the cost of mobile phone bills or Internet access to their staff. Their employees will own the items, but what happens if they are stolen or damaged whilst on company business?

The chances are there is nothing in the employees contract that says you are responsible for the replacement cost. Whilst you have no legal liability for replacement, you will more than likely feel a moral obligation to do something.

One or two losses a year could add up to £1,000, straight off your bottom line profit, which is not good. It tends to be more clerical and sales staff that need this cover, so if you have an office insurance policy, you will need to refer to it to see if employees personal effects are covered.

If they are not, you can usually get this extension included. It may be that you have to specify that the machines are not owned by you but a good quality policy should be able to include this cover for around £20 a year per £1,000. The cost will go up if the equipment is likely to go within the EU or Worldwide, as the likelihood of damage or loss is increased.

You will look to pay an excess of between £50 and £100, any more and you should complain to your broker to get you better terms.