As gadgets start to get more expensive, more abundant and more conspicuous the probability of something going wrong likewise increases, and in fact I expect the vast majority of you have at some point broken or lost your digital camera/mobile phone/MP3 player or in fact, had it stolen, and unsurprisingly this has become a bigger problem in recent years.
Fortuitously for many years these problems have come under the banner of home contents insurance, but as they often come with high excesses and exclude items such as phones you could still end up out of pocket when you lose your gadgets — which is why gadget insurance has come about, and why moneymaxim.co.uk have created a comparison service to help you get the best deal.
Gadget insurance is something that may well be unheard of to a lot of people, but the advantages to it are high enough in number for one to seriously consider it. For example, specific gadget policies generally offer a 48-hour replacement service which can be a bit of a lifesaver especially in a world where we are increasingly relying on our gadgets and something that you won’t find under your home contents cover.
Whilst there are quite a few demographics that won’t really need this (namely those that own few or inexpensive gadgets), no doubt many would benefit especially well: frequent travellers will be happier in the knowledge that wherever they go their iPod/laptop/phone will be covered should it get lost, stolen or just broken whilst they are off on their travels – I know several people who have dropped their iPhone 3GS breaking the screen on at least one occasion!
Families will also benefit from the multi-gadget policies which can cover all a families phones (along with all the other things we have already mentioned) both in and out of the home without the possibility of affecting your home insurance no claims bonus. Finally, and this is particularly apt for this time of year, students should really consider making the most of this as phones aren’t covered as part of student insurance policies.
So the need for the insurance is clear and with so many companies cottoning onto this there has been a place in the market for a comparison website, and that is where — as of 2nd September — moneymaxim.co.uk have stepped in.
The list of things you can search for is rather impressive consisting of 23 different types of gadgets: Mobile Phone, Blackberry, iPad, iPhone, Laptop, Sat Nav, MP3, iPod, Camera, Games Console, PSP, Portable Console, Video Camera, DVD player, Flatscreen TV, E-Reader, Projector, Headphones, Home Cinema, Camera Lens, Bluetooth Devices, In Car Computer and finally PDAs.
The actual website itself is relatively basic with only really the bare minimum of visuals and information and doesn’t look quite as professional as perhaps the mainstream comparison websites do, but that isn’t especially important as it does what you want it to do quite well. Admittedly the number of results is hardly overwhelming (I got four results from two companies for my £400 phone) but that is the sort of thing that will grow with time and full marks to moneymaxim.co.uk for starting what will probably become a trend.
As Mark Bower, the Managing Director said, “Whatever the product we are confident that we can find an affordable insurance solution to offer the best value cover out there – we support our online comparison site with a telephone support team too, so our customers receive an excellent all-around personal service. A key benefit of the moneymaxim service is that it is easy to compare prices and features for various products and services in about 60 seconds.”
So there’s the first gadgets insurance comparison website, but what for the future in gadget insurance? One would have thought that as this becomes increasingly prevalent gadgets will cease to become part of home insurance altogether, and we will end up spending large amounts of money on insurance for said items, quite possibly creating a market much like that for cars.
Will younger gadget owners end up having to pay more? Will you get no claims discounts? And will there be an increasing market for things like trackers to help keep these prices down? Unfortunately, I don’t know the answers (if I did I’d probably be a rich guy) and we’ll have to wait to find out, but one thing that is for certain is that this is probably going to affect us all in the not too distant future.
Via – Money Maxim
