Mobile Insurance: Our Pick Of The Best (2024)

Our ratings take into account the card’s rewards, fees, rates along with the card’s category. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

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Editor

Updated: Jan 04, 2024

We carried out research (December 2023) to find out which mobile phone insurance providers offer the best coverage at the best prices to help you protect your handset. For more on how the providers are ranked, refer to our methodology.

Using data from our partner Comparison Creator, we looked at insurance deals for a 128GB Apple iPhone 15.

We then ranked the results from the least to the most expensive, while taking into account other factors such as the excess amounts that customers have to pay when making a claim, along with any policy exclusions.

We overlaid this information with editorial judgment to arrive at our Forbes Advisor star ratings.

Mobile phone insurance pays you money to repair or replace your handset if it’s damaged, lost or stolen. You pay a monthly premium for the protection and, if you need to make a claim on your policy, you’ll pay an up-front excess fee to get things started.

The more expensive your phone and the more comprehensive cover you need, the more you’ll pay each month.

If you make a successful claim, the insurer will either get your phone repaired or pay out cash for you to buy a replacement.

The latest and greatest handsets can cost north of £1,000 and new technologies such as folding displays can make repairs prohibitively expensive or impossible. Without a mobile phone insurance policy in place, you’ll be left to pay for repairs or replacement out of your own pocket.

If your handset is part of your pay monthly contract, you could still be on the hook for a lost or irreparably damaged handset that you can’t use for months or even years, yet still need to pay for a working phone in tandem.

Even the most conscientious and careful mobile users can be unlucky, and a mobile phone insurance policy can offer some peace of mind that you won’t be left to foot the bill if push comes to shove.

Estimated repair cost without insurance (iPhone)

Estimated repair cost without insurance (Samsung)

Protection varies from one policy to the next, but it’s possible to protect your phone against:

• Accidental damage
• Liquid damage
• Theft
• Loss
• Mechanical breakdown

Not every policy will include this kind of cover as standard, but it’s available if you’re willing to pay for it.

A mobile phone insurer is unlikely to approve a claim that arises because you’ve not taken reasonable care of your phone to prevent it from being lost, stolen or damaged. For example, if you left your iPhone unattended on a bar and it was stolen, the insurer is likely to reject your claim.

Insurers’ policies come with different exclusions, which mean some will provide greater levels of cover than others. It’s therefore important to read policy wording documents carefully to understand what you’re signing up.

It depends. Your home insurance policy might not cover you against accidental damage, or your phone could be worth more than your policy’s single-item limit, and so wouldn’t be fully covered.

You’ll also need to check the policy offers ‘cover away from home’ in the event that your phone is lost, stolen or damaged when you are out.

In short, it’s best not to assume that your home insurance offers the protection you need for your phone. At very least, you should dig out the policy wording to see how far the cover extends.

This is also true for any cover you might get through your bank account. Many banks offer mobile phone insurance as an added perk of their accounts, but you should make sure your device is registered with the bank and that the cover provided is sufficient to replace your handset if necessary.