Insuring Gadgets: Is It Worth It?

It's officially true: we've all gone gadget mad with our tablets, mobiles, laptops and cameras – but have we got adequate contents insurance if something happens to them all? Not sure? Then follow these easy steps to making sure you're covered:

Work out how much they're all worth

If you bought them yourself, you'll have the receipts. If not, it's easy to find out an item's market value on the web using websites like Amazon, Ebay, and Froogle. Once you know much everything cost just total up the values.

Check out your existing policy

If you already have a contents insurance policy with one of the many insurance companies such as Endsleigh, then make sure you've got enough overall cover for the sum of everything you want to be insured, and also enough cover for valuables when you take them outside the home. If not – top it up.

If you're taking out a new policy, you also need to add all your other possessions to cover your total contents, but take special note of the level of cover you take out in the valuables away from home section to make sure the level of cover you take out is high enough – don’t go crazy though, as you don’t want to waste money!

Check out the best deals

Shop around as there are lots of offers and savings to be had. Start with the comparison sites and then compare against some of the stand-alone insurers. Another good tip is to get a quote direct from the insurer that came out cheapest on the comparison site. You can sometimes get even morediscounts this way.

Check out the small print

This part is extremely important on any insurance policy. If you've got really expensive items, it is imperative that you check out your single item/article limit (the maximum an insurer will pay out on a single item). This is typically around £1500 here in the UK, but it can be less. So if you have a high laptop like a Macbook Pro, then you would be out of look with this £1500 limit.

Additional separate cover

If you have got items that are more expensive than your single item cover, ask your insurer for separate cover on these items. Your premium will undoubtedly go up – but that's better than not being able to replace the item if you have to. Just imagine, if you've got something worth £3000 and it's only insured for £1500 – you'll have to find the extra £1500 to replace it.

Conclusion

As we move over to a more gadget orientated society, getting these devices insured is an absolute must, especially with their prices, and complexity rising all the time. How do you protect your gadgets; insurance apps, or something else? Why not tell us your thoughts using the little box below…