help!mbl phone insurance

[chargebuster1]

i took out insurance for my mbl over 18mths ago never claimed until today,my phone fell and broke in 2, so i phoned 3 as this is who i thought was receiving money from me for my insurance they gave me another number and when i tried calling them all it says is "welcome to customer services all our ops r busy with other customers pls hold the line"then it cuts off.I feel like im being done over they have had abt £80 for phone insurance what can i do?

[jampot]

Mobile phone insurance is a strange area really. Your phone is covered for manufacturing problems under the normal SOGA terms, and is covered (usually) for accidental damage under your household policy.

 

Most people seem to opt for mobile phone insurance believing it isn't covered for these things in any other way.

 

Phones CAN cost £00's to replace (I bought a SIM FREE phone this week at almost £400!) but I've always been told that, where insurance is concerned, there is ONE golden rule. Only pay to insure what you can't afford to lose.

 

£80 in premiums, plus whatever the excess is (£15? £50?), plus the hassle of going through and making a claim... you have to ask yourself is it worth it. The £100+ likely cost would buy you a semi-decent nearly new handset to tide you over until your network allows your next free upgrade - assuming you aren't on PAYG.

 

If you ARE on PAYG - chances are you paid (nearly) full price for the phone in the first place - and even so, the price you've paid for insurance plus excess is nearly the cost of replacement anyway.

 

Orange used to have an excellent scheme - £5 a month, no excess and they'd replace the handset next day, whether it was faulty or damaged. I claimed about 5 or 6 times for faulty handsets and once for damaged and they were brilliant. But it was costly for them, and when they introduced an excess, even when it was due to a fault in the phone, it became much less of a benefit.

 

When I switched providers a couple of years back, I looked into other mobile phone insurance schemes - I couldn't find a single one which was cost effective and wasn't riddled with exclusions, excesses and actually offered any benefits which I would be prepared to pay for.

 

Sorry that doesn't help in your case. Check the wording of the policy and see what it says about "how to claim" then follow that to the letter. If there's any excess to pay and any mention of a turnaround time make sure they stick to their side of the agreement. If you can't get through over the phone, look for email, fax or postal addresses for them..