Laptop Insurance

pclancy

Hi all,

Friend of mine bought a nice FSC amilio widescreen laptop but cant get it insured under house contents as most people do as his parents dont have house insurance and wont get it! does anyone have any idea of any way to insure the laptop itself incase its stolen or damaged etc?

Cheers.

Jammer

where did he buy it? If it is in Dixons, Currys or PC World, they'll happily insure it against accidental damage!

Gone West

house insurance is often actually cheaper than dixons, etc. I'd advise him to get lots of quotes from different insurance companies, sometimes house insurance isn't really that expensive.

snappieT

Last year 45% of dixons profits came from the reselling of insurance packages. Don't do dixons.

themole

you can get insurance for your posessions in a rented house. this should be able to cover a laptop.

don't remember where i saw this, some kind of insurance aimed at students, around £60/year.

i find it hard to beleive his parents don't have insurance. maybe they don't have contents insurance, which is a different thing.

Jammer

This one often baffles me. So what if they made profit from it? Do u think Quinn Direct aren't making a profit every year?

You pay €350ish for a 3 year accidental cover warranty, 24hr tech support, unlimited repairs etc etc. I can almost guarantee if u were to drop your laptop, that would be 1/3 of the repair cost. To walk out of somewhere after spending €2.5K on a piece of electrical equipment, and not have it somehow insured against accidents is playing with fire.

Yes, they make profit from it, because not everyone lets their laptop fall. Same way not everyone crashes their car.

Gone West

I think the point he was making is that dixons overcharge for their insurance. Which IMO, they do(same with currys, etc.) Yes, traditional insurance companies do make large profits, but they can still be cheaper (themole quotes E60 for students) than the retailers insurance.

Jammer

the house insurnace doesnt give u tech support, they will not repair the laptop. they also deduct depreciation when/if the laptop is damaged. house insurance will only pay out 1/3 of the original price 6 months after purchase, which is fcuk all. they wont try to repair it, nor will they offer tech support. most of them only cover it in the home aswell, take it outside/on holidays and ur fudged!

IMHO (i did research this quite thoroughly when i was buying my laptop), the insurance offered by Dixons etc is worth the money, if anything does break, and it cant repaired u go up to them and get a new one, or vouchers to buy a new one. IF u have info on it u need, they'll recover it and you also get worldwide cover and 24hr tech support. Worth the money. Peace of mind.

Another thing, that i discovered, was house insurance contents clause says that u must have done everything in ur power to stop the accident and they will not pay out if its due to your stupidity (ie tripping over the cord or leaving something on the keyboard, then closing the screen etc), so 'drops' are not covered.

It may seem like a lot of money, but let me tell ya, from experience, it'll be the best €350 u ever spend if the slippery begger falls outta your hand and smashes into a million pieces right infront of your eyes!

snappieT

FuzzyLogic wrote:

I think the point he was making is that dixons overcharge for their insurance. Which IMO, they do(same with currys, etc.) Yes, traditional insurance companies do make large profits, but they can still be cheaper (themole quotes E60 for students) than the retailers insurance.

Exactly

BTW, Currys, Dixons & PC World are all one company under the name of Dixons LTD. Look at the VAT number, for example

jesus_thats_gre

snapscan1212p wrote:

BTW, Currys, Dixons & PC World are all one company under the name of Dixons LTD. Look at the VAT number, for example

OMG really?

Paddyo

They all come under the DSG Group

Have a look on the web for the DSG Group

themole

i have laptop insurance through my parents house insurance. its around E80/year and covers accidental damage and theft anywhere.

i also have an extended warranty since i bought my laptop in the us and it didn't have an international warranty. paid $300 for 3 year international.

as far as dixons goes, these policies are normally a rip off for tv's hifi's etc. but as stated already a laptop is a different story.

i had to get the headphone jack repaired on mine and it cost €125. the guy told me at the time that they could have to replace the mother board which costs €550. this would have been covered by my insurance anyway, the balls was that the insurance doesn't cover the first €125 of a claim

a friend of the brothers got a laptop in pc world with the cover, 3 years, a month before the 3 years were up his machine went foobar and needed replacing. they gave him €1250 towards another laptop in the store, so he got a new one which was 10 times faster than his old one.

anyway, i would reccomend getting the cover.

Jammer

they were fine for me that way aswel, similar enough scenario.

shouldn't really compare the cover offered by DSG to house insurance, ring up your house insurance company and say "Hello, how are you doing, my laptop hard drive failed me just there and..."

Capt'n Midnight

or you could buy a cheap n' chearfull new dell for €599 inc vat..

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=240664

pclancy

dell? that cheap=crap. No he bought the laptop from a local store who didnt offer insurance and they dont have any insurance at home because the parents just dont (many reasons, all weird) so i guess i'll just tell him to ring around a few brokers or something and see what he can get. Cheers for the suggestions tho.

themole

Jammer wrote:

they were fine for me that way aswel, similar enough scenario.

shouldn't really compare the cover offered by DSG to house insurance, ring up your house insurance company and say "Hello, how are you doing, my laptop hard drive failed me just there and..."

ya. tye house insurance i have only covers accidental damage/theft.

but if i said i dropped it and now the harddrive doesn't work.....