Have decided to buy the iPhone 4s directly from Apple, and have chopped my o2 tariff in half. The only issue is insurance.

I've been insuring my 3Gs for 7.99 a month with carphone warehouse which I'll be cancelling very soon.

Has anyone had any (good/bad) experience with third-party phone insurance companies?

Protect my bubble should be avoided if the thread in this section is anything to go off

Probably the best options are to either add it to your home contents insurance if you have it or look at seeing if your bank offer an account with mobile phone insurance

Be wary of policies that come with bank accounts. I've heard a few horror stories from friends regarding such policies. They are often cheap policies that can leave you without a phone for over a week while the claim is processed and they often don't provide Apple approved refurbished phones as replacements meaning it can be pot luck what you get back.

If you're considering such a policy then I'd read the terms and conditions carefully and be sure you understand the level of cover you are getting.

Anyone know anything about http://www.insurance2go.co.uk/

Prices seem OK.

A quick skim through the terms and conditions reveals a slightly worrying term requiring you to have made 12 monthly payments to make a claim. If you therefore claim having made one payment you'll be required to make a payment equal to 11 monthly payments before they will process your claim. As a plus, your direct debit would then stop until month 13 but it's still a slightly worrying clause

I would probably plump for the full amount up front anyway. I have far too many direct debits as it is!

My bank offers mobile insurance so, and as was mentioned earlier, I would check with them or your current home insurer first and see what they offer. Might only be a few pounds extra than what you are already paying.

Why not just put the money you'd spend each month on insurance into a separate savings account and then use it to replace/repair the phone in the event that it gets broken or lost?

That way, if you don't have to claim, you've got a bit of money put aside for your next phone.

This - unless you'd actually have problems paying for a new phone, I don't see the point of insurance. Or am I unusually lucky at having gone through 13 years of mobile ownership without losing one?

It depends whether or not you want the peace of mind.

I've had my 3GS replaced three times on my O2 insurance. Total cost paid for insurance premiums over the last 2 and a half years plus the excesses for the claims is around £400. Actually replacing the phone 3 times would have cost me around £1400.

In fact, I actually got a free upgrade from a 3G to a 3GS via insurance as they'd stopped supplying the 16 GB 3G when I made my first claim so they gave me a 3GS instead.

Whether or not I'd be more careful with the handset if it wasn't insured is a debatable point of course, but one of the incidents was unavoidable so it wouldn't have made a difference how careful I'd been, and even only counting that one claim I'm still up overall versus the cost of replacing it.

Because we're talking about a total of around £80 a year for something that cost me £600. Let's say it was broken in the 4th month. I don't think the £28 I've got in a savings account is going to be particularly useful in replacing something that cost 20 times that.

Insurance is peace of mind, not an excuse to act irresponsibly. I don't expect to break or lose my phone, but you never know what will happen.

I don't make a habit of losing/breaking phones but I'd had my 3GS for two years and had paid about £160 when it developed a charging fault. With insurance it was replaced with a brand new phone in 48 hours.

I started the thread of Protect Your Bubble.com - Think Twice
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1472768

Read the posts from other Iphone users you will see non have been succesful when claiming.

Myself,
* have had 3x£25.00 payments given back to me as compensation.
*All phone costs of phone calls to them were refunded.
*Postage costs also returned as the replacement Nokia Handset was faulty even though they claimed otherwise and Nokia proved it was faulty