Laptop Insurance - The Vital Elements
Your laptop might be lost, stolen, damaged or just plain not
working. How soon would it be before you are back with a
functioning laptop, and how much is it going to cost you to
get there?
Laptop Insurance is recognised as the necessary tool to help
you through this, but how do you know if you are getting
good cover at a price that represents good value to you?
To answer that, first you need to define exactly what is
important to you. What are your likely risks?
For example, if you never travel with your laptop - maybe
you just use it at home, sometimes in the lounge, sometimes
in the study - then you are probably not going to need
international cover as part of your laptop insurance. In
this instance you are probably not going to need loss cover
either (a laptop is not something you are likely to lose
down the back of the sofa).
What if you just drop your laptop? You need your laptop
insurance to be able to protect you for this. You do NOT
want to have to commit insurance fraud (and thereby break
the law) by lying in your claims process, you would want to
make sure that you are covered for accidental damage.
So outline what elements of cover you think you will need.
For example …
* Will you need Extended Warranty in case it just breaks
down?
* Will you need loss cover?
* Will you need international cover?
* Will you need water damage cover?
* Will you need accidental damage cover?
* Will you need theft cover?
It may seem obvious to you that you need certain elements of
cover, and maybe not others, but just consider the list
above. Some people might feel more at risk of theft than
water damage, while others might be the other way around.
For example, compare a travelling businessman with a
Hydrological Consultant (who might be planning river system
controls). The latter would obviously seem more at risk of
water damage than theft.
Let's look at each in turn …
Extended Warranty:
Bizarrely, very few companies offer Extended Warranties as
part of Laptop Insurance. The only main provider that does
is www.2u.co.uk/laptop-insurance/ . If you want to be
covered for your laptop simply going wrong or breaking down,
you need to be covered for this.
Loss Cover:
It would appear that almost no provider offers loss cover.
It is most likely deemed to be too risky to insure.
International Cover:
Many providers will protect you for up to 60 days per year
outside of the UK.
Water Damage:
This is not a common element of cover in many laptop
insurance company's policies, but it IS a common killer of
laptops! How many times has that cup of tea or class of
orange juice been dangerously close to spilling over your
laptop keyboard?
Accidental Damage
Cover:
Again, this is a common need for laptop insurance. You are
walking along, maybe in a crown, and your laptop bag gets
knocked out of you hand … and smacks down on the concrete.
This is a relatively common element of laptop insurance.
Theft Cover:
This is the most obvious risk for your laptop. You laptop is
a very portable, high value item. Anything that is worth a
lot and can be carried while running away is a prime target
for thieves. Consequently, this is the most common element
of most laptop insurance policies.
On analysis of the market, if you need all of the different
elements of cover, then the 2U Laptop Insurance is, to the
knowledge of this author, the only laptop insurance policy
available on the market that will meet all of your wants and
needs.
If you do not need to protect yourself for all of these
eventualities, you can find slimmed down levels of
protection for your laptop with your local insurance broker,
or in your search engine.
By Duncan Elliott
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