Having a laptop means that you can catch up with some work on the train, work from home or perhaps even surf the internet in a cafe with WiFi. However, if you do not have laptop insurance, you may run the risk of having to pay for a replacement or repair out of your own pocket should something terrible happen to it.

A pessimist’s view of the world

If you have never considered laptop insurance before you may think that it adopts a pessimist’s view of the world. After all, is anyone really going to try to steal your laptop, spill a coffee on it, or is it likely to break down outside of the manufacturer’s warranty period?

Both you and your insurer hope that none of these things will happen, and yet they may be covered under a standard laptop insurance policy. On the other hand cover for accidental loss may rarely be included.

The cost of insurance

When you are weighing up whether it is worth getting laptop cover, you may wish to bear in mind that your only other choice should one of the events described above occur is to pay for the consequences out of your own pocket.

The nitty gritty

So now that you have decided to look for insurance for your laptop, what are the things that you may wish to bear in mind? Aside from the risks that may be covered, you may also wish to consider:

– how quickly the insurer would provider you with a new laptop should something happen to the old one; 
– whether the cover is applicable worldwide; 
– whether the service that the insurer offers seems to compare favourably with other insurers that you have considered; 
– terms and conditions, exclusions and limitations that will apply (you may wish to read these carefully to ensure you understand them); 
– what the excess is on your policy. Just as any other insurance policy may have an excess, your laptop cover may typically have a provision which insists that you pay the first tranche of a claim. If that excess figure is too high for you to afford to pay, then you may wish to find a policy with a lower figure to suit your needs.

And finally

Do you have any other gadgets that may benefit from cover? Other gadgets may be included within your laptop insurance, which may result in the cover for them being available at a discounted price. Accordingly, this may be worth considering when you are assessing your insurance needs.