I’m going to start this piece by saying that I’ve never been greatly bothered by phone insurance. It’s not something I’ve considered getting because I’m generally pretty careful. However, thanks to our bank (and a regular monthly fee) we have a few “perks” which includes travel and mobile phone insurance.
So, if we do have a broken phone it’ll get fixed. As with a lot of mobile insurers, the excess you pay can depend on the type of phone. A £100 excess may be applicable on an iPhone but you could find a £50 excess on other handsets.
My wife used to have her ultra-bouncy Galaxy S5. It flew off a fairground ride, high into the air and smashed into the ground at quite a speed. Somehow, after all that, it still worked.
Since then though, my wife has upgraded to a Galaxy S7 edge. It’s a brilliant phone and it’s protected with one of those flip-covers but, sadly, it had a meeting with the concrete after slipping out of her hand. The result, as you can see below, is a bit painful to look at..
Now, a regular Samsung Galaxy 7 with a flat screen will cost you £164.99 at iMend.com or £209 with repairaphone.co.uk to have the screen and LCD panel swapped.
However, a curved-screen Galaxy S7 edge costs a whopping £289.99 from iMend or £319 at Repairaphone.
Now, think about that for a moment. Carphone Warehouse are selling a brand new Galaxy S7 edge for £569 but I’ve found the very same Vodafone-locked Samsung Galaxy S7 edge that my wife broke here on CEX for £385!
You can also fish around places like MobiCity and VentureDirect to possibly get the phone for £352 or £343.60 respectively (I’m not familiar with these stores though). Either way, it’s a bit of a bonkers situation. A phone costs nearly £300 to have the screen fixed, but for £52-£85 more you can have a whole new phone!
We’re going to stump up the £50 excess and see what happens, but it definitely shows how costly the curvy glass on the likes of the S7 edge and the upcoming S8 handsets will be to replace.