Now the new Univercity term is almost upon us, the sales of Laptops, Notebooks, Cameras, iPods and mobile phones reaches one of the biggest peaks of the year, comparable with pre Christmas sales, as students stock up with all the latest gadgets for their new adventure of leaving home for the first time as they head of to University.

Most students are now expected to own a laptop computer by the University as part of the course, whilst worrying parents insist on the departure of their children is accompanied by the latest mobile phone; a simple trick to make sure the parents can ring their child whenever they want to check they are safe!

A high percentage of new students will head for University halls of residence for the first year of the course. For most of the students, this will be the first real time they have left home and had to fend and finance for themselves, which for many, this will prove to be a learning curve to say the least.

As the new student will be away from home for the first time, along with hundreds of other students, excessive partying is part of the course. There will be plenty of occasions throughout the first year when things will get out of control, especially when alcohol has been involved with young adults who have just found freedom!

Going back ten or twenty years things were roughly the same, except without the modern gadgets like laptops, mobiles and iPods. So when partys continued in the halls of residence after the student bars had shut, but there was not the same sort of valuable items in the students rooms.

Today the value side of things is rather different, electronic devices can easily add up to £1500 and that’s on the budget side of the market. With all of the potential dangers to these products from excited, partying students, it may well be worth considering Laptop Insurance that will cover for accidental damage and theft, but make sure water damage is included, as with all the partys, a knocked over bottle of drink could easily destroy a new laptop in seconds!

Now you could check your home contents insurance, as many companies offer ‘an away from home’ type of cover for expensive items, if you consider this method you should be aware of the following two points. Know what the excess fee will be, as is often a lot higher than stand alone policies.  The second and important point that is worth knowing about is, if you make a claim on your home contents insurance, will you loose your no claims bonus? and or will the policy renewal premium sky rocket as you have made a claim?

When you make a claim on a stand alone policy the policy will often end after a claim, so you just take out a new policy at the same price.

Stand alone iPhone Insurance may well be worth a look at as well, but as with the Student Laptop Insurance, it is best to make sure water damage is included within the policy, as some insurance companies exclude water damage from the policy. This practise sounds a bit strange, but its just the way the insurance business works and manages their risks. So to get best value from stand alone insurance, check for water damage, as students will damage or destroy thousands of electronic items with spilt liquids in the coming year!

Thanks for reading, Dave Groom.

Phone Insurance Made My Holiday

After landing at a Spanish Airport after a very smooth flight with easy jet. I reached in to my pocket and removed my mobile phone, as the seatbelt light had just gone out I decided to switch it on and change the time to the new time zone which was one hour in front of UK time. Just as I switched it on the captain announced over the radio that mobile phones had to remain powered down until you were inside the terminal building, this was to comply with Spanish legislation. To avoid a telling off from one of the cabin staff, I quickly pounced on the on/off to switch the thing off!

This on/off button has caused me a problem a few times lately, when the power button is pressed, nothing happens, It was bound to be s*ds law that my mobile would be bound to blast out its loud ringtone any second! I decided rather than suffer the embarrassment of being caught with my phone on I would quickly pull off the rear cover and remove the battery!

Mobile Phone Insurance

Getting my finger nails under the corner of the battery I gave it a quick tug and the phone jumped out of my grip – after hitting the hard corner of the outer seat row that I was sitting on! Well at least the battery was out and the phone was now off, the battery was lying in the middle of the isle, just one row in front of me. I picked up the phone and the battery and started to place them together again. That was when I realised the LCD screen on my N95 was cracked! Now at this point I would normally have emitted a few words that I would not want my children to hear, but today that was not the case!

Quite simply as this was just the start of the holiday, a damaged mobile was not going to get me down! The fact was, I was actually grinning to myself about the misfortune of my N95, you see just three days before travelling, at the same time as purchasing some Travel Insurance I decided to purchase some Nokia Mobile Phone Insurance !

Now I have never insured my phone before, I have never really seen the point. But after being advised by my network provider that the replacement value was around £400 for this phone and being aware I was off on my holidays for a couple of weeks of Sun, Sand, Sea and plenty of sangria I bit my lip and purchased some Mobile Phone Insurance. I am so glad that my mobile was protected, -just £6.00 a month and it’s saved me nearly £400 straight away!

Happy Holidays…