Owning a laptop is now almost essential in many forms of business and even daily life. It might therefore be worthwhile thinking about protecting your laptop through laptop insurance.
Laptops aren’t cheap
Although prices have fallen over recent years, even a moderate specification level laptop is still relatively expensive. If you had to replace it at short notice, the hit on your personal finances may be severe and painful – to say the least! That’s why spending a little time thinking about laptop insurance, may prove to be in your financial interest.
The dangers of laptops
Laptops themselves aren’t inherently dangerous; the dangers arise to your pocket from a variety of possible causes.
– theft – it’s a fact of modern life that you may not be the only person that likes your laptop and some of those others may not hesitate to help themselves to it given half the chance;
– accidents – they happen and if they do, your laptop could be instantly reduced to a pile of fairly useless component parts.
Laptop insurance exists to offer you the chance to avoid having to meet all of the replacement cost yourself.
Insurance benefits
It’s typically the case that laptops come under what’s sometimes called gadget insurance provisions.
What that means is that certain forms of insurance benefit will be provided as standard to all gadgets, including laptops, while some provisions may apply specifically to the type of gadget concerned.
So, with some form of gadget insurance it is typically the case that your laptop will automatically benefit from:
– theft cover (though it’s worth noting that you may be obliged to adopt sensible precautions such as not leaving it unattended);
– 48 hour replacement from the time your claim is approved;
– data backup facilities for your critical information (to a specified maximum size);
– accident cover – to deal with those unfortunate accidents that always happen to someone else, right up to the second they happen to you!
Laptop protection insurance typically does not cover breakdowns outside of the manufacturer’s warranty period.
It is always wise to read the full terms and conditions of any laptop insurance policy to understand the full features and benefits, as well as the exclusions and limitations.
Playing the odds
It’s perfectly true that some people have used laptops for years and never had a single problem of any of the above types.
Nobody can really tell you just how likely or unlikely you may be to encounter any of these problems. The real question boils down to whether or not you’d be willing and able to find the money for a new replacement laptop if you were unlucky with your existing one.
If you don’t think you could or would wish to, then laptop insurance may be for you.
