When you buy a new smartphone or a new laptop this often isn’t a negligible expense by any means.

A new smartphone if you’re not on contract can cost as much as $800 or more even, and even if you decide to buy on contract you’re still essentially locking yourself into a highly expensive contract that will cost you hundreds of dollars over the year.

If you break your device then you will be losing a huge amount of money potentially, while at the same time being very disheartened to have what was probably and very exciting new device taken from you right away.

So the question is, should you insure it to avoid this happening? Here we will look at whether this is a good precaution.

Alternatives

When you buy your new device from Comet or wherever else, often the salesperson will try to convince you to spend more money on insurance and will act as though this is the only sensible option. Of course they say this partly because they will get commission on the insurance you take out â?? and it’s important to remember that there are other options for protecting your device.

One of these options is to look for insurance elsewhere â?? it may be that you can insure individual items like this more cheaply if you look online rather than using the in-store insurance. At the same time you should also look into household insurance â?? and depending on the nature of the device your item may even still be covered. If it’s a PC for instance and you drop tea on it, then this will probably be covered by your household insurance. Only devices that you are going to take out of the home such as phones and laptops need extra insurance then in many cases. Do your research and before you go into store so that you’re armed with knowledge.

Different Items

Weâ??ve already discussed that your desktop computers are probably insured by your household insurance, but there are other things you need to consider too. First of all think about the cost of the device. For me personally if my device is under $200 then I am often willing to just risk the cost of getting it repaired or replaced â?? or even looking to buy another one second hand when the time comes. Of course here you need to weigh up the cost of the insurance being offered versus the cost of the device.

Likewise you need to think about the durability of your device, as well as the cost of getting repairs. If you have an item that has gorilla glass in the screen and where replacement parts are easily and cheaply available online, then you might want to forego the insurance in this case.

Other Measures

Finally should also think about how else you can protect your device. Even if you do take out some form of insurance then you won’t want your item to break as you’ll still pay excess and you’ll still have to wait without your device while it gets repaired. For instance then it’s worth investing in a good protective case if you have a phone, and a lanyard if you have a camera, and you might want to choose your device as well based on how likely it is to get damaged.

Kat Edwards is a professional freelancer specializing in writing articles about technology and gadgets. In her leisure, she author articles about online caravan insurance comparison. Go ahead and follow her on Twitter!

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net