Today, most sellers of electronic devices, including smartphones or digital tablets, offer you insurance at the time of purchase to guarantee the breakage or theft of this equipment, for example. A decision that can be very useful when such a disaster occurs, especially since all these devices represent a real financial investment. Be careful, however, to take a few precautions before subscribing to such insurance. You must first read the guarantees offered, but also check that your other insurance contracts (home, vehicle, etc.) do not already cover you for these risks.
Subscribing to the insurance offered when buying a smartphone or tablet is very tempting. These devices are indeed not cheap and represent a significant expense for most households. It is therefore normal to want to protect these high-tech materials from damage or theft to which they may be subject.
When taking out such insurance, it is nevertheless advisable to read and understand the content of the contracts offered (see this site on insurance). Insurance companies are under a legal obligation to provide you, before signing the contract, via the smartphone or tablet seller, with an information document on their insurance product, whether it is a purchase in store or online. The latter must clearly present elements such as the purpose of the contract, the main guarantees and exclusions, the obligations of the insured, the duration of the contract, the terms of termination, etc.
Generally, the guarantees offered by smartphone or tablet insurance are breakage and damage caused. Be careful however, the definition of these claims can vary greatly from one contract to another. The oxidation of these devices is also in principle covered by these insurance contracts. But here too, this damage does not necessarily have the same definition and can be more or less extensive depending on the insurers. Theft is also one of the risks covered by smartphone or tablet insurance, but with very different coverage depending on the insurers, in particular depending on the type of theft (on the sly, pickpocketing, assault, etc. ).
The compensation provided for in these insurance contracts can range from the repair of the damaged smartphone or tablet to its replacement with the same device but used, and sometimes, to its reimbursement.
The insurance offered at the time of the purchase of a smartphone or tablet is generally concluded for a period of one year, renewable tacitly, that is to say in an implied manner. You therefore have the option of terminating the contract you have signed at the end of this period (by respecting a notice period), and at any time beyond this first year. Also remember to terminate these insurances if you are no longer in possession of the smartphone or tablet thus covered. In addition, you have a legal withdrawal period of 14 days for all insurance contracts of this type taken out remotely, by telephone or online for example.
The limits of these insurance contracts
Smartphone or tablet insurance contracts never cover all risks. For example, few insurers offer coverage against the loss of your device. The warranty most often comes into play when the damage occurs as a result of an unforeseeable event external to the insured.
You should also know that in the event of a claim, insurers may ask you for a deductible. The latter is nevertheless most often quite modest.
In this type of insurance contract, there are most of the time guarantee limits. Thus, maximum reimbursement amounts can be defined or a limited number of claims covered per year.
If you take out insurance when buying a smartphone or tablet, you must be particularly vigilant about the warranty exclusions mentioned in the document provided by the seller so as not to have any unpleasant surprises on occasion. of a disaster. These exclusions may take the form of damage caused by the willful misconduct of the insured, lack of care, where the insured is unable to provide the IMEI number (i.e. series) of the damaged device, theft without burglary, repair of the device by an unauthorized repairer, damage caused by dust, heat, etc.
You should know that for the vast majority of insurance offered when buying a smartphone or tablet, you are not obliged to decide to subscribe to it at the time of purchase. You therefore have a period of time to carefully weigh the pros and cons of such a subscription, and not to give in to the seller's often tempting proposals.
This period therefore allows you to have time to compare the content of the insurance offered to you with other contracts available on the market.
It is also a time that gives you the opportunity to review your other insurance contracts (home, vehicle, etc.) which, in some cases, may already provide risk coverage for your electronic devices such as your smartphone or your tablet. Moreover, the law obliges the insurers to invite you to check that you are not already the beneficiary of a guarantee covering one of the risks guaranteed by the new contract which you signed on the occasion of the purchase of your smartphone or tablet. In this case, you benefit from a withdrawal period of 14 days, regardless of where you purchased your device and took out the insurance (in store or online).
