Gadget Insurance Calculator

Before paying for standalone gadget insurance, it is worth checking something first: many home contents policies already cover devices away from the home, sometimes with a lower excess than people assume. This calculator estimates what dedicated gadget cover would cost for your specific devices, so you can compare it directly against what you might already have, rather than assuming a separate policy is automatically needed.

Check Your Existing Cover Before Buying Anything

This is genuinely the first step worth taking, not a formality — some home contents policies already extend cover to gadgets taken outside the home, occasionally with a fairly low excess, which can mean a separate gadget policy is paying twice for protection you already have. It is worth reading your existing contents policy schedule specifically for a “personal possessions” or “away from home” clause before assuming a gap exists. Our Contents Insurance Calculator is useful for checking your overall contents cover and sum insured while you are looking into this.

Where a genuine gap does exist, it is usually one of two things: contents cover that only protects belongings inside the home, leaving devices carried out and about unprotected, or a low per-item limit that a higher-value phone or laptop exceeds. Identifying which specific gap applies to you, rather than assuming cover is either fully present or fully absent, leads to a more accurate decision than a blanket assumption either way.

Why More Devices on One Policy Costs Less Per Device

Multi-device gadget policies apply a meaningful discount once you insure three or more devices together, and a larger discount again from five devices upward, since bundling reduces the administrative cost of the policy relative to the value covered and reflects that not every device is likely to need a claim in the same year. For a household with a phone, tablet, laptop and a games console, insuring everything on one multi-device policy is very often considerably cheaper per device than insuring each one separately, even before considering the convenience of a single renewal date.

This makes gadget insurance a case where combining a household’s devices onto one family or multi-device policy is usually worth actively considering, rather than each family member independently taking out separate single-device cover — the combined approach both reduces total cost and simplifies managing renewals and claims to one policy instead of several.

The Screen Repair Maths That Makes This Worth It (Or Doesn’t)

A cracked screen is one of the most common gadget insurance claims, and current out-of-warranty screen repair costs for a premium phone are high enough that a single claim can offset a meaningful portion, or even the majority, of a year’s premium — a flagship phone screen repair commonly runs into the £200-£300 range without insurance. This is worth weighing against your own accident-proneness honestly: someone who has never cracked a screen in years of phone ownership has a genuinely different risk profile from someone who has needed two or three repairs, even on an identical device.

A screen protector and a decent case reduce this risk considerably and cost a small fraction of either a repair or a year of insurance — worth considering as a complementary, low-cost first line of defence regardless of whether insurance is also taken out, since the two approaches address the same risk from different angles.

One Repair Versus a Year of Cover

An iPhone 15 Pro screen repair currently costs around £299 out of warranty, and a Galaxy S24 screen repair around £249 — either figure alone is close to, or above, a full year of standard multi-device gadget cover for several devices combined. This is exactly why a single claim can represent close to instant value from a year’s premium: someone who cracks one screen in a policy year has very often already recouped most or all of what the cover cost, even before counting any other claim across the rest of the year’s coverage.

Standard or Premium — What the Difference Actually Buys

Standard cover typically includes theft and accidental damage, the two most common claim types by far. Premium cover adds worldwide cover, useful if devices regularly travel abroad, and mechanical breakdown cover once the manufacturer warranty has expired. The right tier depends on how you actually use your devices — someone who rarely travels and whose devices stay within manufacturer warranty for their useful life may find standard cover sufficient, while frequent travellers or anyone keeping devices well beyond warranty may find the premium tier genuinely earns its extra cost. If a specific item like a bike, rather than electronics, is what you are considering insuring separately, our Bicycle Insurance Calculator covers that same specialist-versus-contents decision for a different category of possession.

Frequently Asked Questions

Important Information

This calculator provides an estimate for general information purposes only and does not constitute insurance advice or a quote. Actual premiums, cover terms and exclusions vary by insurer. For an accurate quote, compare policies directly with insurers. See our Disclaimer for further information.