Mobile Phone Insurance in Switzerland Explained

When buying a mobile phone, Swiss consumers are often sold on the idea of insuring it with mobile phone insurance. This insurance is offered by telecom companies like Salt, Sunrise, and Swisscom, by mobile phone retailers like Mobilezone, and by electronics retailers like Interdiscount and Digitec Galaxus.

For many Swiss consumers, phones have become an indispensable part of everyday life. Resultingly, damaging or losing a phone can be a very frustrating experience. Then there is the fact that some phones are extremely costly. So why would you not insure your important device?

Do I even need mobile phone insurance?

Many people are not aware that the household insurance that many Swiss households have already partially covers mobile phones. This insurance insures your phone against damages caused by fires, flooding, and natural hazards. If your household insurance includes a rider for simple theft away from home, then you are also insured against the risk of your phone being stolen outside of your home. Some Swiss insurance companies also offer a comprehensive rider for household insurance that covers electronic appliances like phones. You can find out exactly what may be covered in the moneyland.ch guide to household insurance coverage for phones.

The stand-alone mobile phone insurance which you can get for a specific phone is often relatively expensive. Additionally, the fine print lists a number of hazards that are not covered, and the insurance company will not compensate you in those cases. If you are the type of person who takes good care of your phone, then getting mobile phone insurance normally is not worth it. If you are not particularly careful with your things, then you should first check if household insurance could be a better fit.

Where can I get Swiss mobile phone insurance?

Classic mobile phone insurance is offered by telecom companies like Swisscom, Sunrise, and Salt. It is also offered by phone merchants like Interdiscount, Digitec, and Mobilezone. When you buy a new mobile phone from one of these dealers, you will be given the option of buying insurance for that device. This mobile phone insurance only covers that one device, though some insurance offers extend coverage to a possible replacement device as well.

The Swiss insurance company Baloise offers mobile phone insurance that can be taken out online for any phone, regardless of where you bought the phone.

Apple is the one phone manufacturer that offers mobile phone insurance for the devices it makes. You can get this insurance at some of the dealers that sell Apple’s iPhones.

Who underwrites mobile phone insurance policies?

While mobile phone insurance is sold by phone dealers, these dealers are simply insurance agents or brokers for the insurance contracts. The insurance itself is provided by insurance companies.

The table below lists the mobile phone insurance plans offered with new mobile phone.

How much does mobile phone insurance cost?

The cost of mobile phone insurance varies broadly between the different offers.

The telecom service providers Swisscom, Sunrise, and Salt charge you the insurance premiums along with your monthly phone bill. The insurance premiums range between 6 and 21 francs per month, depending on the product. Other mobile phone insurance offers typically have just one insurance premium that covers the whole insurance term. For 24 months, the single premium ranges between 80 and 270 francs.

With nearly all mobile phone insurance offers, the size of the insurance premium is based on the value of the insured phone. The more expensive your phone is, the more expensive the insurance will be.

* The total combined insurance premiums for a 24-month term.

The table above does not include all possible variants of available Swiss mobile phone insurance offers. Offers with insurance terms of just one year and offers for very expensive devices are excluded in order to keep the table manageable. Baloise lets you choose between replacement value (the cost or replacing your phone with a new, identical phone) and actual cash value (the cost of a used phone in the same condition your phone was in just before the covered incident). You pay lower premiums for actual cash value insurance.

Which hazards does Swiss mobile phone insurance cover?

Covered hazards vary between individual offers. In simplified terms, mobile phone insurance generally covers one or more of these hazards:

• Damages: Your phone is broken and needs to be repaired or replaced.
• Theft: Your phone is stolen. The insurance covers the cost of the stolen phone.
• Fraudulent use: An unauthorized third party uses your lost phone to make phone calls on your phone bill. The insurance covers the costs generated by this fraudulent use of your phone.

Some offers include supplementary benefits like replacement phones, support with finding your lose phone, or extended warranties.

But as with all insurances, it is the fine print that counts. Hazards are only covered under certain conditions. Make sure to study the terms and conditions governing which situations are actually covered before you sign up.

Which Swiss mobile phone insurance offers cover damages to phones?

The table below shows which kinds of damages are generally covered by different insurance offers. Normally, damages are only compensated if they are caused by sudden, unforeseeable factors. Swisscom, for example, stresses that damages are only covered if the damage was caused by an external, sudden, unforeseeable event, and you still have the device.

Damages incurred slowly over time – such as wear and tear – are usually excluded. Damages caused by temperature and weather conditions are also normally excluded. In general, it is important that you understand that the terms and conditions define many different situations that are not covered, and will not be compensated by the insurance company.

Many mobile phone insurance offers exclude fire, with the reasoning that fire is already covered by household insurance.

Which Swiss mobile phone insurance offers cover theft?

Only a few Swiss mobile phone insurance offers cover theft, and those that do have limitations. For example, the theft coverage from one insurer does not cover phones stolen from cars if the phone was visible from outside the car before it was stolen.

These mobile phone insurance offers cover theft:

• Baloise Handy-Versicherung /
  Assurance téléphone portable
• Mobilezone Protect Clever (with the optional insurance rider for theft, available for a one-time markup of 20 francs)
• Salt Care Premium
• Sunrise Flex Upgrade
• Sunrise Smart Protect Plus

These mobile phone insurance offers do not cover theft:

• Apple Care Plus
• Brack.ch Garantieverlängerung
  und Vollkasko / Extension de garantie
• et Casco complète
• Digitec Galaxus Device insurance
• Sicura Smartphone-Versicherung / Assurance smartphone Sicura
• Interdiscount Mobile Protection
• Mobilezone Protect Clever (without the optional insurance rider for theft)
• Salt Keep & Care
• Salt Care
• Sunrise Smart Protect
• Swisscom Easy Protection

Which mobile phone insurance offers cover costs that result from fraudulent phone use?

Some mobile phone insurance offers cover the fraudulent use of your phone when your phone is stolen. If, for example, your phone is stolen, and the thief uses your SIM card for calls or other activities that generate costs, the insurance will cover these extra costs up to 3000 francs with most offers (Swisscom’s insurance covers up to 2000 francs). Important: In order to claim this insurance benefit, you have to file a report with the police and have your mobile service provider immediately disable your SIM as soon as possible after your phone is stolen.

These mobile phone insurance offers cover costs generated by the fraudulent use of your SIM:

• Digitec Galaxus Device Insurance
• Fust Sicura Smartphone-Versicherung / Assurance smartphone Sicura
• Interdiscount Mobile Protection
• Salt Care
• Salt Care Premium
• Swisscom Easy Protection

These Swiss mobile phone insurance offers do not cover fraudulent SIM use:

• Apple Care Plus
• Baloise Handy-Versicherung /
  Assurance téléphone portable
• brack.ch Garantieverlängerung
  und Vollkasko / Extension de garantie et Casco complète
• Salt Keep & Care
• Sunrise Flex Upgrade
• Sunrise Smart Protect
• Sunrise Smart Protect Plus

It is interesting to note that the mobile phone insurance offers from Digitec Galaxus, Fust, Interdiscount, and Swisscom cover the fraudulent use of your SIM when your phone is stolen, but do not cover the theft of your phone itself.

How much do I have to pay out of my own pocket?

Nearly all Swiss mobile phone insurance offers have an insurance deductible. Typically, you have to pay the first 20 to 150 francs of costs out of your own pocket every time you make an insurance claim. There are big differences between the deductibles used by different insurance providers. With the insurance offers from Digitec Galaxus, Sunrise, and Swisscom, the size of the deductible varies depending on the cost of your phone.

The insurance deductibles of Swiss mobile phone insurance offers are listed below:

• Apple Care Plus: 100 francs for most hazards. 29 francs for accidental damage to the phone’s screen.
• Baloise Handy-Versicherung /
  Assurance téléphone portable: 50 francs.
• brack.ch Garantieverlängerung
  und Vollkasko / Extension de garantie et Casco complète: 70 francs.
• Digitec Galaxus Device Insurance: The deductible is based on the price of the phone, with a minimum deductible of 20 francs. For a phone with a new value of 1498 francs, for example, the deductible would be 150 francs. In most cases, the deductible is just over 10 percent of the phone’s new value.
• Fust Sicura Smartphone-Versicherung / Assurance smartphone Sicura: 85 francs.
• Interdiscount Mobile Protection: 79 francs.
• Mobilezone Protect Clever: 60 francs for most hazards. 150 francs for theft.
• Salt Keep & Care: 99 francs.
• Salt Care und Salt Care Premium: 99 francs for most hazards. There are no deductibles for fraudulent SIM use and theft.
• Sunrise Flex Upgrade: 50, 100, or 150 francs, depending on the phone’s original price.
• Sunrise Smart Protect and Sunrise Smart Protect Plus: The deductible varies depending on the original price of the phone. For a cheap phone, the deductible is 30 francs for the first insurance claim you make and 50 francs for the second claim. For an expensive phone, the deductible is 90 francs for the first claim and 100 francs for the second claim.
• Swisscom Easy Protection: For most hazards, the deductible is between 70 and 100 francs, depending on the price of the new phone. There are no deductibles for fraudulent SIM use and theft.

How can I claim insurance benefits when a hazard occurs?

Each insurance provider has its own rules. Your contract explains whom you should contact if a hazard occurs. Depending on which mobile phone insurance offer you use, you may be able to file claims online, by phone, or in person at a store. In every case, it is important that you contact the insurance company immediately, and that you carefully perform all of the required steps when filing the claim.

Some insurance providers only cover a repair if you get their explicit approval first, before you have your phone repaired. The insurance provider may also require you to have the phone repaired by a specific repair service.

If your phone is stolen, you must file a report of the theft with the police. You must submit a copy of the police report to the insurance company when you claim the insurance benefit.

If your broken phone is replaced with a new phone, you normally will have to turn the old phone over to the insurance company. You can find more information about this in the fine print.

You are normally required to report damages to the insurance claim handler specified in your insurance agreement as soon as they occur.

Can I insure a phone that I already have?

Mobile phone insurance is typically purchased along with a new phone, but some insurance providers let you take out insurance shortly after you get your phone. For example, Baloise lets you take out its mobile phone insurance up to 21 days after you buy your device.

Only a few insurance providers also let you insure older phones, and you pay higher premiums than you would pay for a new phone.

What should I look for in the fine print?

When looking at mobile phone insurance, you should carefully review the terms and conditions, paying special attention to these factors:

• Insurance coverage: Read the terms and conditions and get informed about which hazards are covered. Get informed about the responsibilities you must meet in order to claim compensation, and about which situations and hazards are excluded from coverage.  
• The insurance term: Many mobile phone insurance offers have a fixed term. Typically, the insurance term is either one year or two years. The minimum terms that apply to insurance offers with monthly premiums vary between offers. Some offers have no minimum insurance term at all, while others have long minimum terms.
• The number of claims you can make: Many insurance providers only accept a maximum of two insurance claims across the full insurance term. But there are also insurance providers that do not limit the number of claims you can make.
• The maximum insurance benefit: Some insurance providers limit compensation to the price you pay for the device, plus delivery costs.

Conclusion: Mobile phone insurance is usually an expensive solution

To get straight to the point, mobile phone insurance is not worth getting, in many cases. For devices with a new value of less than 1000 francs, the cost of insurance is simply too high.

On top of the high premiums, you also usually have a high deductible that you have to cover out of your own pocket, and many hazards – theft, for example – often are not covered.

Having damages like a broken screen repaired often costs less than the annual insurance premium of mobile phone insurance.

Mobile phone insurance is primarily lucrative for telecom companies, phone dealers, and insurance companies. Some phone dealers receive sales commissions for sales of mobile phone insurance, which gives them an incentive to sell you insurance along with your phone and mobile plan.

Important note about the information in this guide: Some mobile phone insurance providers update their pricing and conditions on a regular basis. The terms and conditions that apply at the time that you take out an insurance policy are the ones that count. The information in this text applies to insurance offers as per early September 2023. Different pricing and conditions may apply to mobile phone insurance offers taken out before that date. Your specific mobile phone insurance policy is governed by the terms and conditions of that policy.

More on this topic:
Is my phone covered by my Swiss household insurance?
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