For all those Orange and T-Mobile customers around the UK who will have to get use to the imminent new brand name for their mobile phones, could you think of a worse brand name for a mobile phone network than ‘Everything Everywhere’?
It is a brand that is sure going to attract some micky taking, especially when you have broken down on the side of the road with no signal, everything everywhere? … or maybe something sometimes may be more fitting. I am sure they know best!
A strange name and a strange re-branding move that will sure run into millions of pounds, but we have to wish them good luck with the move. Hopefully they will have more luck with their new branding than Royal Mail and the Insignia brand a few years back.
Maybe this was the reason why Orange exercised their rights in the small print of their monthly contract customers and increased their tariffs by 4.34% two weeks back?
Filed under News by 
Whilst millions of people welcomed in the New Year around the world, fun would not have been had by all. There will have been literally thousands of mobile phones of a variety of makes and models that will have been lost, stolen and damaged in all corners of the world.
Some folk will not be too worried as their handsets will only have been worth a few pounds and can easily be replaced. Yet owners of more advanced handsets, such as the latest Android phones and Apple iPhone owners will likely be kicking themselves at their bad luck or negligence.
Some of these people will have mobile phone insurance in one form or another. That could be with their network provider or an independent phone insurance company through to their home insurance policy or premium bank account.
Unfortunately, only around 40% of higher value handsets in the UK reportedly invest in an insurance policy to help protect the wallet against lifes unforeseen circumstances.
Some uninsured people who experienced a bad occurrence with their handset over the new year will attempt to purchase insurance after the event and then make a false claim over the next few day, in an attempt to have their iPhone replaced without having to take the full financial penalty themselves. This is not really the way to go, as it is classed as insurance fraud and if found out by the insurance company, risk being reported to the authorities and then face the possibility of a criminal record.
Insurance providers are getting increasingly tough on insurance fraud and have plenty of systems in place to decect and deal with bogus claims, so if you lost your mobile phone on New Years eve and then insured your handset at 3am on New Years day, think twice before you go ahead and make a claim a few days later!
On way to avoid this kind of situation is to purchase some mobile phone insurance before the accident happens. As mentioned earlier, you can get this from your network provider, online insurance companies, as well as from many premium bank accounts and via adding your handset to your home contents insurance policy.
Filed under Insurance by
This is a novel new way to get your hands on the latest iPhone, yet you will still be able to get your hands on the next Apple handset without having to wait for your 24 month contract to end. Do be aware it can easily turn into an expensive option though. Another way would be to buy the iPhone 4s outright direct from Apple, put your own phone free sim in it, then when the new iPhone 5 is released you can buy it direct from Apple again and sell your iPhone 4s on ebay, where you will be supprised at how much it will still be worth. You will also be able to half the cost of your iPhone insurance, as you will not be tied into the expensive iPhone insurance that o2 provide for the lease handset.
Consumers desperate to get their hands on the latest iPhone 4S can rent the handset for 12 months from O2 – but it will cost them £55 a month for the pleasure of avoiding a lengthy contract.
The new ‘leasing’ scheme includes insurance as well as 740 minutes, 500MB of data and unlimited texts.
It will cost £55 a month for the 16GB model or £65 for the 32GB. That compares to the shortest 18-month contract free ownership phone deal with insurance of £64.50 per month.
However, it is only available on iPhone 4S handsets and must be taken out in-store or over the phone.
As many smartphone addicts will know, customers are often tied into lengthy contracts for 18 to 24 months, leaving them unable to upgrade to the newest handset when it comes onto the market.
Customers taking this rental deal will not ‘own’ the phone as they are just leasing it from the mobile network each year. At the end of the 12 months customers can choose to renew the contract, move or leave.
Sally Cowdry, marketing and consumer director for O2 UK, said: ‘This is the first time a UK mobile operator has adopted a leasing model. We know that customers and small businesses are used to leasing everyday items from cars and washing machines to photocopiers and office space.
‘They understand how it works and what the advantages of a leasing are. We have simply taken this idea and applied it to the smartphone market.’
The network operator warned that customers will need to take good care of the phone to avoid being charged for damage at the end of the contract.
If the customer loses the handset or it is badly damaged then they will need to claim on the O2 insurance policy which is set up when leasing the phone.
The insurance policy covers customers for theft, loss, accessories up to £200 and accidental damage, including water.
But there is an £60 excess charge for the first claim and any subsequent claim costs £120.
Lease contracts will also be available to businesses for more information visit the O2 website.
How does it compare to an 18 or 24 month contract: Is it any good?
Tara Evans from This is Money says: If you compare the tariff and total cost price to other similar O2 products then it’s a little bit more expensive.
For example, the total cost price of the lease phone for 16GB handset is £660. If you were to take out the phone for two years it would set you back £1,320 for 750 minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB of data.
For a traditional 18-month ownership contract with the same handset and contract terms, except 600 minutes instead of 750, it would cost you £1005.99 for the two years. That comes out as £42 per month with a £99 fee for the phone, plus insurance at £12.50 a month.
This makes the lease contract £315.01 more expensive compared to the ownership fixed term contract. There are similar margins across other variations of the contract.
However, with the lease phone you are paying this premium so that you’re not tied into a long contract and are therefore free to get the latest handset at much shorter periods.
The flipside is that if you take a traditional contract whereby you own the phone at the end of the period you have an asset worth some money. iPhones hold value relatively well and a two-year old phone could sell second-hand for up to £200.
Of course anyone thinking about taking out this phone will have to work out how much they use their phone. Look at how many minutes, texts and data you use each month to see if a contract is suitable for you.
Then compare the lease contract with other types of contracts offered by mobile phone operators. You will need to calculate the total cost of the contract, looking at the first and second year cost.
Then you will be able to work out if you would rather pay this higher cost to have a shorter contract.
In some ways this is just O2’s approach to offer a 12 month contract at a slightly more affordable price as operators need to offset the cost of the handset against the total cost of the contract.
Full Storey Credit: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-2072202/Rent-iPhone-4S-O2-12-months–youll-pay-privilege.html
Filed under iPhone 4S by
If you are looking for all of the basics regarding insurance plus some other tips that you might not have heard of, this article is for you. This can be a confusing subject with all of the different opinions and information that is available, especially when a lot of it is contradictory.
Phone
You can help make sure your insurance claim proceeds smoothly, by keeping full documentation and records of the whole process. Keep track of every conversation you have with the insurance company, so you have a timeline for the progress of your claim. Follow up on any face-to-face or phone conversations with written letters to confirm what they tell you.
To get a good price on insurance and to know what your options are, see if your state has a department of insurance. A lot of local governments have something like this, and there may be a phone number and/or website available with information that you can use to determine what products are available, as well as their respective price ranges.
Make sure your insurance provider is easy to contact before purchasing a policy. If you do need to make a claim in the future, you want to be sure that you can easily contact your insurance company by your chosen method of communication such as in writing, over the phone or by email.
When looking for insurance, make it personal. Meet with insurance agents from different companies and see what they have to offer. A lot of the time they have special deals and incentives to get you to buy theirs because they want to make the sale. If you meet with them personally, you are more likely to get a deal that you might miss out on if you just deal with a company online or over the phone.
As stated at the beginning, there is quite a bit of information in regards to insurance. Hopefully you will find these tips beneficial. You should now find yourself ahead of the game if you are working to become an expert, or just trying to get a bit of background information.
Filed under Insurance by
It is no secret that iPhones can be rather expensive. Once you’ve finally gotten the device, it is your responsibility to protect your new investment. All iPhones differ from one another in a multitude of model versions and memory capacity, yet still share a fundamental weakness when it comes to their durability. Listed below, there are a few things to consider when it ‘s time to select your iPhone defences
Pay very close attention to the actual material of the case in question. Some iPhone cases look incredibly nice, but are made of cheap materials that wouldn’t help if the device was to drop more than a foot. The best choice is usually a rubber like casing that isn’t bulky, but will get the job done perfectly.
Different cases and phones have different methods for latching to one another. You may have an extremely durable case, but once you actually drop the phone, it pops off and serves no purpose. Ensure that your casing isn’t poorly constructed and engineered, or that hard shell won’t mean a thing.
Some cases focus more on design than durability. This is great in theory, but over time the phone will take damage and it will be reflected in the appearance of the case. While a normal, scratch-resistant case is usually a flat black complexion, it won’t look nearly as bad as the fancy dragon case after six weeks under similar conditions.
It’s crucial you check your case to ensure that it is shock resistant. Many people do not realise how little it takes to completely fry a phone. Be careful with where you leave it sitting and never take it close to any form of magnet, electrical or otherwise.
Consider iphone insurance as well as a protective case.
Every consumer has different needs or uses for their iPhone, but it’s always good to have a single idea we can all reach together. That idea is the very one that was discussed in the article above. Protect your phone from nature, electricity, water and most importantly, yourself!
Filed under iPhone FAQ's by
Vodafone says I am not covered since my iPhone contained my business sim when it was stolen
The article below, that was printed in The Guardian on 25/11/11 is a strange one. Also, a bit sad as it does not help fight the insurance industries side one little bit, it just helps convince the general public that they are being taken for a ride by insurance providers.
Maybe it is a clause that the FSA needs to look into, just why would a mobile phone insurance policy need to be void from theft cover just because the iPhone owner had decided they wanted to use a different SIM card in their own phone?
Terms and conditions need to be implemented to any insurance policy, or fraud would rocket to uncontrollable levels, but the SIM card issue is over the top and unfortunately far to common a clause within the mobile phone insurance industry.
You could compare this with purchasing Tesco car insurance and after a claim, you find your insurance was invalid as you had shopping from Sainsbury’s in the boot!
PB from Haverfordwest must also take some of the blame in this instance though as he clearly admits he did not read the terms and conditions of his iPhone insurance policy, he simply took the words of the sales assistant to be true. With any insurance product it is essential to read the full terms and conditions yourself, rather than listening to the advice of the person whom is attempting to sell you the service.
It does also raise the question if staff in phone stores across the country are [or need to be] FSA registered to give advice about insurance products to customers.
Glad to see that Vodafone did the right thing though and replaced the iPhone in question, as they had given incorrect advise in store, that is quite good of them, as many companies would normally start the three wise monkeys act and refute that such advise was ever given in the first place.
10 out of 10 to Vodafone for corporate integrity …
In June I visited a Vodafone store in a shopping centre in Cambridge to take out a contract with an iPhone 4. I have a company sim card with Vodafone Business, which is paid for by my employer. I wanted to purchase a contract and iPhone so I would be able to switch between my work and personal sim, as needed.
Being wary about insurance, I specifically asked the saleswoman whether my contract and/or insurance on the phone would be affected if I was using my company sim. I was told categorically that it wouldn’t be. For this reason, I signed the contract and began using the phone, and agreed to pay the £12.99 a month for the insurance.
In October, my phone was stolen. Having reported the theft to the police, I called Vodafone to block the number of my work sim, which was in the phone at the time. I was told I would have to contact the insurance people to organise a new handset. I rang the insurance company, told them my work sim was in the phone at the time, and was told my claim would be refused.
I was informed that the small print of the contract (which I did not read because of what I’d been told in the store) outlined that, in order to be insured, the personal sim would have to be in the phone at the time. Vodafone has since implied it is my word against the saleswoman. I now have a contract which doesn’t finish until 2013, and no handset. Should I really be expected to honour a contract for another two years when I have been misled in order to secure it? PB, Haverfordwest, Dyfed
Thefts of smartphones are causing the telecoms companies big problems because, unlike previous handsets, the latest phones are expensive to replace. Last week, Phones 4u told the City it had suffered a 25% collapse in earnings over the last 12 months because its traditionally lucrative insurance business had been hit by a big jump in claims values, caused by smartphones. This may be the reason why Vodafone’s insurers declined your claim, although we can’t see why the sim’s origin makes any difference to its validity, as you were only claiming for the handset’s replacement.
Happily, however, Vodafone now accepts you were misinformed in its store, and has put the matter right. “We will make sure our customer relations teams learn from this, and have arranged for a replacement phone to be sent to PB,” says a spokeswoman.
Source credit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/nov/25/insurance-claim-vodafone-wrong-sim
Filed under Vodafone iPhone Insurance by
Did you know it’s possible to make calls using your iPhone headphones? If you didn’t then you’re missing out big time, because it’s a really handy feature. What’s even more amazing is the fact that with the new iPhone 4 style headphones, you can make calls completely hands-free from start to finish, using the voice control function that Apple have incorporated into their latest iOS software. If you’ve not discovered the benefits of making calls using a pair of iPhone earphones, carry on reading!
iPhone headphones aren’t always cheap, that’s a fact, but when you consider how useful they are, the price is well worth it. Being able to make calls without using your hands is very useful, especially when driving – because using a phone whilst driving is illegal in many countries. Previously drivers have run into problems try to dial a number whilst driving, because technically that’s still illegal. The voice control function however completely eliminates the need to even touch your phone!
By simply holding down the middle piece of the volume control on a pair of iPhone earphones, you can enable the voice control function. You can then navigate to your address book simply by using speech, and you can then choose whether or not to make a call to a new number, or to an existing contact on your iPhone – it’s really clever!
Ending calls is really easy too using iPhone headphones – simply click the microphone module and your call will be ended – again eliminating any need for you to touch your iPhone. On the new iPhone earphones there is a volume control function that allows you to turn the volume up and down – as well as start/stop/pause songs. There is no volume control on the older models of iPhone headphones, but you still have the ability to start, stop and skips your music tracks by pressing the microphone module.
So if you decide it’s time to start using these great features on your iPhone, grab a pair of iPhone headphones from Simply Headphones. They stock a large range of accessories and components including iPod earphones, iPod USB cables, screen protectors, cases, power plugs and lots more! You really have to see their impressive range of stock to believe it – something on their site will almost certainly catch your eye.
iPhone headphones make a great present at Christmas or for birthdays – and Simply Headphones are a great company to buy from. Check out their website today and see if they have a pair of iPhone earphones that you want.
Filed under iPhone 4S by
This is a strange little survey that has popped up just a few days after Martin Lewis (aka money saving expert) was on Radio 2’s Jeremy Vines show talking about which insurance policies you should keep paying for and which you could knock on the head to save money.
Martin was heard saying that he thinks mobile phone insurance is a good policy for those who frequently lose their handsets and then the conversation swiftly changed to water damage caused by the owner dropping their beloved mobile down the toilet.
Having been involved with mobile phone insurance for many years now, we can contradict the daily mail who reports in the article below that “hundreds of mobile phones are damaged or destroyed by water in the UK each year”.
Lets edit that statement a little bit. We are not talking ‘hundreds’ per year, we are talking ‘hundreds of thousands’ per year!
The pecking order for water damage was along the right lines though, with the loo in the lead, followed by our drinks, with the washing machine not too far behind.
You can compare mobile phone insurance here if this has made you think twice!
It comes as no surprise that hundreds of mobile phones are damaged or destroyed by water in the UK each year.
But a new survey has revealed Britain’s embarrassing secret – that almost half of all water-damaged phones have ended up in the toilet bowl.
New research from a UK mobile phone comparison website has revealed that the loo is the most ‘popular’ location to drop a handset. And men are three times more likely to damage their phone than women.
The study quizzed 1,937 mobile users over the age of 18 across the country, asking questions ranging from phone security and insurance to how careful people are with their must-have devices.
Conducted by GoodMobilePhones.co.uk, the study found 31 per cent of Britons claimed to have damaged a handset with water or another liquid substance in the past.
Of that 31 per cent, 73 per cent were male and 27 per cent were female.The toilet bowl was the tragic destination for an alarming 47 per cent of all water-damaged phones.
With the latest iPhone4S costing more than £400, that’s a lot of money to be throwing down the pan (unless you’re flush with cash).
Coming in a distant second was the dreaded drink, with 21 per cent of those surveyed saying they had spilled a drink or dropped their handset into one.
Incredibly, 12 per cent of people admitted they had dropped their phone in the bath or shower – proving that there is nowhere these days where poepl won’t take or make a call.
The kitchen sink came in at number four, with seven per cent say they had accidentally added their handset to the dirty dishes, while three per cent admitted to leaving a phone in their pocket and sending through a washing machine cycle.The study also showed that the vast majority of Britons, 86 per cent to be precise, had not insured their mobile phone prior to sending it to its watery grave.
Mark Owen, founder of GoodMobilePhones.co.uk, said: ‘As somebody who has nearly dropped his phone into all manner of liquids, these results really make me thankful that this is something I haven’t done as yet.
‘I can’t imagine how galling it must be to retrieve a mobile phone from a toilet bowl, so my sympathies go out to anyone who has.’He said mobile users should be insuring their handsets, as a potential accident was never far away.
He said: ‘I know mobile phone insurance can seem like an expensive addition to a monthly phone bill, but often it can be something really worth thinking about, especially if you are prone to being a bit clumsy… smartphones can be expensive to replace.’
The UK is placed 14th in the world for mobile use, with more than 75 million handsets spread among its 61 million citizens.
China leads the world for mobile use, with more than 950 million phones among its one-billion-plus citizens.
Story from and credit to: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2060321/Almost-half-water-damaged-mobile-phones-UK-dropped-toilet-study-finds.html
Filed under Insurance by
A warning to iPhone users and all other smartphone owners about apps with built in malware.
In the newspapers today there is a story about some people who have downloaded apps from the android market place only to find several weeks later that the app had been sending out text messages to premium text numbers, racking up phone bills of hundreds of pounds.
Although these apps were on the android market, smartphone owners on all platforms have been advised to look out for any unusual behaviour from their device, such as excessive battery drainage and slower than normal performance (sorry Blackberry owners), as well as keeping an eye on your contract usage and credit balance.
Reports indicate that some of the culprits for these malware apps have already been caught and fined, but there may be many more on the various market places, so take care of what apps you download and install at present.
One would hope it should be harder for one of these bad egg apps to get through Apples tough scrutinisation process, but it might be worth keeping your eyes open.
Filed under iPhone Apps by
I have always been a huge fan of Apple’s computers. I bought my first Apple II back in 1978, and have continued to use their products ever since. Now with the iCloud, Apple has taken a huge step forward in helping me to keep my life organized.
I have just upgraded my cellular phone to the newest iPhone 4S. The operating system on this phone is the iOS5. Included with this operating system is the iCloud. Quite simply, this is a storage system on the Internet that keeps all of my media in sync. I use my iPhone to play all of the music I purchase from iTunes. Now, all of this music is automatically stored on the iCloud. I can also store the music that I have not purchased from iTunes using what Apple calls iMatch. This is only $24.99 a year for unlimited storage. One of the really great things about this is that I never have to worry about running out of space on my iPhone. My entire music collection–and my collection is huge–is always available to me anytime.
Actually, iCloud or iMatch is not uploading my music. It matches my collection on my iPhone to what is already in iTunes. This is a much faster approach, and it makes things much more automatic. When I play my music, I am actually playing the file from iTunes, which is often a higher quality than what I originally ripped from my CD’s.
The iCloud is not just for music. Any pictures, for example, that I take with my iPhone are automatically uploaded to the iCloud. Not only does this give me peace of mind, knowing that my pictures will never be lost, but it also allows me to access those pictures on any of my other devices. They automatically show up on my iPad and my MacBook Air. Even if I were to ever use a PC, my pictures would still be automatically available to me.
Of course, all of my documents are also automatically uploaded to the iCloud. I cannot tell you just how convenient this is. I used to have to burn CD’s or use my thumb drive to take files home from work. How many times did I forget to pull my thumb drive from my work computer? Now, I never have to worry about it. No matter what device I start working on, my files are put into the iCloud and they automatically show up on all of my devices. It’s almost like magic.
Not only are my files always available, but so too are my apps. When I download an app to my iPhone, it automatically gets pushed to my iPad. Absolutely incredible!
Virtually everything iCloud does is automatic. It makes my files and apps available on all of my devices, but even more important; it gives me a complete sense of security knowing that nothing important will ever be lost.
iCloud is the way forward for me, what about you …
Filed under Technology and Gadgets by
