Let’s talk about Econet’s mobile phone insurance

Insurance is considered one of the key pillars of an economy. Econet Insurance recently launched mobile phone insurance which should be a godsend to Zimbabweans who rely on phones for their computing needs.

Zimbabweans used to love insurance, but then policies were wiped out by inflation/currency shenanigans and some greedy insurers not willing to honour claims.

This soured a lot of people’s attitudes towards insurance and to this day, we have a huge number of people who won’t insure anything unless forced.

I understand their hesitation, but I still find it crazy/sad. As a kid, two of my uncles had their cars replaced – one was stolen, and the other was in an accident. I remember thinking insurance was the coolest thing ever. It still might be.

Econet’s Moovah mobile phone insurance cover

Moovah mobile device insurance protects your mobile device from screen damage and accidental drops.

I think it’s telling that theft is not covered. I would have loved to see that covered but I imagine they considered the prevalence of mobile phone theft in the country and the high probability that some otherwise decent people would try to score a replacement device through lies.

What’s covered?

Econet will cover any device, from feature phones (mbudzi) to super flagships worth up to $3500. However, the device has to have been released in the last 3 years. That means a Galaxy S21 or iPhone 12 cannot be insured.

There is a thriving second-hand market for mobile phones and most of those will not be covered, unfortunately.

As you know, Itel and Tecno have exploded in popularity and what’s great about that is, when it comes to those brands, people are generally buying brand new. So, they get 12-month warranties.

However, those warranties clearly state that they won’t cover physical damage – if the phone dropped or was hit by something causing damage. So Econet’s insurance would still be needed.

How much in premiums?

If you have a $1000 phone you will pay 1000*0.594%= $5.94 a month to insure your phone. That’s $71.28 a year to get accidental damage cover. For the 3 years that your phone will be covered, you could pay $213.84 in premiums for that $1000 phone.

You will be able to process two claims on that phone per year and so you’ll get a maximum of 6 claims in 3 years. That means you would be paying $35.64 per claim.

The questions then become, how likely are you to drop your phone? – be honest with yourself, you know if you’re clumsy like me, and do you pay more than $35 per visit to the phone repair guy? I know cracked screens will cost you much more than $35 to fix.

A little wrench in the works

Econet says an excess of 20% applies to all accidental damages claims. This means you will pay 20% of the claim yourself. So essentially, Econet will cover 80% of the bill come repair time.

So if the repairman says it will cost $100 to replace your shattered screen, Econet will pay $80 and you will pay the rest.

Econet also won’t cover intentional damages, pre-existing damages, and device negligence. They say there will be proper verification and investigations to determine whether the damage was accidental and not intentional or the result of negligence.

At this point, we don’t know how those investigations would be conducted. I wonder how it can be determined that you were negligent and so not entitled to cover, even if you were negligent.

I already see the angry social media posts after some guy’s claim is denied even after he admits akatambisa phone pada.

Glad it exists

I know some think this is a terrible idea and some have already registered. Regardless of which camp you fall into, you must agree that it’s a great thing that the option exists.

One has to sit down and evaluate the risks of not being insured against those of registering. We have different risk appetites and also, trust in Econet insurance products differs from person to person, some people still rightly complain about some EcoLife shenanigans back in the day and you can’t really blame them for passing on this.

Personally, I’ll invest in a good and chunky $10 phone case and $5 tampered glass and that should suffice. I drop my phone a lot and have to replace screen protectors every four months or so. It’s tough out here for the clumsy.

Whilst this is not advice, you at least have to consider it. Some of these phone cases have magical drop protection and so offer a good alternative to accidental damage cover. However, even with such a case, your phone can sustain serious damage.

Therefore, for some people, insurance will make more sense and there’s nothing wrong with that.

I would have invested in Econet’s mobile phone insurance if it covered theft. There really is no solution for that on the market.

Also read:

• ZB launches virtual customer care centre, offering banking, insurance and investment services
• Yet again, EcoSure registers users without consent and deducts money
• With Truscto agreement expired, Econet kills Ecolife