August 22, 2005
Insurers fret over gadgets
The rising popularity of high-priced cellphones, notebook computers and MP3 players is starting to hit the hip pocket of insurance firms, which are now forking out millions of dollars for lost and broken gadgets, according to stuff.co.nz.
"Tower senior technical manager for general insurance Allan Black says the firm deals with many of these claims which are increasing in volume and value daily.
He says Tower pays out "in excess of $750,000 per annum and rising" in claims for portable electronics.
Alan Perry, executive manager of AMI, says there has been a substantial increase in the number of claims for cellphones and their cost.
The number of cellphones has doubled in the past five years and more than 260,000 notebooks were sold in 2003 and 2004. The number of mp3 players nearly doubled last year, rising to 217,000.
About 1600 mobiles are reported lost or stolen every month in New Zealand, according to figures from Telecom and Vodafone.
Assuming an average price of $250 per phone, this tallies to $4.8 million in lost and stolen cellphones every year.
Mr Perry says many school-aged children and teenagers now have cellphones, adding to the insurance risk. Another concern with cellphones is that the electronics can fail and they can just stop working without being damaged."
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