DBS Bank Taiwan (星展銀行) and Chubb Corp Taiwan (美商安達產險) have unveiled a new type of insurance to cover accidental damage to old cellphones, a first in the sector.
Insurance policies for mobile devices are becoming popular among Taiwanese, but they all cover new phones and clients can only purchase policies when buying a new device from a telecom, the bank said on Tuesday.
“Providing insurance products for old cellphones is a ‘blue ocean’ market, as there are no competitors,” DBS consumer banking managing director Seraph Sun (孫可基) said by telephone.
As many people cannot buy insurance policies for their mobile phones because they bought them online or they do not want to insure their new devices with telecoms, DBS and Chubb have seized the opportunity to provide an alternative solution, Sun said.
Despite concerns that insuring old cellphones might carry higher risks for insurance companies, DBS and Chubb said they would only provide coverage for mobile phones that are not broken.
Chubb has designed an app to be downloaded by potential customers, which examines whether the applicants’ cellphone functions regularly and whether its screen is broken, Sun said, adding that the examination takes about three minutes.
Insurance applications can be made online from the beginning to the end, he added.
“We will not offer insurance for broken or malfunctioning devices. We want to keep it simple and only concentrate on phones that are old, but still in good working condition,” Sun said.
Customers would be charged NT$98 to NT$358 per month, depending on the original price of their cellphones, he said.
For example, a policyholder would pay NT$358 per month if their mobile phone cost more than NT$30,000, such as an Apple Inc iPhone XS, Sun said.
Tens of models manufactured by more than 10 companies are covered by the policies, he said.
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