Mobile insurance statistics are often published within the broader UK category “Gadget (including mobile phone).” The FCA’s 2022 data recorded 7,230,886 policies in force across add-on and stand-alone products, while claims acceptance was higher for add-on cover than stand-alone cover. The regulator’s 2025 summary provides a newer trend indicator, but it remains a gadget-insurance series rather than a mobile-phone-only total.
Contents
- Market size and policy volumes
- Claims frequency
- Claims acceptance rates
- Average claim payouts
- Complaints about claims
- Premiums and claims costs
Market size and policy volumes
The FCA reported 2,249,988 policies in force for UK gadget insurance including mobile phone cover sold as an add-on during January–December 2022. It reported a further 4,980,898 policies in force for stand-alone cover during the same period. These are product-distribution figures: add-on insurance is attached to another purchase or service, while stand-alone insurance is sold separately. Both figures come from the FCA’s General insurance value measures data 2022.
| UK gadget insurance including mobile phone cover | Policies in force, 2022 | Claims frequency, 2022 | Claims acceptance, 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add-on policies | 2,249,988 | 12.84% | 97.68% |
| Stand-alone policies | 4,980,898 | 10.59% | 92.28% |
The FCA’s 2013 review gives historical context, but it should not be read as a current market estimate. In its review of conditions cited for 2012, the regulator said the UK mobile phone insurance market had over 10 million customers. It also said some policies cost as little as a few pounds per month. Those statements describe the market conditions cited in June 2013, based on 2012 conditions, rather than a present-day customer count. The source is the FCA’s TR13/2 Mobile phone insurance – ensuring a fair deal for consumers.
The FCA’s newer aggregate value-measures summary reported that UK gadget insurance policies in force fell 5% to 7.5 million in 2025. This is a current trend indicator for gadget insurance, not a mobile-phone-only national total. The General insurance value measures data 2025 also reported that registered gadget-insurance claims fell 8% in 2025 compared with 2024.
Claims frequency
Claims frequency shows the share of policies associated with a claim during the measurement period. For January–December 2022, the aggregate claims frequency was 12.84% for add-on gadget insurance including mobile phone cover and 10.59% for stand-alone cover, according to the FCA’s 2022 data.
The firm-level figures were reported in ranges rather than exact percentages. For stand-alone insurance, American International Group UK Limited reported 10–15%, Amtrust Europe Limited 5–10%, Assurant General Insurance Limited 20–25%, Astrenska Insurance Limited 15–20%, Asurion Europe Limited 5–10%, Aviva Insurance Limited 10–15%, and Domestic & General Insurance Plc 15–20%. These ranges should be compared as bands, not converted into exact firm rankings.
Assurant reported a 15–20% claims-frequency band for add-on cover, while Astrenska reported 0–5% for add-on cover. The difference illustrates why an aggregate rate should not be treated as representative of every insurer or distribution channel. The published product category includes gadget insurance with mobile phone cover, so the figures do not isolate phones from other insured gadgets.
The historical FCA review also recorded a materially different result for one insurer: it found that the insurer declined 41% of all theft claims received in the data reviewed for the 2013 market study. That is a historical finding from data reviewed in 2013, not a current industry-wide claims-frequency or rejection estimate. It should be kept separate from the 2022 value-measures statistics.
Claims acceptance rates
The aggregate claims acceptance rate was 97.68% for add-on policies in 2022 and 92.28% for stand-alone policies. In other words, the FCA’s aggregate measure was higher for add-on cover by 5.40 percentage points, although this comparison does not establish why the rates differed. Both figures cover UK gadget insurance including mobile phone cover during January–December 2022.
| Provider and product type | Claims-acceptance band, 2022 |
|---|---|
| American International Group UK Limited, stand-alone | 90–95% |
| Amtrust Europe Limited, stand-alone | 95–100% |
| Assurant General Insurance Limited, add-on | 95–100% |
| Assurant General Insurance Limited, stand-alone | 95–100% |
| Astrenska Insurance Limited, add-on | 90–95% |
| Astrenska Insurance Limited, stand-alone | 90–95% |
| Asurion Europe Limited, stand-alone | 95–100% |
| Aviva Insurance Limited, stand-alone | 95–100% |
| Domestic & General Insurance Plc, stand-alone | 95–100% |
The firm-level acceptance figures were supplied as ranges in the FCA table. Amtrust, Assurant, Asurion, Aviva and Domestic & General each reported a 95–100% band for the listed product types. American International Group, Astrenska add-on and Astrenska stand-alone each reported a 90–95% band. A band does not disclose the exact rate within it, and the aggregate rate is a separate measure from any one firm’s band.
Average claim payouts
The aggregate average claim payout was £401.64 for add-on policies and £343.59 for stand-alone policies in January–December 2022. These amounts describe the average payout in the FCA’s gadget-insurance category including mobile phone cover. They are not stated as the average replacement cost of a mobile phone alone.
The FCA also reported payout ranges by firm. American International Group UK Limited, Amtrust Europe Limited, Assurant General Insurance Limited for both add-on and stand-alone products, Astrenska for add-on products, Asurion Europe Limited, Aviva Insurance Limited and Domestic & General Insurance Plc each reported an average-payout band of £0–£500 for the relevant stand-alone or add-on product. Astrenska reported a higher £500–£1,000 band for stand-alone cover.
These bands are broad. The £0–£500 category does not mean every claim had a payout near either endpoint, and it cannot be used to calculate a firm-level average. The £500–£1,000 band for Astrenska stand-alone cover is likewise a reported range rather than an exact mean. The FCA’s General insurance value measures data 2022 is the source for the aggregate amounts and firm-level bands.
Complaints about claims
The aggregate claim-complaint rate was 5.35% of claims for add-on policies and 7.75% of claims for stand-alone policies in 2022. This measure concerns complaints connected with claims; it is not a general customer-satisfaction score and should not be interpreted as the percentage of all policyholders who complained.
The FCA reported a 10–15% claim-complaint band for American International Group UK Limited stand-alone cover. Amtrust Europe Limited, Asurion Europe Limited and Aviva Insurance Limited each reported 0–5% for stand-alone cover. Assurant reported 5–10% for both add-on and stand-alone cover, while Domestic & General reported 5–10% for stand-alone cover.
Astrenska reported 10–15% for add-on cover and 0–5% for stand-alone cover. The contrast between those two Astrenska bands shows that distribution type can matter when interpreting insurer-level statistics. The published values are ranges, so they support comparison of reported bands but not precise ordering within each band.
Premiums and claims costs
UK gadget insurance including mobile phone cover generated £238,245,176 in written retail premiums for add-on policies during January–December 2022. Stand-alone policies generated £272,156,301. The stand-alone premium total was therefore the larger of the two reported totals, but the dataset does not provide enough matching detail to explain the difference through policy count, price, cover, or customer mix.
Claims costs represented 43.99% of premiums for add-on insurance and 57.42% for stand-alone insurance in 2022. These are value measures within the FCA’s product category. The claims-cost share is not a profitability measure: it does not by itself account for operating expenses, distribution costs, reserves, taxes or other components of an insurer’s financial result.
For the more recent 2024–2025 comparison, the FCA reported that gadget-insurance claims costs as a share of premiums fell from 42% to 36% in 2025. It also reported that gadget-insurance claims costs fell 12% in 2025 while premiums rose 3%. These movements are reported for gadget insurance and should not be relabeled as mobile-phone-only changes. The FCA’s General insurance value measures data 2025 is the source for this trend indicator.
Taken together, the figures show a market with separate add-on and stand-alone channels, different aggregate claims outcomes, and insurer-level results reported in broad bands. The 2022 statistics provide the detailed comparison, while the 2025 summary supplies a later direction-of-travel measure for the wider gadget-insurance category.