Row.co.uk Phone Insurance Review
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Row.co.uk sells mobile phone and gadget cover from £1.49 a month, or £1.41 a month if you pay for the year up front, and it has built its name on breadth. One policy can wrap a phone, a laptop, a camera, a games console and more, and the price drops by 5% for every extra device you add, up to 15% off, or 20% on an annual plan. Behind the low headline sits a substantial insurer: the cover is carried by Collinson Insurance, a trading name of Astrenska Insurance Limited (firm reference 202846), which wrote £297.2 million of premium in its 2025 financial year.
The day-to-day brand is run by BIG Warranties Limited, a Poole company authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under reference 798998, and the phone cover is fuller than the add-ons a network or a bank tends to sell. It pays for cracked screens, liquid damage, accidental damage, mechanical breakdown, and theft, loss and unauthorised calls, and it travels with you across the UK and for up to 90 days abroad in any year. A gadget is also covered while it is in the hands of an immediate family member, Row aims to get a replacement to your door within 24 hours of approving a claim, and accidental-damage claims are unlimited across a policy year.
| Administrator and brand | BIG Warranties Limited (company 07002567), FRN 798998, Poole |
|---|---|
| Insurer carrying the risk | Collinson Insurance, a trading name of Astrenska Insurance Limited (company 01708613), FRN 202846 |
| Cheapest phone premium | £1.49 a month, or £1.41 a month paid annually |
| Multi-gadget discount | 5% per extra device, up to 15% off (20% on an annual plan) |
| Standard excess | £40 if the gadget is covered for £200 or less, £75 above that, £80 for a laptop |
| Additional excess | £30 more for each of loss or theft, an international claim, and a claim in the first three months |
| Accessories limit | £100 per claim |
| Unauthorised calls | Up to £1,000 including VAT, for 48 hours after a valid theft claim |
| Time abroad | Up to 90 days outside the UK in any one year |
| Maximum device age at inception | Under 12 months old at the date of application |
| Exclusion period | No claim paid in the first 14 days of the policy |
| Claims allowed | Unlimited accidental damage and breakdown; one theft or loss claim per policy year |
| Replacement basis | New or reconditioned units |
| Cancellation | 14-day statutory right; annual policies refunded pro rata less a £30 administration charge; no refund once a claim is made |
| Independent rating | Smart Money People 4.51 out of 5 from 247 reviews, last reviewed 31 March 2019 |
Who carries the risk, and who you deal with
Two firms stand behind a Row.co.uk policy. BIG Warranties Limited is the administrator: it takes your money, answers the phone and handles the claim, and it holds firm reference 798998 on the FCA register. The insurer that actually pays is Collinson Insurance, a trading name of Astrenska Insurance Limited (company 01708613, firm reference 202846), part of the Collinson group. Astrenska is not a minor name. Its 2025 solvency report shows gross written premium of £297.2 million, up from £221.4 million the year before, a profit after tax of £4.3 million, and a solvency coverage ratio of 176%, down from 205%. Its book expressly includes “Property Ancillary, Mobile, Gadget and Cycle Insurance products”, so phone cover is core to what it does rather than a sideline.
BIG Warranties itself is worth a moment. Companies House shows it was incorporated on 27 August 2009 as Elite Sky Repairs Limited and took its present name on 10 November 2010, a repair business that grew into a warranty and insurance administrator. Row.co.uk is now one shopfront on a wider range that runs to appliance cover, boiler and home-emergency plans, motor breakdown and even a novelty “Pokédex” gadget policy, all sold from the same Poole office.
Where the £1.49 earns its money back
The premium is genuinely low, so the excess is the figure to read before you buy. Row publishes it plainly, which many rivals do not: £40 where a gadget is covered for £200 or less, £75 where it is covered for more, and £80 for a laptop. On top of that the wording adds a further charge, and this is the part that repays close reading. It states that “an additional £30 excess will be applied for each of the following: loss or theft, international claims, claims within the first three months of the policy start date”. Because those add up, a phone insured for more than £200 that is lost while you are abroad in the second month of cover carries £75 plus three separate £30 charges, a £165 excess before the policy pays a penny; a laptop in the same situation reaches £170. The events that trigger the surcharges, theft, loss and travel, are the ones most people buy the cover for.
Two smaller limits are worth knowing. Accessories are capped at £100 a claim, whatever the phone is worth, and cover for unauthorised calls after a theft runs for only 48 hours from the theft, to a ceiling of £1,000 including VAT.
The rules on what you can insure
Row will only start cover on a device that is under 12 months old at the date of application. That is a narrower door than several phone specialists, which accept handsets up to two or three years old, and it shuts out precisely the ageing phones whose batteries and screens are most likely to fail. Once you are on cover, nothing is paid for a claim in the first 14 days, accidental-damage and breakdown claims are unlimited, but you may claim only once for theft or loss in a policy year.
The family clause is narrower than it first appears. A gadget is covered in an immediate family member’s hands for breakdown and accidental damage, but not for theft or loss, so a phone lent to a partner and then stolen would fall outside that extension. Replacements “may be new or reconditioned units”, so an approved claim will not always return a brand-new handset. Cancelling inside 14 days brings a refund, but an annual policy cancelled later is refunded pro rata less a £30 administration charge, and there is no refund at all once a claim has been made.
The gadget market in the regulator’s numbers
There is useful context in the FCA’s general insurance value measures data for 2025, published on 21 July 2026. Across the whole market, the share of gadget premiums paid back out in claims fell from 42% to 36%, one of the steepest drops of any product line, with 7.5 million gadget policies in force after a 5% fall in the year. The figure is about the market, not about Row, and it cuts both ways: cover is getting cheaper to run, which is good for insurers’ margins and less obviously good for buyers. What the release does not give for gadget cover is a claims-acceptance rate, the way it does for motor and home, and the Financial Ombudsman Service does not break out a gadget or mobile-phone uphold rate either, so there is no published benchmark to hold Row’s claims record against. That absence is a fact about the whole product, and worth knowing before you assume any gadget policy is a safe bet.
How much independent evidence there is
Row is not rated by Defaqto for gadget cover, and no Which? or Fairer Finance assessment of the product could be found, which is common for this corner of the market but leaves little to lean on. The one independent source that carries it, Smart Money People, scores Row.co.uk gadget insurance 4.51 out of 5, but from 247 reviews last refreshed on 31 March 2019, so the number reflects a policy sold more than seven years ago rather than the cover on offer today. A recent, dated rating would tell a buyer far more, and none exists.
Where it wins
- Among the cheapest headline prices on the market, from £1.49 a month, or £1.41 paid annually
- One policy can cover several gadgets, with 5% off per extra device up to 15% (20% on an annual plan)
- Backed by a sizeable insurer, Astrenska Insurance Limited, which wrote £297.2 million of premium in 2025
- Unlimited accidental-damage and breakdown claims across a policy year
- Up to 90 days of cover abroad and a replacement aimed within 24 hours of a claim being approved
- The standard excess is published on the site, which is more than many phone insurers do
Where it falls short
- The £30 additional excesses stack: a phone covered for over £200 that is lost abroad in the first three months carries a £165 excess (£170 for a laptop) before the policy pays anything
- Cover can only start on a device under 12 months old, shutting out the older phones most likely to need it
- No claim is paid in the first 14 days of the policy, and only one theft or loss claim is allowed per year
- The family extension covers breakdown and accidental damage only, not theft or loss, and replacements may be reconditioned rather than new
- An annual policy cancelled after 14 days is refunded less a £30 administration charge, with no refund at all once a claim has been made
- The only independent rating, Smart Money People’s 4.51 from 247 reviews, was last reviewed on 31 March 2019, and there is no Defaqto or Which? assessment
Common questions
Who underwrites Row.co.uk phone insurance?
The policy is administered by BIG Warranties Limited (firm reference 798998) and underwritten by Collinson Insurance, a trading name of Astrenska Insurance Limited (company 01708613, firm reference 202846), part of the Collinson group. Astrenska wrote £297.2 million of premium in its 2025 financial year.
What would the excess be if my phone were lost abroad?
For a phone insured for more than £200, the standard excess is £75. The wording adds £30 for a loss or theft claim, £30 for an international claim, and £30 for a claim in the first three months, and these apply separately. A phone lost abroad in the first three months would therefore carry a £165 excess; a laptop, £170.
Can I insure an older phone with Row.co.uk?
No. Cover can only start on a device that is under 12 months old at the date of application. Several phone specialists accept handsets up to two or three years old, so if your phone is older you would need a different provider.
Is my family covered under my policy?
A gadget is covered while in the possession of an immediate family member, but only for breakdown and accidental damage. Theft or loss while the device is with a family member is not covered by that extension.
How quickly is a claim settled?
Row aims to get a replacement to your door within 24 hours of approving a claim, or to complete a repair within about three working days. Replacements may be new or reconditioned units, and there is a 14-day exclusion period at the start of the policy during which no claim is paid.
Our verdict
Row.co.uk is a cheap, broad gadget policy from a small Poole administrator, sitting on the balance sheet of a real insurer in Astrenska. The headline of £1.49 a month is honest as far as it goes, and the multi-gadget discount makes it attractive if you want one policy over several devices. The catch is the excess: the £30 surcharges for theft, loss and travel stack, so the exact claims most people insure against can cost £165 or more before anything is paid, and the 12-month age limit rules the policy out for older handsets. Read the excess table and check your phone’s age before you judge it on price alone.
Figures were taken from each provider's own published terms on 3 September 2026. Variable rates can change at any time — confirm the current rate with the provider before applying.
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