The use of mobile phones, tablets, and other gadgets has been steadily increasing over the last 10 years.

For example, in 2015, the Guardian reported that every British household owned more than 7 gadgets. Now, the figure is certainly higher.

With all these electronic devices around, it’s easy to lose track. Gadgets are frequently misplaced while travelling, or left in hotels and on buses.

You might wonder what would happen if you lost your gadgets, or if your kids left them on a plane. Have you ever counted the cost of repurchasing all of your valuable gadgets? It doesn’t bear thinking about.

Weighing Up the Risk

Some types of insurance are compulsory. The most common examples are buildings insurance, which will usually be required if you need a mortgage to buy a house, and car insurance, which you need to have to drive on a road in the UK.

Other types of insurance are optional, like pet insurance, life insurance, and insurance for the appliances around your home.

Insurance is all about risk, and you need to balance the risk with the cost. Often, very expensive insurance for a basic smartphone isn’t worth the money. But cheap insurance for a phone can be a good investment -- particularly if you would struggle to buy a new one outright.

The risk of having a phone stolen, or losing a phone while travelling, is actually quite high compared to the risk of a catastrophic event that knocks your house down. So gadget insurance does make sense.

How to Compare Gadget Insurance

Before buying gadget insurance, think about:

• How many gadgets you own as a family

• How many devices your kids use, or carry around on a regular basis -- since the risk of loss or damage is going to be higher for those

• Whether you take devices out of the home, and how you store them when they’re at home

• Which devices you couldn’t live without if they broke, and which ones your kids rely on.

Insuring lots of gadgets can also be expensive. If you have a few tablets and phones in the house, it’s worth looking for an insurer that will offer you a discount for insuring multiple items.

The excess is also important. If this is too high, it won’t be worth claiming for your device if it’s lost or damaged.

Gadget Insurance Peace of Mind

Row.co.uk is one of the UK’s leading gadget insurers. Its flexible quote builder allows you to create your own custom gadget insurance package, so you can instantly insure your most valuable an important items by just adding them once to your plan.

Additionally, you get a discount for insuring multiple gadgets. For example, insure two, and we’ll discount the price by 5%. Insure three and we’ll give you a huge 15% off.

All gadget insurance includes accidental damage cover, trips overseas, cover for unauthorised calls, and -- crucially -- cover for liquid damage. The cover you buy applies to you and your immediate family; ideal if you all share a device in the family home.

For more information, and to get an instant quote, head to Row.co.uk’s gadget insurance quote page.

It is hard to overstate just how dependent on our phones many of us have become. With the emergence of smartphones a decade ago, mobiles evolved into more than a communication device. They became our point of access to the world wide web, our portal to social media, a way to shop, connect with friends, keep up to date with the news, listen to music, snap and share photos and much, much more.

But when does reliance on our mobile phones cross the line from aiding and abetting our day-to-day existence to become something more problematic? When does our mobile phone use start to detract from rather than improve the rest of our lives?

With more than a third of adults and up to half of 16 to 24 year olds believing they spend too much time on their phones, it is not an issue anyone can afford to take lightly. So what are the signs you need to check your mobile usage and make a concerted effort to put down your phone?

You panic if you misplace your mobile phone

A sure sign that your attachment to your mobile is a little more intense than it should be is if you start getting paranoid about losing it. Feelings of panic if you temporarily misplace your handset are not healthy and should tell you it is time to plan some time apart. A way to curb the panic of loosing your phone is to get gadget insurance. It's a smart way of helping ease the burden should you loose it, accidentally damage it or even if something happens to it resulting in the dreaded water damage.

You wake up in the night to check your mobile phone

Lots of people admit that the first they do in the morning and the last thing they do at night is check their phone. But taking things to a whole new level is waking up in the middle of the night because the urge to check your phone is so strong. Letting your phone use interfere with sleep is irrational enough, but it makes even less sense when you start to consider what it is exactly you are checking for - unless they’re as addicted as you, all your social media friends will be fast asleep!

You can’t take a walk without being glued to your mobile phone

It has become a common sight - hordes of people wandering our towns and cities, their eyes not taking in anything around them as they are transfixed on the screen in their hand in front of them. There is a time and a place for everything in life, but if you cannot even go for a walk without spending it looking at your phone, you have to start to wonder if you are letting life in the real world pass you by.

You shun real interaction to chat online

This is a big one - think carefully about any times when friends or acquaintances have invited you out somewhere, for a coffee or for a bite to eat or to go to watch a film or something, and you have said no. Perhaps you didn’t feel in the mood or you suggested you had other plans. What did you do instead? If you found yourself sat around at home on your phone, playing games, chatting on social media, that really is the clincher. Once you start to choose the digital world of your phone over the real world of friends, you know it is time to take action.