Homecare are responsible for the wording of the following policies:

A term in the Fonesafe T-Mobile contract said customers must tell the firm about any damage to their phone within 48 hours of an incident occurring.

Two terms in a later version of the contract said the time limit for telling the firm about any loss, theft or damage would be found in the 'schedule of cover'. In fact, there was no 'schedule of cover'. The relevant information could be found in a letter which came with the contract, under the heading 'Main Benefits'. Also, this letter said that customers must tell the firm about any loss, theft or damage to their phone within 48 hours.

The other contracts contained the same terms or similar terms with the same effect.

Customers may have discovered that their phone has been damaged after 48 hours from the incident occurring. This means that those customers may not have been able to claim under the contract. The letter that came with the later version of the contract did not say if customers had to report the loss, theft or damage from the time the incident occurred or from the time the customer discovered it. And because the contract directed customers to a schedule of cover that did not exist, they may not have realised where to find this important information.

Our rules require customers to be told important information about the contract, such as the main benefits and exclusions, in good time to help them make an informed decision about whether to buy the insurance or not. And firms must not reject claims unreasonably.

They agreed to change the terms so customers must now tell them within 48 hours of discovering their phone has been damaged, stolen or has broken. They also inserted the heading 'Your Schedule of Cover' to be consistent with the rest of the contract.

The firm has agreed to tell existing customers about the changes to their contracts. In most cases this has already been done by sending a text message to their mobiles.

As an example, Part 4 of Term F in the Fonesafe T-Mobile 2005 Terms and Conditions stated:

'F) Conditions of the Insurance
    4. What to do if your phone is damaged:

• Call the insurer on 0845 120 2097 within 48 hours of the incident or contact your nearest T-Mobile store and you will be advised of the procedure'

Under the title of 'Main Benefits' in the Fonesafe T-Mobile 2006 letter to consumers which accompanied the terms and conditions to consumers, it stated:

'You must notify the insurer of the loss/theft/damage within 48 hours'

In the Fonesafe T-Mobile 2006 Terms and Conditions Term F entitled 'What to do if your phone is lost or stolen' and Term G entitled 'What to do if your phone is damaged or breaks down outside of warranty' contained the phrase:

'within the time period specified in your schedule of cover'

The other contracts contained the same terms or similar terms with the same effect.

The term says that if you are in the UK and you need to claim, you must report the incident to the Airtime Provider, for example T-Mobile or Hutchinson 3G (for theft only) and to the police (for theft and malicious damage) both within 24 hours of discovery. You must report the incident (theft, malicious or accidental damage and breakdown) to the insurer Fonesafe within 48 hours of discovery.

Using the Fonesafe T-Mobile Fonesafe terms and conditions as an example:

The term says that if you are abroad and need to claim, you must report the incident to the Airtime Provider (for theft only) and to the local police (for theft and malicious damage) both within 48 hours of discovery. You must report the incident (theft, malicious or accidental damage and breakdown) to the insurer Fonesafe within 48 hours of return to the UK.

Using the Fonesafe T-Mobile terms and conditions as an example:

The other contracts contain the same terms or similar terms with the same effect.

Read more agreements from firms – see Unfair contracts.

Read more about Insurance.

Read more about our work on Unfair contract terms.