Does anyone know of/can recommend decent mobile phone insurers? Looking for something relatively cheap but relatively comprehensive — ideally that’s as painless as possible to sign up for.
My days of winging it and being confident in my abilities to hold onto my phone are behind me…
Maybe something like N26 when they arrive in the UK? 
I just realised that’s theft coverage do you want theft or damage insurance?
I keep looking at this occasionally because each new phone I get keeps getting more and more expensive but I never seem to find anything that isn’t tied to a bank account so I keep falling back to “I’ve not broken a phone for 15 years” so don’t bother. One day I’ll regret it…
Sorry I don’t have the answer to your question but an alternate strategy. I never get phones insured because I’ve known various people who scam the system (it is rife in mobile insurance). Who pays for all the fraud? The honest customer who doesn’t plan to say they got mugged somewhere without cctv, or that they accidentally dropped it just as the new model is about to land.
A good solution is to start a pot and put the value of the phone in it and add £10 a month to the pot (if you have the means to do this up front cost, if not then just put in £20 a month and hope you don’t get caught out early on).Then if it gets nicked or damaged you can just buy a new one or get it fixed without subsidising all the fraud and middlemen who are happy to take free money. Phone insurance is really expensive!
Also, EC1 has one of the highest motorbike phone jackings anywhere. They know affluent tech people are wondering around cluelessly with thousand pound phones hanging out so it is their hunting ground. Don’t have your phone out while walking down the street, at a bus stop or traffic lights and you are 99% less likely to have your phone stolen.
You can use all the money you’ve saved by not buying insurance 
I’ve already spent it 
I guessed as much. I’d put half the cost of a new phone into an account and add as much as you can afford every month until you’ve enough to replace the phone. That way if you break it soon, you’ll have enough for a repair, if you break it in a year or so you can buy a new one
The trick I’ve discover is that I can save the money, not drop the phone and buy a new phone in a year anyway.
Try Revolut mobile insurance. It’s one of the reasons I’ve kept my Revolut account active. It’s fairly priced, the excess is low and it’s a FinTech after all 
If you have decent contents insurance that covers personal possessions, then your phone will be covered by that. That’s what I’ve always done, and it means any other gadgets you have are also covered. I think mine’s around £20/month, so not much more than @rarther’s suggestion with the bonus that all your things in your flat and when out and about are covered.
I know MSE is frowned upon in this forum, but I think it has a relatively good article on the topic:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/cheap-mobile-phone-insurance
Personally I’d recommend the Nationwide Plus especially if you need Travel Insurance too (and it covers your significant others too 
Travel is underwritten by U K Insurance(eg. Direct Line Group) so it is pretty decent. )
Protect Your Bubble maybe?
When I was at CPW, a lot of people who found our plans to be too expensive went with them instead.
This! In most cases possession cover is about as expensive as phone insurance, and just covers a little bit more,e.g. if you drop your tablet or laptop.
How is their insurance team though? I have made bad experience with them (as have many others), in particular not owning up to mistakes, and trying to absolve themselves of any responsibility, so I personally wouldn’t trust them for insurance at all. Would love to hear if someone had experience with their insurance though!
Well, I have had Revolut mobile insurance for a while now and had to claim for the damaged screen a few months ago. It was a painless process in my experience and unlike all my previous insurers their insurance excess was only £25.
That’s great to know. Thanks!
Best insurance for me has been a Speck Candyshell case and a screen protector.
I’ve had some shocking drops but the phone is always protected.
Save the premiums towards something else and treat the ‘excess’ as just replacing the case.
That’d be my advice.
I currently insure my phone, iPad and MBP using their 3 devices for the £14.99/month deal. That includes the optional theft cover but not available on my MBP.
I’ve never needed to make a claim yet so I’m putting all my faith in their 4/5 star reviews. 
That’s the difficulty with insurance. You don’t know how good it is until you claim.
True. At CPW our claims process was really good. Sometimes if we had stock we could do same day replacement, if not, guaranteed next day. The trouble was that most people weren’t willing to pay £15 a month for it.
Nationwide insurance was ace. I miss it. I’m ok with phones but it was family cover and my partner smashed her phone twice and lost once. Always sorted quickly.