How are my child's phone, tablet and bike insured in Germany?

In short

How are my child's phone, tablet and bike insured in Germany? Through your contents insurance for burglary, fire, water and robbery. It does not pay for simple theft in the schoolyard, and for the bike only with a bike add-on at about EUR 20 to 50 a year. If your child damages someone else's device, family liability pays. If their own phone is dropped, only phone insurance from about EUR 2 a month helps.

Request a quote +49 3375 29 12 77

What it costs

What the right add-ons for your child's phone, tablet and bike cost in Germany, guide values from published examples.

Example	Typical range
Phone insurance, basic tariff with excess	from about EUR 2 to 3 a month
Phone insurance with theft cover	from about EUR 3 a month
High end phone costing EUR 1,000 to 1,500	from about EUR 7 a month
Bike add-on in contents insurance	about EUR 20 to 50 extra a year
Family liability with children	about EUR 60 to 180 a year
New screen without insurance, current flagship models	about EUR 340 to 490

Guide values as of October 2026 from published tariff and repair prices.

The totals in the worked example are guide values from our quoting practice.

Your premium depends on device, bike value and cover;

Norman Nammert obtains quotes as an insurance broker.

Worked example

Family with two children aged 9 and 14, phone, tablet and two bikes

This is the cover when the family closes the gaps for school life on purpose.

Contents insurance with bike add-on for both bikes	about EUR 20 to 50 extra a year
Family liability including borrowed items	about EUR 60 to 180 a year
Phone insurance with theft for the older child's EUR 600 phone	about EUR 4 to 6 a month
Younger child's tablet	no extra policy, contents cover is enough for burglary and robbery

Around EUR 130 to 300 a year for the whole family, of which contents and liability make sense anyway. Guide values from our quoting practice.

Which policy pays for which damage

There is no single policy that covers your child's phone, tablet and bike for everything. Who pays depends on what happens and where. Your contents insurance protects the belongings of everyone living in your household, so your child's devices too.

The table shows typical cases from school life. Details on phones, bikes and liability for young children are on the linked pages.

What happens	Who pays
Burglary at home, tablet stolen	your contents insurance
Phone taken by force on the way to school	contents insurance through its outside cover
Phone disappears from a jacket in the gym	nobody, unless there is phone insurance with theft cover
Bike stolen from the school bike rack	contents insurance only with a bike add-on
Own tablet is dropped	only electronics or phone insurance
Child damages a classmate's phone	family liability, if the child is liable or the tariff pays more
Borrowed school tablet is dropped	liability only if borrowed items are included

Theft, robbery and the limits of contents cover

Contents insurance pays for burglary at home and for robbery when you are out. Under the model terms VHB 2022, robbery means force is used or threatened. If a phone is taken without overcoming conscious resistance, that is simple theft or trick theft and is not covered.

For children this is the most common case: the phone that vanishes from the school bag, or the tablet left on the bus. Contents insurance pays nothing here. To cover that, you need phone insurance with theft cover, from about EUR 3 a month.

Your child's bike

A bike stolen from a locked cellar or the flat is covered as burglary. At the school bike rack, at the station or outside the sports club, contents insurance only pays with the bike add-on, which costs about EUR 20 to 50 extra a year.

Watch the limit: the bike add-on usually pays only up to a percentage of the sum insured. For a teenager's expensive e-bike that is often not enough, and separate bike insurance is better.

Older policies sometimes still contain a night-time clause. If your child's bike stays outside at night, cover may then lapse.

When your child damages other people's devices

If your child drops a friend's phone, family liability pays if your child is liable. Under section 828 of the German Civil Code (BGB), children under seven are not liable, and in road traffic this applies up to their tenth birthday, except for intent.

So that the other family still gets money, many family tariffs also pay for damage caused by children who cannot be held liable, usually up to a sub-limit. The terms show the amount.

A special case is a tablet lent by the school. Damage to borrowed items is excluded in older and basic liability tariffs. Ask the school whether the device has its own insurance and check your tariff.

What school accident insurance does not do

Children have statutory accident cover at nursery and school, section 2 (1) no. 8 of Social Code VII (SGB VII), including the direct way to school. But this insurance protects the child, not its belongings.

Under section 8 (3) SGB VII, damage to an aid such as glasses in a school accident counts as a health injury. A phone, tablet or bike is not an aid.

When phone insurance for children makes sense

Phone insurance is worth it mainly for expensive devices and younger children, who drop things more often. A new screen for a current flagship model costs about EUR 340 to 490 without insurance.

For a cheap starter phone it is usually too expensive: after two years you have often paid more in premiums than a replacement costs. Check the excess and whether theft is included at all.

Step by step

Check your contents policy for a bike add-on and its limit.
Check whether family liability includes children who cannot be held liable and borrowed items.
Ask the school whether a lent tablet has its own insurance.
For expensive phones, decide whether phone insurance with theft cover is worth the premium.
Keep serial numbers and receipts for phone, tablet and bike.
Report robbery or theft to the police at once.

Checklist

Bike add-on with a sufficient limit
No night-time clause, or bike in a locked room at night
Family liability covering children who cannot be held liable
Borrowed items included in liability
Receipts and serial numbers kept
Phone insurance only for expensive devices

Common mistakes

Believing contents insurance pays for any theft at school
Covering a teenager's expensive e-bike only through the bike add-on
Buying expensive phone insurance for a cheap children's phone
Assuming the school tablet is covered without checking the liability tariff

Questions and answers

Frequently asked

Does contents insurance pay if my child's phone is stolen at school?

Only for robbery with force or burglary.

If it simply disappears from a bag, it does not pay.

Is my child's bike covered by contents insurance?

In a locked cellar, for burglary, yes.

Parked outside, only with a bike add-on at about EUR 20 to 50 a year.

Who pays if my child breaks a classmate's phone?

Family liability, if your child is liable.

Under seven a child is not liable under section 828 BGB; good tariffs still pay up to a sub-limit.

Who pays if the school tablet breaks?

That depends on the school's loan agreement and on whether your liability policy includes borrowed

items.

Does school accident insurance pay for a broken phone?

No, it protects the child.

Only damage to an aid such as glasses counts as a health injury.

Is phone insurance worth it for children?

Often yes for expensive devices, rarely for cheap phones,

because premiums soon reach the value of the device.

Sources

NAMMERT insurance broker

Request a quote

We compare insurers and come back to you, in English.

Free; the insurer pays our fee.

1Who is it for?

Personal My company

2Which insurance?

Choose as many as you like. For each one, the details an insurer needs for a quote appear below.

Personal

Business

Please review all my existing policies

3Details

4Your current policy

Current insurer Policy ends on What matters more to you?

5How can we reach you?

Name * Email * Phone Postcode Town Preferred contact Anything else we should know