Its not un-rare these days to receive a free mobile phone from your network provider or high street retailer at the start of a 12 or 18 month contract. They can do this as you have offered them your business and custom for a fixed period of time, so they know a minimum figure of revenue they will receive, from you over the fixed term of the contract.
Just because you were given the phone free of charge, do not assume it is of no or little cost. It is not uncommon for mobiles to have a very high replacement value if you had your mobile stolen, some of the latest phones are worth well over 375 pounds!
This is the time when it would be worth considering if it is worth taking out some protection in case you lost your mobile phone!
iphone insurance for example, with a replacement value of almost 400 pounds, your maybestolen iphone would have a monthly insurance premium of just 5 or 6 pounds per month, it could well be worth taking out this stand alone policy to protect it from such dangers.
A handy tip with phone insurance is to choose a policy that will not tie you into a 18 month contract as you may well know, many network providers may be willing to give you another free replacement phone, if you are in the last couple of months of your contract, as they can then be sure of your custom for another year or so!
Basically choose an insurance policy that you can cancel when you are at about two thirds of the way through your contract. If you do not damage your mobile, then you have saved, if you do lose or damage it you can get another free one from the network, but remember to get phone insurance for the new phone again!