Phone Insurance?

[vlee]

The OnePlus site offers insurance from Assurant. I've never heard of them; I've used Square Trade in the past. Actually I didn't buy any for my Nexus, but the phone wouldn't have been as expensive to replace. For my previous phones, I bought coverage with the carrier when I bought the phone.

Thoughts on the need for insurance? And on Assurant? The latter's paperwork on line repairs are done at a service location of their choice, but there are none in my state. Would I have to send it there, I guess, and do they cover shipping?

With my previous phones, I've never needed to use the insurance, however with two tablets I have had to use it for non-accidental repairs. So I'm trying to decide which way to go.

 

[speedlever]

What's your tolerance for risk? You pay for it either way, monthly plus deductible vs not having insurance to cover a damage repair. At some point, the graphs will intersect, maybe sooner rather than later.

The monthly pmt for insurance plus the deductible for an insurance repair hardly sounds worth it to me for an under $500 device. Especially when you'll most likely get a refurb device to replace your damaged phone.

YMMV.

 

[fuzzylumpkin]

I generally consider mobile phone insurance to be a huge rip off, which is why I've never bought any.

I've got careless friends who rely on it, but as someone who takes reasonable care of their stuff, I'd have wasted hundreds of pounds over the years.

It's also worth checking if it's covered by something like your household contents insurance or offered by your bank, a lot of people throw cash away by doubling up without realising.

 

[Wildo6882]

Because it was a bit cheaper than what I usually buy, I didn't get the full fledged insurance when I ordered my 3T. I did get the $20 extension of the warranty, which basically gives you a second year of the manufacturer's warranty. Figured that would help a bit with resale and it was only $20.

 

[RoadBicyclist]

I believe if you have home insurance or renter's insurance, you can ask and add it to it, supposed to be cheaper/better than "phone insurance", a true ripoff when you read the complaints online or find out when you need to use it. This reminds me, I have to call my renter's insurance and find out.

 

[cgardnervt]

Also if you bought it with a credit card check with them. Example...My Chase Sapphire Preferred card gives me an additional layer for my warranty. So you may already have it and just not know about about!

 

[bembol]

Frankly. Up here okay here in GTA get insurance to commit fraud. After selling they report it lost/stolen which blacklist the phone, pay the deductible and get a new replacement.

Ever since I learned about the Blacklist System every upgrade I've made was through carrier. Which I believe what they wanted hence the BS system.

 

[vlee]

FWIW, I ended up getting the insurance that was offered with the purchase. (And decided against the SquareTrade which I've used before but was more expensive). I realize that at some point it's not worth it, but I'm paranoid enough to believe that if I didn't buy any, I'd be guaranteed to drop the phone in the first month and not be able to buy a new one yet. I hope not to have to use it, but if I do, I'll report back.

 

[LordGreylock]

I saw this post and just thought I'd share my experience with SquareTrade. At the time I had an HTC M7 with a cracked screen. I called SquareTrade and had set up a repair for the device, then sent it to them for repair.

After about a couple weeks or so I received my repaired device. The phone was a total mess. I could tell that whoever SquareTrade sent the phone to had no clue how to actually repair the phone and put it back together. There was glue all over the sides of the phone and the front where they tried to glue the top and bottom portions of the phone back together. There was glue in the speaker grilles, and the camera was off center and the screen was just not right.
After a couple days I tried to use the headphone port, did not work at all. I went back and forth for a while with SquareTrade and they were a huge pain in my *** about it. I ended up giving up and just calling it a loss. SquareTrade never made it right, they should have just replaced the phone, especially since I wasn't satisfied with the repairs.

I'd never buy a 3rd party warranty/insurance unless it's directly offered by the manufacturer, at least if it were offered by the manufacturer I'd hope that I would get better resolution to my repairs.