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What do you think about Cell Phone Insurance?


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I am getting ready to pre-order the iPhone 5 and I got to the part online that asked about insurance and wasn't sure what to do. I currently have an old iPhone (3GS) and I do not have insurance on it. I actually don't think AT&T even offered iPhone insurance back when I got my phone.

 

The insurance is $6.99 per month and there is a $199 (or maybe $169) deductible.

 

I have always been told that insurance on electronics is a waste. But for some reason, I'm not sure here. What says the Hive?

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I am getting ready to pre-order the iPhone 5 and I got to the part online that asked about insurance and wasn't sure what to do. I currently have an old iPhone (3GS) and I do not have insurance on it. I actually don't think AT&T even offered iPhone insurance back when I got my phone.

 

The insurance is $6.99 per month and there is a $199 (or maybe $169) deductible.

 

I have always been told that insurance on electronics is a waste. But for some reason, I'm not sure here. What says the Hive?

 

If you had asked me a month ago, I would have said it's a waste. We'd paid every month into it and then the amount to activate/deductible amount was the amount to have bought a new phone. (Mine died. It just died for no apparent reason.) So dh let the insurance go.

 

Now this past Friday, he dropped his phone and the screen cracked. The phone still works so he put a screen protector on it and plans to nurse it through till April when our contract is up. He was talking to someone at church yesterday who had the same issue - paid for insurance replaced one phone and found it not very useful so dropped it. Broke a second phone and wishes he still had it.

 

So I guess for our experience, how many cell phones will you have? f one, save that money to replace the phone if necessary. But if you have 2 phones, pay for it.

 

BTW, we've had cells since I was pg with oldest - so 18/19 years. We've never had a problem, never a need to replace phones. The only reason we got insurance this time was we have teens on our plan with their own phones. We figured we'd need it for their phones. It was my phone that died and dh who dropped and cracked his. The teen phones may not look good anymore but they are still working fine.

 

Anther thing - dh will probably buy an otterbox for his next phone since he dropped it. DD has a co-worker with a smart phone that fell out of his pocket while on a roller coaster. They had to wait until the park closed for the night, but the phone in the otter box was fine! This particular ride, I guess, has a lot of phones fall out at the same point, but most are broken beyond repair. HIs was fine.

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We've always had it on our phones, however we just cancelled it on all four after for the the third time the "damage" to the phone was not covered.

 

We don't have iphones though. Probably if it was just the one phone I'd carry it, but for our family the total cost was roughly $40 a month. So not worth it in my opinion.

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I think it's nonsense, but then, I don't have an expensive phone. I finally replaced mine with a $20 Go Phone instead of signing back up for a contract, esp since almost all the phones are for internet browsing and the like, when all I want is a phone. I have regular service, not prepaid, but the Go phone works just fine with at&t non-prepaid. My mom adds insurance to everything, and weirdly enough, constantly has to use it. She had to get her Blackberry replaced twice in her first month using one. This way I don't really care if anything happens to it, like my kids ruin it by dropping it a thousand times (why the last one died). Before you ask me why were my kids using my phone, it's because they were talking to their grandparents.

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I am getting ready to pre-order the iPhone 5 and I got to the part online that asked about insurance and wasn't sure what to do. I currently have an old iPhone (3GS) and I do not have insurance on it. I actually don't think AT&T even offered iPhone insurance back when I got my phone.

 

The insurance is $6.99 per month and there is a $199 (or maybe $169) deductible.

 

I have always been told that insurance on electronics is a waste. But for some reason, I'm not sure here. What says the Hive?

 

By the time you pay the monthly fee and then deductible it is barely a savings on a new phone.

 

I have also heard that they give you refurbished phones and not a new one if you get a replacement.

 

I save all our old phones so if I ever damage one I always have a backup to reactivate.

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Maybe they have changed it, but Miss Good's iPhone has been replaced twice at absolutely no charge.

 

Once there was clearly water damage from her doing chores on the rain with the phone in her pocket.

 

Really??? That is awesome! I just looked on AT&T's site and without a contract, a new iPhone 5 (16gb) costs $649. That is just crazy!!!

 

What carrier do you use?

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It depends: If you lost your phone tomorrow, could you replace it without too much budgetary pain (or have an old smartphone you can reactivate)? Can you survive without your phone? Have you lost a phone before? Are you prone to losing your purse?

 

ETA: It might not be your best option to go through AT&T.

Edited by nmoira
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It depends: If you lost your phone tomorrow, could you replace it without too much budgetary pain (or have an old smartphone you can reactivate)? Can you survive without your phone? Have you lost a phone before? Are you prone to losing your purse?

 

ETA: It might not be your best option to go through AT&T.

 

Are there other options out there?

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Can you get Apple Care for the phone instead of the insurance? That is probably the discrepancy among the stories from PPs. When I bought my iPhone 4s (Sprint) I paid $100 or something for Apple Care, which I think will repair or replace the phone twice, for free, with no questions asked.

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