Cell phone insurance… Should you or should you not?
So you walk into the Verizon store to pick up your shiny new Android phone with a huge smile on your face as the sales rep activates your new baby. Everything is going great. But then out of no where comes the question “would you like to add the insurance plan for your phone ?” and your mind comes to halt. At first you refuse to panic, and inquire as to how much this insurance is….surely it is just some nominal one time fee just to be on the safe side. The sales rep informs you with a very irritating smile that it is an extra seven dollars a month to your bill. Still, you refuse to panic. You simply ask how much the phone is to replace. As a valued customer already paying at least $200 for the phone plus on average another $30 for the data plan you are sure that the replacement cost for your phone wont be that bad. The sales rep then informs you with an even more irritating smile that it is around six hundred to replace a broken phone unless it is covered by the one year limited warranty provided by the manufacturer. Panic.
So what do you do? You can either add an extra few dollars a month to be on the safe side, or trust to your case and the one year limited warranty. Either option is not appealing. It is at this moment that you realize that Verizon and all other phone carriers really have you by the (metaphorical) batteries when it comes to insuring your phone. I for one went with option C, which is to think about it before the end of 30 days at which point I will have to decide.
What did you decide? Do you think it is fair? Do you know of any alternatives to the choices talked about above? Let us know in the comments.
Did you enjoy this post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed! or visit the Android Forum!
Latest Android Forum Discussion
Related Posts
Insurance is No Longer Replacing Droids With DroidsFM Radios in Cell Phones to become mandatory
Martin Cooper inventor of the cell still prefers the Motorola Droid
What Is Google Android? – A Guide To The Google Android Operating System
Motorola Charm on T-Mobile available for $75
July 20th, 2010 at 8:19 am
Get it, my N96 suddenly stopped working, Vodafone UK send the phone for repair, it was unfixable and i was asble to pick any phone from their range! With a £25 excess.
July 20th, 2010 at 8:22 am
Tell em to shove it where the sun don’t shine. If you really must have insurance shop around there are plenty of placed to get that a lot cheaper.
July 20th, 2010 at 8:30 am
I have the insurance. I somehow don’t have to pay the new $7 cost, but it’s still $5.95 I think. When I’m already paying over $80/month, it’s not that much different to me and I’d rather know that I can replace my phone for $50 instead of $600 if something happens. $5.95/month for 20 months (new ever 2 year deal) is at $119…for me at least. That’s a decent deal to me.
July 20th, 2010 at 8:32 am
Keep your old phone – if you drop your new expensive one swear for a day or so and then turn service back onto the old dull one.
Then hit EBay and look for cheap replacements (or learn to live without the twitter!)
July 20th, 2010 at 8:35 am
I havent made a claim on any phone for the last 6 years, so I have decided I am a fairly responsible phone owner and decided not to take it out with my last purchase. Some people need it, as they are clumsy, forgetful etc… I would say, think about it, work out how likely it is you will need it, whether you have your old phone you can use if need be, and whether your household/car/personal insurance will cover it already.
July 20th, 2010 at 8:36 am
I insure my phone for $40 a year through a rider on my homeowners policy. Lost, broken, cracked, stolen, whatever, it gets replaced with no deductible. Insurance is through State Farm.
July 20th, 2010 at 9:11 am
I hate having to pay for any type of insurance. Its like gambling, you either are betting that something will happen, in which case you get insurance, or you are betting that something won’t happen, in which case you don’t get insurance.
I haven’t had a cell phone accident in over 10 years, but with a young child entering toddlerhood (aka the demonspawn years) and a new amazingly awesome Samsung Vibrant, that seems unnaturally thing, I decided to get insurance. $6 per month and a deductible of $90if anything happens to it, from T-Mobile USA.
I have not tried looking around to see if there is any cheaper insurance, so it’ll be interesting to hear if anyone has found something cheaper from a third party.
July 20th, 2010 at 9:20 am
I’d say get for one year, then drop it. The insurance, not the phone (grin). I echo Joe Cell-boy’s comment about finding a cheap replacement on eBay (I’d add Amazon and Craigslist). Keeping the old cell phone might help. For those who are up for a renewal and are addicted to Twitter and TalkAndroid, i’d keep the G1 or MyTouch 3g.
July 20th, 2010 at 9:32 am
Well in south africa we a bit lucky! Warranty is two years and they fix your phone with no questions asked unless its water damage. So insurance would be for just in-case you lose your phone.
July 20th, 2010 at 9:50 am
I would say get it. I know I’m very hard on phones and rarely does it have one last more then a year. I actually just replaced my droid this way. Very easy and simple to do.
July 20th, 2010 at 9:55 am
UK networks tend to charge £7 or so a month for insurance (£84 a year)
A month cheaper, standalone insurance option is “CUSC Foneguard” who charge just £54 a year – http://www.cusc.co.uk.
They also insure laptops as well.
The one time I have had to actually make a claim on my CUSC policy, when my old SE K700 needed a repair, CUSC handled my claim efficiently and very quickly.
I would definitely recommend these guys…
Also, dont forget to check whether your handset(s) are covered under your home insurance policies.
July 20th, 2010 at 10:04 am
I always keep the insurance in place until:
1. The carrier EOL’s the unit (usually well within the “new every two” period); and
2. The price of units on the secondary markets (ebay, craigslist) drops to a point where buying a unit is less than 8-10 months of insurance.
July 20th, 2010 at 10:57 am
I don’t know how it’s over in the US, but here in Sweden, things happening to your phone is covered by your home insurance(in most cases, and if not, it’s not covered by the extra phone insurance by the carrier either).
They still sell the 69SEK/Month (about $7-$8) insurances for the phone to people still covered by their home insurance… in most cases, it’s just a waste of money.
July 20th, 2010 at 11:04 am
I’ve never had the insurance. I usually don’t keep phones long enough to get insurance. The phones should be covered no matter what. I say don’t get it.
July 20th, 2010 at 11:17 am
The insurance plan I’m on doubles the manufacturer’s warranty from 1 to 2 years. That covers me through the 2 year contract with Verizon. Something to think about.
July 20th, 2010 at 11:33 am
I just tried using verizons insurance to replace my droid.and since the droid 2 is coming out they would only offer me a eris or devour.I bought a top of the line phone, and they want to give me something that’s not even close to the value of what I had.told them forget it, and went to the verizon store to plead my case.The nice rep ordered a new droid for me, and I dropped my insurance a day later.
July 20th, 2010 at 11:35 am
Get it, always. My G1 battery started dying quickly and randomly resetting my phone, T-Mobile support sent me a new one. If I ever drop it bad enough I get upgraded to the current generation Android device. I see it as a win-win, even though I’d prefer not paying and not ever have anything happen to my phone.
July 20th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
I went with the full insurance. The extended warranty is good if you keep your phone for the full 20 months of a NE2 contract. The Other is good for if you have a bad habit of leaving your phone on a table at a bar or ever let your phone sleep in a mud puddle overnight only to find a few months later that it doesn’t work and the little stickers are clouded and what can you do. URghhhhh. Objectively $8 a month for 20 months is $160 Plus $89 deductible equals $249 total cost of coverage Plus $200 Initial cost of phone means if you have to replace one that you lost or that got stolen or you dropped in a glass of water when you turned the alarm off accidentally because really you were too asleep to have a glass of water and a phone that close to your bed is $449 approximately. No coverage you pay $200 for the initial phone then it gets left on the window seal at a local restaurant and a less than savory individual picks it up and uses it until it is shut off and then throws it away then you have to pay the $530 (DINC) putting you out $730 overall. Overall difference of $289. Now have no coverage and nothing happens in 20 months and well now it is $249.
July 20th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Some very interesting responses. I like the idea of having the insurance until the phone is cheap enough to replace cheaply.
July 20th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
My wife and I pay $5.99 per month per phone for T-Mobile’s Premium Handset Protection (their version of phone insurance) and it has saved our bacon during the past year. If you’re planning on hanging onto your phone for more than a year, then it’s definitely worth it. We both usually see something go wrong with our phones sometime shortly after the 1-year mark, and the process we’ve had to go through to get a replacement phone has always been quick and painless.
July 20th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
I opted to not get insurance on my MotoDroid, with the reasoning that my last phone (an LG) I had insurance on, I went through like 4 of them, used insurance only once (it broke of its own accord 3 of the times), then ended up that last time paying for the one-time replacement fee that comes with the phone.
On a feature-phone it was $50. I’m not sure if it’s more for a smart-phone but I imagine it’s like $100. $7 a month for insurance, plus an extra $100? I calculated the costs of paying the then $5 insurance on my feature-phone and when it came down to how much I paid by the time I was done, I could have bought a new phone.
Then again, I might be easier on my phones than some (though 3 broken phones? Surely it’s me at this point) I don’t lose them or let them be in a position to be stolen (like leaving it out on the table at a restaurant).
By the time I was done with my last phone I was ready to be done with it because it was so out-dated at that point.
I felt I wasted my money on insurance. If I had dropped it in a lake after 1 month, I wouldn’t have felt it was a waste, but then I would be an idiot one way or another, and would be wasting my money that way.
July 20th, 2010 at 11:01 pm
There are people at the mobile phone company that are well paid to calculate the risk of you losing or damaging your phone. Based on this risk they calculate the price they have to charge you in order to not just break even but make money, likely lots of money. Money for the share holders, money for administrative overhead, and money to pay their high salaries for calculating that risk. They have done the work and you can rest assured that the price is set in their favor not yours. So unless you absolutely cannot afford to replace the phone if an unfortunate incident occurs or you think you are particularly accident prone you should refuse the insurance. By doing so you are saving for yourself the money that they would have earned… yet they did the work. The way I see it not getting insurance is like getting a free lunch.
July 25th, 2010 at 1:28 am
Hi. Thought I would chime in and show appreciation for the post. Keep up the good work and the great stuff rolling.
July 26th, 2010 at 10:50 am
I’d pay the insurance and not complain if the insurance company gave the consumer an even break… but they don’t.
First, the deductible is out of line.
And worse, they don’t necessarily replace your phone with the same thing… or even an equivalent. Try getting a replacement for a Droid and see what dreck they are willing to give you in exchange. THAT should be illegal.
August 8th, 2010 at 2:54 am
It is a waste of money. It is a scam. they will find any reason not to pay. They would not pay mine because of a scratch. Don’t waste your money!