Buying an iPhone means spending hundreds (or thousands) of dollars for the device and thousands of dollars in monthly service fees. With that much money at stake, it might seem smart to also buy iPhone insurance to protect your investment. After all, insurance claims to totally cover you against theft, damage, and other mishaps for just a few dollars a month.
When you dig into the details of what these insurance plans really offer, though, they stop looking like such a good deal. In fact, they start to look more like something that’s going to upset you if you ever have to use it. Here are six reasons you shouldn’t buy iPhone insurance and one suggestion for how to get extra protection for your iPhone if you want it.
Curious about your options for iPhone insurance despite our recommendation? Check out 10 Companies that Will Insure Your iPhone.
Monthly Costs Add Up
Having iPhone insurance means paying a monthly fee, just like insurance for your car or house. You may not notice the charge if it’s included as part of your phone bill. A few more dollars each month usually isn’t obvious. Still, these fees mean you’re spending extra money every month. Plus, when you add it up, two years of insurance premiums from some of the most popular companies can total between US$100 and $250.
You Still Have to Pay for Repairs
Just like with other types of insurance, when you make a claim, you also pay a deductible to get a repair or a replacement phone, or that money will be deducted from a cash settlement paid by the insurance company. Deductibles run between $25 and $300 per claim. This coverage can be a good deal if your phone is totally ruined and you have to buy a new one at full price, but if you just need a repair, the deductible you pay may be a significant percentage of the cost of the repair.
Refurbished Phones Are Often Used
Of all the “gotchas” hidden in many iPhone insurance policies, this is one of the worst. Let’s say you have an incident and need a new phone. You’ve been paying monthly fees, and you’ve paid your deductible. But you may not get a totally new phone.
In fact, when your insurance company replaces your broken phone with a working one, the replacement is often refurbished. The phones that insurance companies send are often phones that were sold used or were broken and then repaired. For your hundreds of dollars of premium and deductible, wouldn’t you rather have a truly new phone?
Poor Customer Service
Nobody likes getting the runaround, but that’s just what many iPhone insurance customers have reported. Rude employees, lost paperwork, delays in getting replacement phones, and related hassles seem endemic to this type of coverage.
Limits on the Number of Claims
This isn’t true of all insurance plans, but some of them limit the number of claims you can make during your one- or two-year policy term. For example, some iPhone insurance policies limit you to two claims in a two-year policy. Have the bad luck to have a phone stolen or break a third time in two years? Your insurance won’t help you and you’ll be stuck paying full price for a repair or a new phone.
No Tech Support
Insurance companies provide coverage for loss, theft, damage, and other calamities, but they can’t help you with the day-to-day frustrations technology often presents to us.
If you’re having a software problem, or just have a question about how to use your phone, your insurance company can’t help you. You’ll need to find answers somewhere else, whether that’s online or from an in-person option like Apple’s Genius Bar.
Your iPhone Insurance Best Option: AppleCare
Even with so many reasons to avoid iPhone insurance, you’re not completely on your own in a world that’s often hazardous to phones. Instead, you should seek your help from the same place where you buy your phone: Apple.
Apple’s extended warranty program, AppleCare, is a great option for people who want ongoing coverage for their phones. Not everyone will find it a good deal (if you upgrade whenever a new phone comes out, it may not make sense), but for those who do, the benefits are many.
AppleCare has many of the features of insurance—there’s an upfront fee that’s about equal to the cheapest insurance plans and then costs per repair, as well as a limit of two repairs in two years—but it offers some benefits. First off, cracked screen replacements cost less than with most insurance plans. Second, AppleCare also covers phone and in-person tech support. While AppleCare doesn’t cover theft, it gives you direct access to support from the experts at Apple.
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