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One thing that I will add is for those on the iUP. To own the phone outright or do the 1-year upgrade, one must also turn in said-phone for the new one. So one reason that I keep thinking about adding Theft and Loss is that even if I lose it, I can get a replacement and still upgrade in a years time. Worse case scenario would be losing the phone and having to pay for it and then financing another phone.
 
I spend a lot of time on the water and have lost both an iPhone 7 and iPhone XS Max in the water. I have carrier insurance for this reason. $6.95 a month with a $199 deductible and free overnight delivery. Has worked well for me over the years, but I don’t live near an Apple store either.
 
One thing that I will add is for those on the iUP. To own the phone outright or do the 1-year upgrade, one must also turn in said-phone for the new one. So one reason that I keep thinking about adding Theft and Loss is that even if I lose it, I can get a replacement and still upgrade in a years time. Worse case scenario would be losing the phone and having to pay for it and then financing another phone.

I am on the upgrade program and in July forgot my XS Max was on the roof of my car. I drove back home and used Find My iPhone to determine that it was a half mile from my house. Found it in the middle of the highway with cracked glass but no car drove directly over it. Glad that I had AppleCare+.

I meant to add theft and loss coverage when I made the pre-order this week but forgot to do so. I was lucky to find my iPhone. Is it possible to add theft and loss after purchase with the upgrade program?
 
I had T-mobile’s Protection 360 on my XS Max 512gb which was $14/month which include AppleCare+. Lost my phone at a club or in an Uber leaving the club, the $249 deductible seemed cheap for them to overnight me a new phone.
 
My $10 Spigen case is my apple care.

These “air cushion” cases + tempered glass screen protectors have successfully protected my 6s plus, X, and XS Max for multiple years without paying for Apple Care.
 
I had T-mobile’s Protection 360 on my XS Max 512gb which was $14/month which include AppleCare+. Lost my phone at a club or in an Uber leaving the club, the $249 deductible seemed cheap for them to overnight me a new phone.

$249 + 12*$14 = $417. You paid $417 for the new phone... I never understand why that is overlooked.

and if you've been paying $14/mo for years, you've given them more money than a new phone costs.

insurance companies are for-profit...

You should only insure what you can't afford to lose. If you literally cannot afford any phone if you lose yours, then insurance makes sense. I find it hard to believe that is true.
 
I've never gotten apple care on any of my products, and never needed it either. If I would have bought it at an average of lets say $175 per device (because the price has steadily increased), on the 13 phones including the 11 Pro I just bought then it would have cost me roughly $2,275, and given me absolutely 0 benefit. I did break a screen one time, but I replaced it myself for less than the cost of the Apple Care deductible.

So absolute worst case scenario I lose my Pro, or it gets stolen, then I've saved enough by not buying Apple Care over these last 10 years to almost cover the cost of replacing 2 base model iPhone 11 Pro Max's.

TL:DR - if you aren't the kind of person who loses or breaks things often, Apple Care is a compete waste of money. Save it instead.
 
I’m an iPhone user since day one, I’ve never lost an iPhone. I opted for the insurance because it was only $4 more bucks a month... I’m already spending 1500 on my devices. Why stop at $4 extra bucks.

but literally Thursday night I was contemplating on getting the theft insurance or not this year. I even asked the wife. Sure enough my cousin accidentally grabbing my phone as she was packing up leaving the bowling alley.
 
Never gone with the Theft and Loss option. Nor this time. But if it ever happens I’m sure I will from then on. May be backwards reasoning, but there it is. Can’t wait to get the Midnight Green 11 Pro. Downsizing this year from larger sizes and storage.
 
$249 + 12*$14 = $417. You paid $417 for the new phone... I never understand why that is overlooked.

and if you've been paying $14/mo for years, you've given them more money than a new phone costs.

insurance companies are for-profit...

You should only insure what you can't afford to lose. If you literally cannot afford any phone if you lose yours, then insurance makes sense. I find it hard to believe that is true.

Shouldn’t we factor in that AppleCare+ itself costs $9.99/month?
 
I never once in my life had a phone loss or stolen. I'll pass!

The only phone I've ever lost was a Qualcomm (I think) phone that I left on the roof of my vehicle. It stayed on the vehicle exiting the parking lot, driving through downtown Boston and getting onto the Mass Pike, where it finally flew off the roof and hit the deck. Luckily, there were no vehicles behind me (middle of the day, not rush hour). That was somewhere in the early 2000s. I've never felt a need for loss/theft coverage.
 
I never once in my life had a phone loss or stolen. I'll pass!

That’s what I said too, and I’m not in disagreement with you, but as humans, we make trivial mistakes, and there’s that one single occasion where you probably might/can lose your phone or misplace it when you least expect it, and then the worst happens, where you can’t find it or it was stolen, that’s why situations like this make you think twice about something in a situation where insurance comes into play when you now wish you had the insurance. You can never say never, not when you’re a victim of when it actually happens to you. Just sayin.
 
That’s what I said too, and I’m not in disagreement with you, but as humans, we make trivial mistakes, and there’s that one single occasion where you probably might/can lose your phone or misplace it when you least expect it, and then the worst happens, where you can’t find it or it was stolen, that’s why situations like this make you think twice about something in a situation where insurance comes into play when you now wish you had the insurance. You can never say never, not when you’re a victim of when it actually happens to you. Just sayin.

I agree with this. I used to be in phone sales and have had people tell me they’ve never dropped their phone, so therefore don’t need it. Two days later, they come back in with a broken screen and all I can say is I told you so.
 
That’s what I said too, and I’m not in disagreement with you, but as humans, we make trivial mistakes, and there’s that one single occasion where you probably might/can lose your phone or misplace it when you least expect it, and then the worst happens, where you can’t find it or it was stolen, that’s why situations like this make you think twice about something in a situation where insurance comes into play when you now wish you had the insurance. You can never say never, not when you’re a victim of when it actually happens to you. Just sayin.

I feel like math must be hard.

Example: iPhone 11 pro, 64 GB. That phone is $999. Now let's say you buy AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss. That's $300. It also has a $269 deductible.

So, if you lose the phone, you get a new one for $269, but you paid $300 to have the opportunity to buy the phone at $269. You paid $300, for the chance of saving $730.

What do you think the odds are your phone gets lost or stolen? 1 in 1000 in a given year? 1 in 100?

If I asked you to give me $300 and then I would have you guess a number between 1 and 100 and if that number was correct, I would give you $730 otherwise I keep the money, would you give me the $300? If so, let me give you my paypal. I'll play that game all day, everyday.
 
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Likely not. Just ACPlus.

AC+ i always get. I haven’t had to use it yet, but it’s there in case I need it. I just called to get the refund on my X processed so that way it’ll be ready for trade in etc. I know knowing my luck, the one time I drop it it’ll shatter and I’ll wish I had it.
 
Are you folks doing iUP with apple or the carrier.
I am paying FRP for my phone due a special plan I am on.
Doubt I'd do any Apple Care but I'll purchase on Amex and use an Otterbox or Lifeproof.
 
I feel like math must be hard.

Example: iPhone 11 pro, 64 GB. That phone is $999. Now let's say you buy AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss. That's $300. It also has a $269 deductible.

So, if you lose the phone, you get a new one for $269, but you paid $300 to have the opportunity to buy the phone at $269. You paid $300, for the chance of saving $730.

What do you think the odds are your phone gets lost or stolen? 1 in 1000 in a given year? 1 in 100?

If I asked you to give me $300 and then I would have you guess a number between 1 and 100 and if that number was correct, I would give you $730 otherwise I keep the money, would you give me the $300? If so, let me give you my paypal. I'll play that game all day, everyday.

Math was never my strong subject. But....to your question, does it really matter what the ‘odds’ are? I mean, we can ration numbers all day long for costs associated for XYZ, I listed the chance encounter of how I accidentally left my iPhone behind at a bar counter, never, ever, have I made that mistake before, now it wasn’t stolen, but It _could_ have been during the three minutes I was away from it. Point is, I would rather have the insurance to put me in a situation if my phone was stolen, I have the confidence to know it’s ‘covered.’ To me, insurance comes into play when we least expect it, but for those who take the risk of saying.....’Nah, I’ll take my chances for the 1/1000 that I may never lose my iPhone’, but we all know, there isn’t a guarantee you, me, or anyone reading this that you may not lose/have your iPhone stolen. It happens, but it’s nice to formulate numbers that don’t add up to anything when you wish you had the insurance. Case in point. :D
 
I can self insure so I should probably not do it, but I usually always do at least AC. This time for my non-pro iPhone 11 I did add the theft and loss. I have done very well over the last 3 years, but before that have had really bad track record with phones. I even lost three 3GS in the course of one long weekend in Vegas. Sigh. In addition, have lost one down the toilet of an airplane. One left on the roof of my car. One in a vacation condo. One dunked in a cup of coffee. I broke a 3 day old Galaxy Note screen by dropping it and couldn’t get service since I had bought a grey market version on eBay. Lived with it for about a year until it quit charging.

For my latest 7 plus I replaced 3 camera modules over 3 years, 2 within the AC term. Did a little better than even. Didn’t lose it but I feel like I’m due :)
 
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Math was never my strong subject. But....to your question, does it really matter what the ‘odds’ are? I mean, we can ration numbers all day long for costs associated for XYZ, I listed the chance encounter of how I accidentally left my iPhone behind at a bar counter, never, ever, have I made that mistake before, now it wasn’t stolen, but It _could_ have been during the three minutes I was away from it. Point is, I would rather have the insurance to put me in a situation if my phone was stolen, I have the confidence to know it’s ‘covered.’ To me, insurance comes into play when we least expect it, but for those who take the risk of saying.....’Nah, I’ll take my chances for the 1/1000 that I may never lose my iPhone’, but we all know, there isn’t a guarantee you, me, or anyone reading this that you may not lose/have your iPhone stolen. It happens, but it’s nice to formulate numbers that don’t add up to anything when you wish you had the insurance. Case in point. :D

Let me try another way. You're using a single incident rather than looking at the big picture.

It's like flipping a coin. It's a 50/50 chance it lands heads or tails. But for any single toss, there's only one outcome. So if you flipped it once and it lands heads, that tells you nothing about the odds of it landing heads or tails the next flip. All you know is that if you flip it a bunch of times, about half will be heads and half will be tails.

How does this relate to the phone thing? Let's say every time you buy a new phone, you put $300 in a savings account rather than buying AppleCare+. And if your phone is lost or stolen, you use the money in your savings account toward a new one. Over your lifetime of buying phones, don't you think you would come out ahead that way? In order for it _not_ to, 1 of every 3 phones you buy would have to be lost or stolen.

So in other words, you might lose money on any given phone purchase (coin flip), but over your entire phone-owning-life (many flips), you will come out ahead because the odds are in your favor - probably HEAVILY in your favor because the odds are, you won't lose your phone.
 
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I get it because:

1) I occasionally like to use my phone without a case. And every time I have broke it, it has been out of said case

2) IUP has you pay for regular apple care anyways, I’ll cover my butt on loss and theft for the extra $4 a month.

3) I pay my monthly carrier bill with a credit card that offers up to $600 in protection against damage and theft.

So let’s say you buy the phone outright for the most conservative numbers and lose/get your phone stolen once a year.

AC+ is $15
15*12=180
Theft and loss replacement is $269
Total=$449/year

Now the card coverage kicks in for a secondary insurance and turns that $269 to $25

Thus totaling $205 a year for a replacement phone under the worst scenario.

And if you lose your phone twice in a year, it’s half that for 2 replacement phones and you no longer have to pay monthly for the protection.
 
How does this relate to the phone thing? Let's say every time you buy a new phone, you put $300 in a savings account rather than buying AppleCare+. And if you your phone is lost or stolen, you use the money in your savings account toward a new one. Over your lifetime of buying phones, don't you think you would come out ahead that way? In order for it _not_ to, 1 of every 3 phones you buy would have to be lost or stolen.

Ahhh, more projected numbers...:D I can appreciate your breakdowns, but it doesn’t change my perspective. I mean, we already discussed the ‘odds’, chances, random situations, etc. You mentioned I could use that money in my savings account, you Kinda act like I _should_ be thinking of saving the money for something else, when I already made the decision to apply it something I find it necessary for whatever occasion. My savings v.s. what I decide to invest in something I know a company will stand behind is worth more to me than putting that money away for something else. My perspective may not be reflective of yours, but I never regret investing in protection for the more costly expenses in life, rather it be my car(s), tech, house, whatever, I play it as a ‘safe bet.’ To each their own.
 
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