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Other Will you be taking out AppleCare+?
- Thread starter The Game 161
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Always do. At first I was thinking of going the cheapskate route since the price cut on the XR was pretty substantial IMO, but ended up buying it anyways (as I did when I got my 6).
I always buy it. Since I keep my phone until it dies, I’ve had to use it before.
I usually take good care of my iPhones and keep them for around 1-2 years. I never bought it and never was in a situation where I would have needed it.
I should clarify, I have iPhone upgrade program which comes with regular Apple care. I decided to pay the additional $4 for theft/loss protection.
I feel like some people are missing the fact that AppleCare and AppleCare+ are a form of insurance. As is the case with all insurance (health, dental, car, etc.) you might not use it often or ever, thus eliminating the potential finical benefit of having AppleCare. However, in a strictly financial sense, most of us don’t buy insurance because we expect to always get out of it what we put in. It is peace of mind. And god forbid my phone does get lost or stolen, I won’t have to buy a whole new phone at cost.
I am not saying AppleCare is right for everyone. It really is a personal choice. I’m just highlighting what many seem to forget, that insurance is more about peace of mind.
I am not saying AppleCare is right for everyone. It really is a personal choice. I’m just highlighting what many seem to forget, that insurance is more about peace of mind.
100% Correct, I sold cars for a living and I can tell you in regards to things like extended warranties or AppleCare+ there's no right or wrong answer. The extra insurance is nice to have if you need it, but you may never need it. It's a gamble.
I agree that insurance can be largely about peace of mind, but I think another way to think about insurance is whether the risks you’re protecting against can be addressed better by self-insuring. For me, I look at the cost of the insurance, the potential benefits, and what is the worst case scenario if I don’t buy the insurance and find myself with a total loss.
Health insurance or homeowners insurance is a no brainer to me. If you experience a total loss, you’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. The premium for such insurance is small relative to the potential benefit, and the cost of self-insuring would be very large.
For insurance on electronic devices like an iPhone, the worst case scenario is that I am out the cost of a new iPhone (across all the options, let’s just say roughly $1,000). Am I willing to pay $150-$200 plus deductibles/fees to cover a maximum loss of $1,000? Well, I guess it depends on how likely I think I would be to use the insurance. Since I’ve never needed it, I view the likelihood as pretty low and would rather self-insure. If I were pretty certain I’d need it, it would sort of be like pre-paying at a discount for repairs to my phone.
Obviously, we all approach this decision differently and having AC gives some people a very worthwhile peace of mind. For me, I view it largely as wasting my money on unnecessary protection for risks that I am better off self-insuring against.
I would buy the insurance if it was reasonable like other forms of insurance, but at $200 or more, that’s almost 20% of the cost of the phone. Thats a ripoff. Would you pay $6000 for 2 years on a warranty for a $30,000 car? If you really want insurance for your phone, shop around. You can find insurance for less than half the price from square trade and others.
Dude, I've tried to explain this so many ways. Math is hard. Most common response is "Yeah, but if I lose it, I'd wish I'd had it!"
I've even tried use the following thought experiment: Imagine every time you buy a phone, you put $200 in savings account. And any time you need to repair a phone you use the savings account to pay for it. Over your entire phone-buying lifetime - do you think you'd come out ahead?
This too. A teacher I had once said that most people couldn't internalize numbers bigger than 1,000. In other words, once you went 4-digits, it was just a "really big number!" So, when thinking about the fact you might lose/destroy something that costs $1000 - it seems like an astronomically big loss and must be protected against at all costs.
The issue is it doesnt really work that way. Not if you're a yearly swapper.
Yearly it is half the $199; lets say $115 for ease (whether you pay $9.99 monthly which is $120 over 12 months or you pay up front $199 and get the prorated refund which is actually cheaper at about $110 for 12 months)
So that $115 covers your $1000-1100 phone for a year. If you break the screen its $29, versus $279 (5.8) and $329 (6.5). So you only spent $145 total with Applecare verses those numbers.
You break the back glass. That's $549/599, with Applecare that $115 plus $99 or $215 (roughly).
If you dont use it the phone cost you 10% or less (depend on capacity of the phone) to insure. It would take a whole lot of years to pay off even one back glass repair. Over 5 years of saving that $115 per year not spent on Applecare.
You could say the same thing about a car then. If you didnt spend $1200/year (using a rough $100/month average) for 5-5.5 years you would have quite a little nest egg for any repairs of a good few thousand bucks. If you had to use it once it pays for itself.
Its a judgment call, there is no right answer. Before glass back iphones I never ever bought Applecare; at worse you could find a display somehow and maybe it cost you $100-150. But the back glass is really not swappable and is the costliest repair.
Yearly it is half the $199; lets say $115 for ease (whether you pay $9.99 monthly which is $120 over 12 months or you pay up front $199 and get the prorated refund which is actually cheaper at about $110 for 12 months)
So that $115 covers your $1000-1100 phone for a year. If you break the screen its $29, versus $279 (5.8) and $329 (6.5). So you only spent $145 total with Applecare verses those numbers.
You break the back glass. That's $549/599, with Applecare that $115 plus $99 or $215 (roughly).
If you dont use it the phone cost you 10% or less (depend on capacity of the phone) to insure. It would take a whole lot of years to pay off even one back glass repair. Over 5 years of saving that $115 per year not spent on Applecare.
You could say the same thing about a car then. If you didnt spend $1200/year (using a rough $100/month average) for 5-5.5 years you would have quite a little nest egg for any repairs of a good few thousand bucks. If you had to use it once it pays for itself.
Its a judgment call, there is no right answer. Before glass back iphones I never ever bought Applecare; at worse you could find a display somehow and maybe it cost you $100-150. But the back glass is really not swappable and is the costliest repair.
AppleCare is also priced the way it is because of some of the anal people who return their phones, over and over and over and over again. There is a slight yellow tint. Off it goes for a replacement. I see a speck of dust under the screen with a magnifying glass. Off it goes for a replacement. When I shake it, I can hear a slight rattle. Off it goes for a replacement. And so on and so on.
Those are "defects" under the warranty/regular Applecare that everyone gets a year of, not Applecare+ that you buy
Apple just knows people will buy the Applecare+ for 2 years for $199 in fear of paying $600 to replace back glass. It's a numbers game that more people will pay in than repairs they have to perform, just like any other insurance.
It's all built into the price of the phone, and other products, including the insurance. You are paying the higher cost because of anal people.
I understand how it works but it has nothing to do with Applecare+ pricing, the repair insurance you buy, as you implied
There are people who are out there that purposely drop their phones in hopes of breaking the screen because it has a lot of scratches on it. They get a new screen right before they sell it. Same with some who say they lost their scuffed up phone, so they can get a replacement which they sell as new in the box right before the new models come out. You are paying for abuse by others. In the end, it's up to each person whether they want to buy insurance. IMO, $200+ for insurance is ridiculous.That's just my opinion.
I get AppleCare every year for my new iPhones, yes I also ring Apple. Probably will do this tomorrow to get my refund on the remaining for this Xs. It’s so worth it. I know it’s heafty at £199 but to me it’s peace of mind in case anything to happen to my over £1000 phone in my opinion. And tbh over the years I’m never actually had to claim on it.
I've owned the iPhone 6s since launch without a case and never lost it or dropped it enough to cause damage.
Never bought insurance before and don't plan to, even on my new iPhone 11 Pro
Never bought insurance before and don't plan to, even on my new iPhone 11 Pro