Cell Phone Insurance?

While we're on the subject of cell phones, I've been thinking about the insurance. I'm not sure it's ever been useful to me. Maybe for the first 6-12 months with a new phone when you can't buy them used for reasonable money, but beyond that, Craigslist is faster and cheaper. Furthermore, roughly 50% of the "insurance" phones I've gotten over the years had problems that clearly were the result of shoddy refurb work. Charging ports that didn't work, bad speakers, etc. Certainly not worth the $150-200 "deductible".

I seem to recall hearing about a 3rd party insurer on the radio. Anyone gone with one of those? I need to call Sprint and tell them to cancel that crap on my account.

Never bought it, never needed it. If I fawk up a phone I'll bite the bullet and buy a used one retail.

Hell, I've got enough old used phones in a drawer I could always just put one of those to use for a while if needed.

all depends on your risk tolerance. like any insurance.

I take especially good care of my phones. In the past 10 years, the only damage to a phone was the outer LCD screen of a flip phone cracking. The applephone4 that I've had for the past 3 years doesn't have a scratch on it, and it's been bouncing around my osprey pack for 5500+ miles of rocky mountain singletrack.

The only thing it seems good for is lost/stolen. I cracked my screen (first time ever) about 6 months ago.

150$ deductable, while fixing the screen outright at a mall kiosk is $100....

I've thought about seeing if I can/what the cost would be to schedule them on my homeowners policy with 0 deductible. They're already covered on most homeowners policies for 16 specific causes of loss, subject to deductible. So it's not much of a stretch for them to just extend the coverage to all causes of loss and no deductible. I bet it'd be 10-15 bucks a year.

Ralph said:

I've thought about seeing if I can/what the cost would be to schedule them on my homeowners policy with 0 deductible. They're already covered on most homeowners policies for 16 specific causes of loss, subject to deductible. So it's not much of a stretch for them to just extend the coverage to all causes of loss and no deductible. I bet it'd be 10-15 bucks a year.

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Briefly crossed my mind as well. I have my laptop on a "personal articles" policy. I'm sure I could do it with my phones as well. The only reason I maintain the cell phone insurance through Sprint is the idea that it's just more convenient if something happens. When my power button went out, Sprint wouldn't replace it under warranty because the moisture sensor by the headphone jack was tripped. My option was to spend $150 on the deductible and wait 2 days to get a shitty refurb, or buy a used one on Craigslist the same day for $100. Pretty easy decision.

never had cell phone insurance.

shrug

wct097 said:

Briefly crossed my mind as well. I have my laptop on a "personal articles" policy. I'm sure I could do it with my phones as well. The only reason I maintain the cell phone insurance through Sprint is the idea that it's just more convenient if something happens. When my power button went out, Sprint wouldn't replace it under warranty because the moisture sensor by the headphone jack was tripped. My option was to spend $150 on the deductible and wait 2 days to get a shitty refurb, or buy a used one on Craigslist the same day for $100. Pretty easy decision.

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In the case of homeowners insurance where it was scheduled on a personal articles floater, you could pretty much just go buy the new one and send them your receipt and the old phone. They'd send a check.

Ralph said:

In the case of homeowners insurance where it was scheduled on a personal articles floater, you could pretty much just go buy the new one and send them your receipt and the old phone. They'd send a check.

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how would that work for "stolen" though?

I had to get Apple Care which was paid for or I could go without and be responsible for the damage out of my own pocket. No brainer.

mcatdtJEEP said:

how would that work for "stolen" though?

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File a police report, sign sworn statement saying this is what happened, get paid. Same thing (minus police report) with "lost".

My visa card 'insures' my phone if I pay the bill entirely with my card. They tell me to not purchase ins. from verizon and if anything happens, they'll take care of it. Another CC 'perk' that I'll never take advantage of.

Cost to fix is so cheap it makes it pointless to purchase ins. And a decent case prevents most accidents.

GreenGeep said:

My visa card 'insures' my phone if I pay the bill entirely with my card. They tell me to not purchase ins. from verizon and if anything happens, they'll take care of it. Another CC 'perk' that I'll never take advantage of.

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well, still great insurance though.... very rare anyone ever needs it... but when you do need it, you'll be glad it's there.

I dropped my. blackberry 40 feet onto concrete didn't break no case

This s4 had fallen dozens of times with case no issues.

Sons had 4 I phones all have had cracked screens
wife has had 3 ... 2 of them died due to water

Even for a lost phone I had to file a police report + deductible + wait several days for delivery = never bought insurance again.

Went to the police station and they were clearly pissed they had to do "work" to get me a form and then enter it in their system.

grigsby said:

Cost to fix is so cheap it makes it pointless to purchase ins. And a decent case prevents most accidents.

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Otter Box.

Cancelled the coverage through Sprint yesterday. Next time I see my insurance agent, I'm going to see if I can get them (when we get newer phones) scheduled on the articles policy.

Stu Cozza said:

Otter Box.

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High priced and bulky. Nice marketing, but I prefer something that leaves some room in my pants for my massive balls.