Order Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard today from Amazon.com - $25!
iPhone Insurance
September 10th, 2009 - iPhone
Do you need iPhone Insurance? For such an expensive phone, I think the answer is yes. iPhone Insurance is not really something I thought of, and I’m guessing something that most users don’t think of until it’s too late and you actually need it. After several of my friends accidentally broke, lost, or otherwise rendered their iPhone’s unusable, I got a bit more curious about iPhone specific insurance options. This list is by no means complete but it’s just what I discovered in my research for iPhone insurance. It looks like the three main options are going through your cellular provider (in this case, AT&T), State Farm Insurance, or another insurance providers.
iPhone Insurance Options
AT&T Wireless Insurance – this is tacked onto your regular monthly iPhone service bill at the rate of $5/month. Your iPhone can be lost, stolen, accidental damage, liquid damage, or otherwise experience failure and the iPhone Insurance will cover the loss. There’s a $50-$100 deductible though, so keep that in mind, it may be just as expensive to renew your contract with AT&T for that price. Note: several users pointed out that standard AT&T insurance does not cover the iPhone, you should clarify this with AT&T before you sign up!
State Farm Personal Articles Insurance – the cost for State Farm to cover your iPhone (and Mac, might as well cover them both right?) is pretty cheap but vary from region to region. According to CNET, the yearly cost of their plan that covered their Mac and iPhone was $35. That figure should serve as a baseline, and not a rule. The deductible for the plan varies based on what your premium is. Note: commenters point out that some State Farm agencies will not cover the iPhone, this seems to be on a state by state basis, you’ll have to call your agent to know for sure.
Other iPhone Insurance Providers – there’s a slew of insurance providers out there but whether or not they will cover your iPhone is another story. Your best bet is to call your local insurance company and ask them questions specifically about iPhone coverage. I contacted my Home Owners provider and they said my iPhone and Mac are already covered by my existing policy, but, there’s a $500 deductible per incident! The high deductible obviously makes relying on this insurance pointless for just the iPhone, but they did offer to have a lower overall deductible for a considerable amount more per year – not even close to worth it in my case, I’d have to lose 3 iPhones a year just to break even.
Readers Suggestions – I have no experience with Safeware but apparently they offer iPhone Insurance too (thanks to reader MauiMan!), please do your own due diligence to determine if the iPhone plans they offer are right for you. Additionally, Best Buy offers iPhone Insurance through their Geek Squad service (thanks reader Mike!) but apparently they are expensive.
The bottom line is if you’re trying to insure your iPhone the best bet is to just call around and see who has the best rate, just be sure to check on deductibles and limitations. You don’t want to buy an insurance plan for your iPhone only to find out it’s not covering accidental damage or has a large deductible. Hopefully none of us will actually need (or wished we had) insurance for our iPhones, but should the case arise, it’s good to be prepared right?
[ Broken iPhone Image from Flickr ]
Posted by: William Pearson
Write a comment