So you just got yourself the new iPhone 13. congratulations one of the most common questions that I get a lot, especially with the release of the new iPhone from family members friends, and even some clients is whether should you buy cell phone insurance from your mobile carrier.
so this is a great question and one that I’m excited to talk about being in insurance and risk management with the rise in technology and the brand new iPhone 13 this would be a great session.
Some key factors to consider when you’re thinking about buying any insurance policy for that matter is what is your level of risk and do you believe that the level of risk is high enough in you would at some point accumulate a loss and if that’s the case.
so if you are a hiker or a runner or you’re in sales your real estate agent you’re always on the go you’re always moving with your phone and potentially you have a chance of dropping your phone or your device then that is a great idea that you probably want to buy the cell phone insurance, especially for the iPhone.
or any tech phone for that matter these phones are like starting at eight hundred dollars up to about fifty fourteen hundred fifteen hundred dollars so in the event you were to crack the phone or you were to lose it or it was to be stolen then that insurance plan could potentially help you out financially and replace the phone for you.
so that’s one consideration. if you live more of a sedentary lifestyle which is fine or you are working from home for the most part you historically have never really dropped your phone or your device you have a case unlike me I don’t have a case nor do I have a screen protector.
but unlike me, if you have those things then your degree of risk or you know damaging your device is low so that’s just another consideration where you may decide to forgo the insurance.
so and that’s fine if you forgo the insurance with your mobile carrier then that doesn’t mean you’re complete without insurance we talked about duplicate insurance coverage and a lot of people I spoke to surprisingly actually had multiple coverages covering their cell phones.
one is if you are a renter let’s say for instance you’re renting an apartment you’re renting a house you have renters insurance or even you own your home and you have homeowners insurance those policies typically will cover and you want to check your insurance policy.
but those policies will cover electronic devices for usually fifteen hundred dollars so if you have an insurance policy already whether it be homeowners insurance or renters insurance more than likely double check your policy terms and work with your agent but most likely there is coverage already for electronic devices.
which includes cellular phones or mobile devices up to fifteen hundred dollars just like cell phone insurance there is a deductible so based on whatever your deductible is your insurance company would just pay you the remainder minus your deductible.
in many cases even with the cell phone insurance providers like assuring are one of the major insurance providers to Verizon and AT&T though that will have some sort of deductible and those deductibles can vary.
I’ve seen deductibles starting anywhere from fifty dollars up to about two hundred dollars based on your device and how much the total cost of the device was.
so those deductibles can be few and far between as well so keep that in mind secondly if you have the cell phone insurance company with your mobile carrier great that’s pretty standard and sometimes you could also have a credit card.
so if you bought your iPhone or any phone for that matter with a major credit card typically credit card carriers like american express or discover will have insurance protection built into the purchase of that device.
so as long as you use that credit card to buy the iPhone then if it were to be lost damaged or stolen typically if you were traveling and it got damaged or it got stolen you want to check again with your specific credit card company what their terms are.
but in most cases, the credit card company would reimburse you for a completely brand new device and I’ve seen it where people have homeowners insurance that will cover the phone.
they bought the cell phone insurance through their mobile carrier and then they also had some sort of protection plan with their credit card company so that’s three cases in which they were duplicating coverage.
now people say well if I have more than one policy in place and if my phone gets damaged will one policy pay a thousand and would the other pay 500 let’s say your phone costs 1500 in that case no they were typically the primary company would respond to that particular circumstance.
and then if you did get into a situation where both policies are applied there will still be a deductible under each policy where it really wouldn’t make sense for you to file multiple claims for a cell phone device.
that’s not that significant in value so that’s just one consideration so the answer to your question is not black-and-white yes or no again you want to just number one double check your risk tolerance double check your activities again are you active do you have an active lifestyle do you prefer not to have a case or screen protector like me.
have you dropped your phone before that is an indicator that potentially you could drop your phone again and then if you feel that maybe the level of risk is low and you have these other protections that we talked about then maybe you can forego it?
purchasing the cell phone insurance plan through your mobile carrier is another key consideration to remember when you purchase the insurance your mobile carrier depends on your carrier.
those companies they might have a multitude of different insurance plan options now but I think when I checked with Verizon their plan was about five to six different insurance coverage options from the basic minimum that you could buy.
which I believe was about five dollars and then the greatest protection which could be anywhere in the ballpark of about twenty or thirty dollars whereas at the last I checked there are about two or three insurance plans as opposed to six with Verizon.
so each carrier is going to be different in terms of what they offer with protection when we look at the Verizon plans I’m with Verizon so which is I’m not calling or picking on Verizon specifically.
but I am I’ve been with Verizon for a very long time they’ll walk you through each tier and they’ll show you what are the benefits from each and what you’ll find in the greater tiers.
a lot of those coverages could also be covered through apple care so many of you who have apple care plus typically things like tech support or privacy analysts and things like that will be covered through Apple Care.
and we see with the higher tier plans with Verizon those are things that again could be duplicate coverage that you’re paying for and that’s just another key consideration that you want to keep in mind will you need those added benefits like tech support.
I think I’m pretty tech savvy and if I’m not I can go to youtube or elsewhere call a friend to find answers to questions so for me, I wouldn’t need those higher tier coverages with Verizon’s insurance plan because I can figure out some of those things on my own.
or I know where to go to find the answer but everyone’s going to be different in that regard another key consideration to remember is when you buy your cell phone for the first time you want to check your bill following that next month’s billing cycle.
because I have heard from quite a few folk friends and family members that when they bought a new device they saw on their bill that the cell phone insurance that they purchased wasn’t there.
and so just imagine if you don’t check your bill you’re going a long period without the insurance and should something happen to your device people call and file claims all day long and not just with cell phone insurance places.
hey, I need to file a claim you couldn’t find out they don’t have any insurance in place and likewise, people said well I never asked for the cell phone insurance and I saw that now I’m being charged 20 extra a month for the cell phone insurance coverage.
that I never even opted in for so just check your bill the following month if you don’t regularly check your bill because sometimes you just want to check the accuracy of the bill.
