Your computer, your phone and the rest of your tech come with limited warranty plans. A warranty pan offers you partial or full coverage for repairs and replacements needed for hardware problems. But this benefit only lasts for a limited amount of time — typically between 90 days to a year. After that period ends, you’re responsible for paying for tech repairs and replacements, even when there is something wrong with the hardware.
However, more companies are offering extended warranty plans to keep customers protected for longer. Are they worth it?
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What Is an Extended Warranty?
An extended warranty is a warranty plan that is typically longer than the manufacturer’s limited warranty plan. In many cases, as long as you’re still signed up and paying for the subscription, the protection will continue.
It also tends to give the user more protection than a standard limited warranty plan. It can cover manufacturing defects, as well as accidental damage. So, if you drop your phone and crack your screen, you can get a discounted rate for a repair.
Some plans, like Apple’s AppleCare+ extended warranty program, offer protections for lost and stolen devices. However, the customer will have to opt into this coverage directly, and it is only available for iPhones.
Is It Worth It?
You can get an extended warranty if it makes you feel more comfortable handling your tech. However, signing onto an extended warranty plan might not be as financially savvy as you think. A lot of tech repairs and replacements won’t cost you a fortune — for instance, replacing a battery is under $100. You would quickly spend more on your warranty plan than on a simple repair.
So, How Can You Handle Repairs?
Well, it might be smarter to put together an emergency fund to handle these tech problems. These are some of the benefits that an emergency fund offers:
- You can cover urgent tech repairs or replacements immediately.
- You know that your money isn’t wasted on potential accidents. You’ll only spend your savings when you have to.
- You can use the savings to cover other emergency expenses, like car repairs, home repairs or medical appointments.
The only issue you might encounter with an emergency fund is in the early months when it doesn’t have a lot of savings inside of it. In that case, you can go to a website like CreditFresh to see whether you can apply for an online loan. If you’re approved for the online loan, you could use the borrowed funds to cover the urgent expense and manage repayments at another time.
Online loans should only be used for emergencies. If you don’t need to have your tech repaired right away and can wait to scrape up savings, then you should do that.
What About Theft and Loss?
You might already have some protections for that through your homeowners and renters insurance. Both of these plans will cover your tech when it comes to theft, vandalism and fire. The only catch is they will not cover theft and loss outside of the home.
Instead of opting into an extended warranty plan, you could look into precautions that can prevent accidental tech loss, like the Find My Device app, which can GPS-track your missing phone’s location. This can stop you from losing your phone and your money.
It’s clear that an extended warranty can be useful and offers some great benefits, but these same benefits can be found elsewhere. Pick the options that work best for you.
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