Insurance on Phone?

dlwhtrose

Super Moderator
Premium Member
Rescue Squad
Joined
Dec 10, 2009
Messages
2,810
Reaction score
31
Location
God forsaken desert, wishing to be back in Dixie
i still have to go with my state farm personal articles policy. $30 / year, with no deductable. (and it covers other expensive electronics i wanted to insure). Sure I have to wait forever with a check, but I know the check is coming, so I can just go out and buy a brand new droid at full price with no problems. (or buy whatever phone is latest and greatest.


Have you actually used your State Farm policy for a phone before??? The reason I ask is that I am with State Farm and my phone got stolen and instead of State Farm cutting me a check for the amount of the phone so that I could get a new one, they cut me a check for the amount I paid for my phone. They called Verizon and found out what I paid for the phone and that is what I got. So, be careful relying on State Farm for the total amount of a new phone.
 

eliassami5

Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2009
Messages
774
Reaction score
1
Location
Bay Area, Cali
i still have to go with my state farm personal articles policy. $30 / year, with no deductable. (and it covers other expensive electronics i wanted to insure). Sure I have to wait forever with a check, but I know the check is coming, so I can just go out and buy a brand new droid at full price with no problems. (or buy whatever phone is latest and greatest.

lol good luck with them shelling out for the full price of the phone.
 

KungFuGeek

Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
78
Reaction score
0
i still have to go with my state farm personal articles policy. $30 / year, with no deductable. (and it covers other expensive electronics i wanted to insure). Sure I have to wait forever with a check, but I know the check is coming, so I can just go out and buy a brand new droid at full price with no problems. (or buy whatever phone is latest and greatest.


Have you actually used your State Farm policy for a phone before??? The reason I ask is that I am with State Farm and my phone got stolen and instead of State Farm cutting me a check for the amount of the phone so that I could get a new one, they cut me a check for the amount I paid for my phone. They called Verizon and found out what I paid for the phone and that is what I got. So, be careful relying on State Farm for the total amount of a new phone.

I asked them that before i got the phone insured, and I was very specific about the difference between the subsidized pricing and non subsidized. The personal articles policy is for the full replacement cost of the phone (I have it in writing). I also had to bring along documentation to their office about the full retail price of the phone, and the phone itself so they could grab serial numbers and such. I have had one friend that made a claim with state farm about his cell phone, and got the full replacement value with no hassle.

With what you are saying, i would have fought it until i got what was specified in my contract.
 

dlwhtrose

Super Moderator
Premium Member
Rescue Squad
Joined
Dec 10, 2009
Messages
2,810
Reaction score
31
Location
God forsaken desert, wishing to be back in Dixie
i still have to go with my state farm personal articles policy. $30 / year, with no deductable. (and it covers other expensive electronics i wanted to insure). Sure I have to wait forever with a check, but I know the check is coming, so I can just go out and buy a brand new droid at full price with no problems. (or buy whatever phone is latest and greatest.


Have you actually used your State Farm policy for a phone before??? The reason I ask is that I am with State Farm and my phone got stolen and instead of State Farm cutting me a check for the amount of the phone so that I could get a new one, they cut me a check for the amount I paid for my phone. They called Verizon and found out what I paid for the phone and that is what I got. So, be careful relying on State Farm for the total amount of a new phone.

I asked them that before i got the phone insured, and I was very specific about the difference between the subsidized pricing and non subsidized. The personal articles policy is for the full replacement cost of the phone (I have it in writing). I also had to bring along documentation to their office about the full retail price of the phone, and the phone itself so they could grab serial numbers and such. I have had one friend that made a claim with state farm about his cell phone, and got the full replacement value with no hassle.

With what you are saying, i would have fought it until i got what was specified in my contract.

Oh I fought even threatened to sue them all to no avail. I too have it in writing in my policy and provided them all the documentation as well (except I could not give them the phone cuz it was gone) but I had the boxes with all the numbers on it and all. Even had a police report to show the theft. State Farm did not care, they still called Verizon and because I paid a reduced amount for the phone State Farm said that was the amount that I truly lost not the full non contract price. I don't know if its a difference within State Farm as I know that policies in different states are handled a little different. This took place in California.
 

KungFuGeek

Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
78
Reaction score
0

Oh I fought even threatened to sue them all to no avail. I too have it in writing in my policy and provided them all the documentation as well (except I could not give them the phone cuz it was gone) but I had the boxes with all the numbers on it and all. Even had a police report to show the theft. State Farm did not care, they still called Verizon and because I paid a reduced amount for the phone State Farm said that was the amount that I truly lost not the full non contract price. I don't know if its a difference within State Farm as I know that policies in different states are handled a little different. This took place in California.

I'm in california as well. I suppose i could call up my agent (once i dig out my policy info) and verify, but I don't really wan't to spend the time doing so. I have an available upgrade for my account, so even if they give me what I paid, I'm still not out any money, (just an upgrade). I do know that i was very specific about that point as that would be a reason to use the verizon insurance... although with all the phones on my account, it would still be cheaper to just put that money into a savings account for just in case.
 

eliassami5

Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2009
Messages
774
Reaction score
1
Location
Bay Area, Cali

Oh I fought even threatened to sue them all to no avail. I too have it in writing in my policy and provided them all the documentation as well (except I could not give them the phone cuz it was gone) but I had the boxes with all the numbers on it and all. Even had a police report to show the theft. State Farm did not care, they still called Verizon and because I paid a reduced amount for the phone State Farm said that was the amount that I truly lost not the full non contract price. I don't know if its a difference within State Farm as I know that policies in different states are handled a little different. This took place in California.

I'm in california as well. I suppose i could call up my agent (once i dig out my policy info) and verify, but I don't really wan't to spend the time doing so. I have an available upgrade for my account, so even if they give me what I paid, I'm still not out any money, (just an upgrade). I do know that i was very specific about that point as that would be a reason to use the verizon insurance... although with all the phones on my account, it would still be cheaper to just put that money into a savings account for just in case.

...so instead you would rather add another line onto your account with the upgrade rather than have just gotten the Asurion insurance in the first place? Lol w/e floats your boat. And again..good luck getting the full retail price from State Farm if you ever do need to file a claim.
 

afinalfantasy

New Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Location
Mississippi
I've never gotten insurance on my phones until I got my LG ally. I usually just buy a new phone if something happens to mine but If I'm under a contract, I don't see a problem in paying 8 bucks a month and 80 deductible to get it completely replaced. Alot cheaper than buying one flat out new. :greendroid:
 

rokky

New Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
Messages
24
Reaction score
0
Location
RTP, NC
Current Phone Model
Asus PadFone X
What you have for fallback is also a consideration

Right now, I have a WinMo XV6800, which replaced a XV6700. The 6700 would be ok as a fallback for the 6800, so I felt no need to insure the 6800 (both were from eBay for about $100).

Now I just ordered an Ally, and if I like it that much better than the 6800, then I might consider adding the insurance within the 30-day grace period. Aside from liking it well enough to keep it (I tried the Eris 6 months ago, and concluded the negatives outweighed the positives compared to the 6800, so I returned it after about 2 weeks), there will be the added factor of whether I could live without the Ally/Android goodies and "bear" falling back to the 6800 until I could get another subsidized phone with NE2 20 months (or whatever their incentive time allowance is by then).

Also, in that 20 months a lot of interesting alternative phones should hit eBay and/or Craigslist at around the $100 point. I do not have to have the latest/greatest as long as the feature set is satisfactory. Another option would be getting a SquareTrade warranty - should be about half that $80 replacement fee from Asurion, and no monthly fee.

We just had that kind of situation with my wife's LG 8350 having a piece of the hinge break off yesterday - not shaky yet, but not something we wanted to risk on upcoming 800-mile trip this weekend. We kept her old Moto v325i, and I just activated that in place of the 8350 after backing up the contacts. The basic way she uses a phone made that an acceptable fallback for her. I had dropped the $5 monthly insurance coverage a few months ago when we agreed the phone was not worth the ongoing cost vs the option of reactivating the v325.

Decisions, decisions ...
 

Vulcan1600

Super Moderator
Staff member
Premium Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2009
Messages
5,745
Reaction score
306
Location
Pennsylvania
I have the extended warranty. It is cheaper & they replace the phone if something goes wrong with it.
With a new phone or an equivalent new phone if it is not available anymore.
I don't think it will do anything if you lose it or damage it like breaking the screen.
But if you drop it and it quits working it should be covered.
If you drop your phone and break it, if you accidentally get it wet, if you lose your phone, don't for one second think they'll be covered under the extended warranty. In the 2-1/2 years that I worked for VZW, I never, ever promoted the extended warranty, why you ask? Well, your phone is automatically covered under the manufacturers warranty for the first 12 months you own the phone. The extended warranty covers months 13-24. A warranty issue would be a battery was bad, there was a manufacturers defect that caused your keyboard not to slide out or a glitch that caused your phone to shut down on you. There's many other examples, but the difference between extended warranty and insurance are totally different.

I carry insurance on my Droid, have I needed it yet, no, but 5 minutes from now will I need it, well, you never know. In July one of my kid's lines becomes eligible for upgrade. At that point I will probably cancel my insurance because I know that if something happens to my Droid, I can fall back on the upgrade.
 

Vulcan1600

Super Moderator
Staff member
Premium Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2009
Messages
5,745
Reaction score
306
Location
Pennsylvania
Oh I fought even threatened to sue them all to no avail. I too have it in writing in my policy and provided them all the documentation as well (except I could not give them the phone cuz it was gone) but I had the boxes with all the numbers on it and all. Even had a police report to show the theft. State Farm did not care, they still called Verizon and because I paid a reduced amount for the phone State Farm said that was the amount that I truly lost not the full non contract price. I don't know if its a difference within State Farm as I know that policies in different states are handled a little different. This took place in California.

I'm in california as well. I suppose i could call up my agent (once i dig out my policy info) and verify, but I don't really wan't to spend the time doing so. I have an available upgrade for my account, so even if they give me what I paid, I'm still not out any money, (just an upgrade). I do know that i was very specific about that point as that would be a reason to use the verizon insurance... although with all the phones on my account, it would still be cheaper to just put that money into a savings account for just in case.

...so instead you would rather add another line onto your account with the upgrade rather than have just gotten the Asurion insurance in the first place? Lol w/e floats your boat. And again..good luck getting the full retail price from State Farm if you ever do need to file a claim.
You'd also have to consider the surcharge on your homeowners policy for the next 3 years because you filed a claim on your homeowners insurance. It just wouldn't pay off.
 

kodiak799

Gold Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2010
Messages
6,146
Reaction score
827
You'd also have to consider the surcharge on your homeowners policy for the next 3 years because you filed a claim on your homeowners insurance. It just wouldn't pay off.

This....Not that $600 is cheap, but it's not really worth using home/auto insurance for such nickle/dime stuff. Host of other issues to deal with, as a result, like being canceled and higher premiums.

I've debated whether insurance is really worth it (first phone I've bought insurance on). On a 2-yr contract, insurance + replacement is close to $300, about half the price of a phone. My history says I have much less than 50% chance of something happening to my phone. Electronics insurance is always and everywhere abad value (I rarely buy it and on average I come out ahead). So break-even would be every 4 years, but that ignores cheaper alternative replacements like your old Droid or EBAY.

I guess I keep trying to talk myself out of the insurance. $8 a month doesn't seem like much, but such nickle & dime things add-up. I've never hassled over a return on EBAY, but there are protections.

I'm actually thinking the best route to go is drop the insurance and if something should happen to my phone, I'll just tack-on another 2 years to my plan and take the latest subsidized model. I've had great success with VZW all over the country and see no reason I would ever want to switch. For that matter, on my next upgrade I could always keep the Droid as a pretty worthy back-up for a few months or a year or more.
 

takeshi

Silver Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2009
Messages
4,572
Reaction score
0
Electronics insurance is always and everywhere abad value (I rarely buy it and on average I come out ahead).
Insurance is definitely a personal judgment call but cell phones are just more than likely IMO to end up dropped, lost, wet, stolen etc given how they are carried around and used all the time. I'd consider comparing cell phone insurance versus other electronics insurance apples and oranges for that reason. Obviously, YMMV.

I've had great success with VZW all over the country and see no reason I would ever want to switch.
Things change. If you're a very heavy data user you might want to take into consideration the rumblings about the end of unlimited data plans.
 

kodiak799

Gold Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2010
Messages
6,146
Reaction score
827
Insurance is definitely a personal judgment call but cell phones are just more than likely IMO to end up dropped, lost, wet, stolen etc given how they are carried around and used all the time

If you're a very heavy data user you might want to take into consideration the rumblings about the end of unlimited data plans.

And I think the price of their insurance reflects that. Deductible plus insurance over 2 years = 50% cost of new is steep. Similar plans on other electronics seem to run 10-20% of the purchase price.

Fair point about the data, but I doubt they can change terms on you until your contract is up. Again, that's just one alternative I mentioned. If you're risk of a lost or damaged phone every two years <50% then it makes sense to forego the insurance. The fact that @9 months into the Droid launch they are available for $300 on EBAY - and probably dropping like a rock the next few moths here - even further drives the point home, although understandable some may not want to play that game.
 
Top