When you spend large sums of money on a smartphone like the iPhone, one of the scariest issues to think about is what happens if you drop it, smash its screen, or have water or some other worse liquid spilled all over it. In my experience, it has always been somewhere between tough to impossible to find any good coverage / insurance to fall back on if the worst should happen.
SquareTrade is a warranty provider who seem to have some real, and very affordable, solutions for the iPhone in this area. They cover all the things that Apple Care won ‘t “ like if you drop your phone or spill liquid on it, as well as failures from normal use and accidental damage.
Here ‘s a little slice from the SquareTrade website on the scope of their coverage:
SquareTrade is the only licensed provider to cover failures from accidents and normal use. We will pay you cash in case of drops, spills, water damage, battery failures or any other failures from normal use or accidental damage.
SquareTrade has a strong history behind it, and a track record that inspires confidence:
- They ‘ve been in business since 1999 and sold over 1 million warranties
- They have an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau
- Their warranties are underwritten by Amtrust Inc., an A- rated insurer with $1 billion+ in assets
- They get mostly stellar rating by customers at Amazon, Epinions.com, and NexTag.com (895 positive, 11 neutral, 31 negative)
Some other benefits of using SquareTrade include:
- No deductible and no shipping charges for standard repairs
- A 5-day turnaround time on repairs (if they can ‘t fix your phone, they ‘ll provide reimbursement money instead) “ up to a max. of $299 for an 8GB iPhone, $399 for a 16GB, and $499 for a 32GB.
- If you need to send your phone for a standard warranty repair everything is completely covered. Accidental damage repairs have a low $50 deductible “ which is way lower than most insurance plans I ‘ve ever been quoted on.
And here ‘s a quick graphic comparing SquareTrade ‘s offerings to standard Apple Care plans:
*** DISCLOSURE: We ‘ve just recently become an affiliate for SquareTrade. What does that mean? Just that we now run an ad in our sidebar for SquareTrade, and we get a percentage on any warranty sales that come via clicks from that link. This is a very common practice on the web, with many sites containing affiliate links for Amazon products, or even for the App Store, and so on.
Here ‘s what the affiliate ad looks like in our sidebar:
Normally, I wouldn ‘t be doing a post just because of taking on a new affiliate ad in the sidebar “ but the deal is I ‘m very impressed with everything I ‘ve learned about SquareTrade, and I think what they offer seems to fill a big gap in an area that ‘s a real concern for a lot of iPhone users.
At least in my experience, there are severely limited options for getting any sort of ‘full ‘ coverage for the iPhone – even during its first year of Apple warranty coverage “ as Apple will not repair or replace your iPhone if it has been subject to abuse, accidental damage, liquid damage etc.
Having a reasonably priced alternative that provides much greater coverage seems like something that is genuinely useful for iPhone owners to know about.
One thing to be aware of, and the only reason I haven ‘t already bought a plan for my iPhone 3GS, is that you must purchase your SquareTrade warranty within 30 days of purchasing your iPhone.
As with any warranty / insurance coverage, there is a fair amount of fine print and detail to look into when choosing a plan that works for you “ so you need to spend time going through the finer points and comparing what is available from various sources. Having said that, I reckon SquareTrade is certainly worth being in the frame if you ‘re looking to protect your iPhone either A) when your one-year Apple warranty runs out or B) against abuse or accidental damage that Apple ‘s warranty doesn ‘t cover even during that first year.
If you ‘re interested in learning more about SquareTrade ‘s warranty plans, go HERE for details “ or even give the sidebar ad a click if you ‘re cool with this site getting its affiliate percentage if you choose to sign up.
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