Alternative for MBA Applecare (UK)

[bchooi]

this will be my first mac - and i need some advice on applecare

my friend has kindly bought a MBA from hong kong on my behalf and i'll get it later this week (can't wait!). what i need to decide is if i should purchase some sort of 'insurance cover' for this MBA.

applecare is the obvious choice. however, £199 for the 2 additional years seem quite pricey. although i have links with my university, i believe i won't be able to get the educational price (£47) given the MBA was purchased from the HK online store.

do you think the £199 applecare will be important or are there 3rd party insurance covers out there i can consider?

thanks for the advice in advance

 

[DannyBres]

this will be my first mac - and i need some advice on applecare

my friend has kindly bought a MBA from hong kong on my behalf and i'll get it later this week (can't wait!). what i need to decide is if i should purchase some sort of 'insurance cover' for this MBA.

applecare is the obvious choice. however, £199 for the 2 additional years seem quite pricey. although i have links with my university, i believe i won't be able to get the educational price (£47) given the MBA was purchased from the HK online store.

do you think the £199 applecare will be important or are there 3rd party insurance covers out there i can consider?

thanks for the advice in advance

how muich was it from HK might have been cheaper to get it with HE discount and applecare in uk?!

 

[nelson2010]

Prob not helpful now, but in the future if you waited and bought it from John Lewis in the UK you'd have received a free years warranty.

Or buy it with a Nationwide VISA and they too will give you a free years warranty.

 

[bchooi]

Base model 13.3" for HK$9888 (plus 5% off). that came on the credit card as £786. HK is tax free.

Same machine retails in UK for £1099

Another thread mentioned they found a gadget insurance via gocompare for £5.24 (presumably p/month).

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1039456/

i'll also have to check if my home insurance covers loss & accidental damage.

 

[lensflare]

Look for Applecare on ebay. There are probably a lot of scammers out there, but I can personally vouch for deals4mac. I recently got my logic board replaced on Applecare I purchased from him for ~100£.

 

[bchooi]

Insurance cover for MBA

just realised that the top-up that i added on the home insurance with barclays premier to include 'personal possessions' (including gadgets that you carry/wear outside the house) back in July 2010 for my iPhone 4 will also cover the MBA. woop woop!

additional premium = £7pcm
covers up to £2500
inc. loss, theft and accidental damage with no excess

i think the £7 is good value considering vodafone wanted to charge £12pcm just for the iPhone. applecare is £8pcm just for the MBA (although, this includes the phone-in service)

 

[rogerram]

just realised that the top-up that i added on the home insurance with barclays premier to include 'personal possessions' (including gadgets that you carry/wear outside the house) back in July 2010 for my iPhone 4 will also cover the MBA. woop woop!

additional premium = £7pcm
covers up to £2500
inc. loss, theft and accidental damage with no excess

i think the £7 is good value considering vodafone wanted to charge £12pcm just for the iPhone. applecare is £8pcm just for the MBA (although, this includes the phone-in service)

Applecare does not cover accidental damage so you're not comparing like with like.
I think Applecare is great for sorting out problems over the phone. More important in my experience is that they'll pick up, repair and return a Mac that has developed a fault for free. In the past couple of years they've replaced hard disks, a graphics card & 2 motherboards-perhaps I have a gift for getting Friday afternoon 'specials'!!! My view is Apple are volume producers in the far east hence the possibility of component faults.
My advice would be buy Applecare on eBay BUT be very careful because there are some scams out there.