Apple Care or Credit Card Warranty for 2018 MBP?

[javisan]

Hi everyone,

I will be buying within the next month or two the 2018 13" MacBook Pro. I'm torn between buying Apple Care or not. My Citi credit cards extends the manufacturers (Apple's) warranty for an additional 2 years. Should I buy the Apple Care, I would get 3 years through Apple and an additional 2 years through Citi (5 years in total).

I have attached the detail provided by Citi.

Thank you.

 

[killawat]

I always purchase AppleCare because I'm on my MBP for most of the day. But I recognize that they increased the price recently and it's an even larger expense.

It basically comes down to how much time you have and if you can budget for AppleCare.

Do you use your MBP for school or professionally? Get AC

Do you have enough spare cash on hand to pay for repairs out of pocket to be reimbursed (eventually) by your credit card company?
If so, you might be able to skip AC.

 

[komatta]

Considering how unfixable they are (in general) I would always go for AC with apple laptops.

 

[IngerMan]

Are you sure it would go additional 2 years after the apple care insurance of 3 years.

Edit: I guess so I just googled the terms.

I’d take the 3 year free warranty and call it good. What’s the chances of you actually keeping it for 4 plus years.

 

[javisan]

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[haralds]

Hi everyone,

I will be buying within the next month or two the 2018 13" MacBook Pro. I'm torn between buying Apple Care or not. My Citi credit cards extends the manufacturers (Apple's) warranty for an additional 2 years. Should I buy the Apple Care, I would get 3 years through Apple and an additional 2 years through Citi (5 years in total).

I have attached the detail provided by Citi.

Thank you.

Never a doubt about AC. Their support and care has always been flawless. One week before AC ran out it looked like the battery on my AppleWatch was not to snuff, they replaced the whole watch. My wife went in for an iPhone 7 battery issue 22 months into AC, they replaced that but then saw something not totally right one her iPhone, also replaced.
I have had a lot of systems. At least twice a Macbook needed fixing. I usually had a shipping box from them within 2 days and the items fixed and returned within 5.

 

[Plutonius]

I refuse to get Apple Care now for any Apple products I buy since I have had bad experiences in the past with Apple Care.

 

[maflynn]

I bought my MBP with an American Express card and that gave me another year of warranty. So why spend so much $$$ for a single year of coverage

 

[deeddawg]

I bought my MBP with an American Express card and that gave me another year of warranty. So why spend so much $$$ for a single year of coverage

AFAIK, AmEx's manufacturer warranty extension works like Citi -- it begins after the manufacturer extended warranty ends. I bought my MBP with my citi though as it gives two years vs one year for my Amex.

Really the decision depends on how long one will keep the computer.

Since I have every expectation of keeping my computer 4-5 years (backed by a history of doing exactly that), I choose to buy AC+ (albeit at the $259 discounted edu price) thereby giving me a total of five years coverage.

 

[maflynn]

I choose to buy AC+ (albeit at the $259 discounted edu price) thereby giving me a total of five years coverage.

Still spending 250 for a single year of coverage, is not worth it to me and you mentioned Citi gives you two extra years so you're not really getting much of a benefit from AC in that case.

 

[deeddawg]

Still spending 250 for a single year of coverage, is not worth it to me and you mentioned Citi gives you two extra years so you're not really getting much of a benefit from AC in that case.

I'm not following your logic. How are you arriving at AC+ only providing a year's coverage, or not providing "much of a benefit" with a two-year credit card extended warranty?

Both Citi and AmEx begin after AC+ expires. So the AC+ coverage extends the total warranty coverage by two years, plus it also of course provides three years of accidental damage coverage.

With AC+:
Year #1 - original Apple warranty
Year #2 - AC+
Year #3 - AC+
Year #4 - Credit card extended warranty
Year #5 - Credit card extended warranty (if CC provides two years)

No AC+:
Year #1 - original Apple warranty
Year #2 - Credit card extended warranty
Year #3 - Credit card extended warranty (if CC provides two years)
Year #4 - no coverage
Year #5 - no coverage

From Citi's documentation:
Example of 1-year manuf warranty, then 1-year manufacturer extended warranty, then two years of credit card extended warranty. Since AC+ is 2 years though the total coverage is five years not four.

 

[maflynn]

Ok, I thought you were using Citi in place of the warranty but you're using it to give you two extra years after the extended warranty. Are you sure that will happen, I thought the credit card will extend standard warranties not extended ones

 

[deeddawg]

Ok, I thought you were using Citi in place of the warranty but you're using it to give you two extra years after the extended warranty. Are you sure that will happen, I thought the credit card will extend standard warranties not extended ones

The Citi brochure I linked above is pretty explicit that their coverage begins after the customer-purchased manufacturer extended warranty.

[doublepost=1538572620][/doublepost]... and here's wording from the linked AmEx document above as well:

 

[javisan]

There is one thing that concerns me about the Citi benefit that makes me want to just play it safe and buy the AC+ and then have Citi cover years 4 and 5.

Citi says they will:

1- Repair - I'm assuming that they will cover the cost of Apple servicing the MBP. I'm ok with this.
2- Reimburse up to the amount charged - I'm ok with this.
3 - Replace - this is the one that concerns me as it says that it is Citi who will decide if they will repair or replace and if they choose to replace, it they can chose the model, color, brand, size. Obviously I'm not okay with this.

The Amex benefit appears to be better in the sense that it does not include this language, but I don't have an Amex.