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cheapest way to buy AppleCare

M

mlody

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 11, 2012
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Windy City
My daughter's MacBook Pro is almost 1 year old. Since I closed the credit card I purchased it with, I no longer have 2 nd year coverage in case something fails. At this point, I am considering to just buy AppleCare but would like to avoid paying a full cost of it if possible.

Can someone recommend what would be the cheapest and reliable place to buy an AppleCare for 13" MBPr?

I appreciate the info.
 
Check out BH Video, and Amazon, I think those are your best bets.

Stay away from eBay, I think there's too much risk of counterfeit AppleCare sales, especially for the digital only sales, i.e., no box included.
 
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mlody said:
My daughter's MacBook Pro is almost 1 year old. Since I closed the credit card I purchased it with, I no longer have 2 nd year coverage in case something fails. At this point, I am considering to just buy AppleCare but would like to avoid paying a full cost of it if possible.

Can someone recommend what would be the cheapest and reliable place to buy an AppleCare for 13" MBPr?

I appreciate the info.
Click to expand...
B&H Photo has applecare cheaper than Apple. I tried to buy it once but they said they couldn't sell it to me because the laws in Florida don't allow it. I then found lacomputercompany.com and purchased from them with no problem. I now get all my applecare from lacomputer company.
 
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Longtime AC buyer and buyer from Amazon and B&H here. It's very likely you will not get much of a deal on the 13" Mac laptops from authorized resellers like those two companies or others like Adorama or Best Buy - maybe $10-15, tops. The sweet spot for AC is pretty much the 15" rMBPs, but that doesn't help you at all. The only perk you'll get from any reseller, like B&H is they'll ship fast and without state tax included - the last time I ordered AC from them I ordered at 8 pm and it arrived via FedEx by 8:30 am the next morning, and it was to my office in Portland OR, from NYC.

Keep in mind that you don't necessarily have to have it registered on Day 365, it has to be purchased by or on Day 365 - Apple may ask for a scanned copy of the receipt be uploaded at the time of registering the AC for the Mac - I've done it and it's pretty simple, but for the extra $10, Apple will add the AC to a Mac for you so it's just up to you to decide if you want to save a few bucks or your time.

I'm also with Prime. One perk by buying AC from Amazon was they've added a year of their UL File Storage, the $70 version, as an add-on - I was emailed a code, entered it, and a year was stacked to my existing plan. Nice, that... I'll be buying AC from them next time.

eBay's is IMHO a dicey storefront for AC. I'll never buy AC from eBay after reading the hit and miss stories about scammers.
 
Fishrrman said:
DO NOT buy AppleCare on ebay.
Sellers who offer you a registration number only via email are scammers.
There was a long, long thread about this some years' back right in this forum:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/dont-buy-applecare-on-ebay.690859/
Click to expand...


How about this one?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AppleCare-P...184731?hash=item1c74d4c25b:g:lDAAAMXQVERStIzm

it looks like this seller actually sells the 'media' not just the key? I could not find anything cheaper, including the educational store which is $183 plus tax.
 
Does anyone know if Apple has changed its policies on sales of Applecare by third parties? BHPhoto shows most of the Applecare offerings as discontinued, and Amazon only has a few available now as well.
 
esskay said:
Does anyone know if Apple has changed its policies on sales of Applecare by third parties? BHPhoto shows most of the Applecare offerings as discontinued, and Amazon only has a few available now as well.
Click to expand...

The only change is that you now need to call Apple to activate the previous AppleCare (not AppleCare+) plans and cannot register them online.

You can still buy those products for a discount from retailers such as L.A. Computer. I bought the now discontinued AppleCare from a third party reseller (new) on Amazon for $80 and registered it for my Late 2017 iMac by phone with no problems.

Keep in mind the old plan does not include coverage for accidental damage, a feature of the new + plans that I personally don't need for my desktop iMac.
 
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SaSaSushi said:
The only change is that you now need to call Apple to activate the previous AppleCare (not AppleCare+) plans and cannot register them online.

You can still buy those products for a discount from retailers such as L.A. Computer. I bought the now discontinued AppleCare from a third party reseller (new) on Amazon for $80 and registered it for my Late 2017 iMac by phone with no problems.

Keep in mind the old plan does not include coverage for accidental damage, a feature of the new + plans that I personally don't need for my desktop iMac.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reminder, I forgot about the switch to AppleCare+. I see there's some remaining stock of the old AppleCare plans here and there, and it does seem like no one's selling the new AppleCare+ plans at a discount.

Does anyone know of any reputable shops selling the new AppleCare+ plans at a discount?
 
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esskay said:
Thanks for the reminder, I forgot about the switch to AppleCare+. I see there's some remaining stock of the old AppleCare plans here and there, and it does seem like no one's selling the new AppleCare+ plans at a discount.

Does anyone know of any reputable shops selling the new AppleCare+ plans at a discount?
Click to expand...

I have not found a place that offers AppleCare cheaper than LA computer: http://www.lacomputercompany.com/new-computers/applecare.html
 
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