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Get a Wells Fargo credit card and use it to pay your phone bill. Includes free cellphone protection up to $600 (covers damage and theft). I have used it once to cover a screen repair at the Apple store for my iPhone 6 and was reimbursed without any problems. Many credit cards also extend the warranty by one year if you use them to buy the phone.
 
Pay your post monthly phone bill for any carrier with a Wells Fargo credit card and you are fully covered for up to two damaged or stolen iPhones per year with a $50 deductable.
 
I don’t know on those. With the glass drop tests it would seem like a good idea. On the iPhone X, the cost is even higher but it almost seems like a necessity.

You do have to determine how you will carry it. With or without a case.

I never had a shattered screen and used many of my iPhones without a case. I did buy very slim cases (Spigen Thin Fit) for my 6 Plus, 6S Plus and 7 Plus and after one week with my 7 Plus I was getting out of the car, forgot the phone was in my lap and it fell to the ground and slightly cracked the corner.

I went into the Apple Store the next day, 8 days after launch day in fact and they allowed me to sign up for and pay for AppleCare for the iPhone and then replaced the phone since it was too new to have screen parts for it yet.

I was very fortunate.
 
Unfortunately with glass backed iPhones, it's probably a good idea to get it. I'm grateful I have a 7+ because the tumble it took last week would have been the end of the phone if it was an 8+. I do not think Apple should have raised the price on AC+ though. It's bad enough the phones went up in price.
 
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Might invest in AppleCare for the X. Never had a glass-backed iPhone (4 series) so it may be a good idea. I am pretty careful and haven’t had any glass issues up to this point.
 
I can’t count how many Apple products I’ve purchased since my first iPhone 3GS back in whatever year that was. Never once have I had any in-warranty or out-of-warranty repair that was needed nor have I experienced any cracked screens or other meaningful damage. Had I been purchasing Apple Care + on each of those products, I imagine I would have spent somewhere in the $2k-$3k range. In the unlikely event I need to pay for a repair on a new Apple product, I won’t mind shelling out the full repair price knowing that it will cost me much, much less than had I been purchasing Apple Care + all along on every product. Apple Care +, if you’re not someone who ends up cracking every screen of every iPhone you’ve ever owned, is expensive insurance and one where Apple will make more money than you will save should you have to use it.
 
That's the point. You have a beautifully designed phone that was whittled down by microns to achieve its thin design and then you go and cover it with a cheap plastic case? To some people, that makes no sense. It's like adding a plastic cover to your Ferrari.

And by the way, a case doesn't guarantee protection unless you have something of military strength, in which case your phone barely fits in your pocket. Apple Care has always been my "case". It's incredibly liberating not to have to worry about dropping it.


You're making some assumptions... not everyone is in an environment where they'd want their phone exposed, and not everyone wants to keep their phone in their pocket.

My personal experience: my work environment is hellish, and any phone without a cover wouldn't last but a day or two, I'm sure. So the phone gets the top of the line Otterbox. When I retire the phone a couple of years later, it still looks brand new, where an uncovered phone would be layered in wear marks. Also, my phone would get destroyed if it was in my pocket, do to my activity level. So its sits on a belt clip. A nice side benefit is that if my phone rings I can have instant access to it, whereas my friends and/or coworkers are left fighting with their clothes trying to get the phone out.

One further benefit... with the Otterbox, I can place the phone 'backwards' in the belt clip, with the screen facing out. Then when I need to use the phone I jut pull the entire holder off my belt instead of taking the phone out of the holder, and the rear camera is safely covered.
 
if you're not using a case then YES YES YES... a one foot drop test was done and the glass cracked on the back. I sad that we need cases and protection plans cause all does not want to make a crack resistant phone. But, they will make it thinner /s
 
This is good financial sense. Insure only for things you could not afford to fix or replace out of pocket.

This image better explains my view. Only purchase insurance (AppleCare) if there is a high severity to you (cost) and low frequency of it happening.
2015-03-10-Insurance-risk-matrix-picture.png
 
Years ago I wouldn't get a new iPhone without AC+ (back when it was reasonable at $99 up front and $49 for a repair). I stopped buying AC+ when they first jacked it up (somewhere around the iPhone 5s-6 I believe). And they just keep jacking it up more each year (despite the phone costing the same amount each year, until just now with the 8). I like to believe it's because they needed to charge more to make up for all the people like myself who refused to keep paying more for the same service. But I'm sure it's to just keep building up the war chest.
 
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I only buy insurance (NOT Apple Care) to cover theft/loss. If I lose my phone, that's £800 down the drain - no thanks, not even risking that one.
Cracks and other issues aren't a big deal, those little electronics shops fix iPhone screens for £60ish. Bish bash bosh.
 
The question for me is who has BOTH AppleCare+ and Equipment insurance from their carrier?
 
I can’t count how many Apple products I’ve purchased since my first iPhone 3GS back in whatever year that was. Never once have I had any in-warranty or out-of-warranty repair that was needed nor have I experienced any cracked screens or other meaningful damage. Had I been purchasing Apple Care + on each of those products, I imagine I would have spent somewhere in the $2k-$3k range. In the unlikely event I need to pay for a repair on a new Apple product, I won’t mind shelling out the full repair price knowing that it will cost me much, much less than had I been purchasing Apple Care + all along on every product. Apple Care +, if you’re not someone who ends up cracking every screen of every iPhone you’ve ever owned, is expensive insurance and one where Apple will make more money than you will save should you have to use it.
Same here. I did the math for me... total number of times I could have used AppleCare: 0. Total saved by not buying AppleCare: $3K. The one device that DID fail was my 2011 15.4" Macbook Pro. It would've been outside of AppleCare. It was supposed to be eligible under Apple's repair program but they refused to accept it because it didn't "fail" their test.

The Apple community-at-large fosters a "fear factor" that encourages people to spend more money, "just in case". Buy AppleCare "just in case" I drop my phone. Spend extra for the next storage capacity model "just in case" I need more storage. And so on.
 
After owning 3 different iPhones over the years, 4S, 5, 6 and none of them ever having problems or being dropped (and me never buying AC) personally, in my case, Apple Care is a waste of money (a lot of money) and I will never buy it in the future. But for those who drop things and don't use a case, it may be worthwhile insurance.
But just know that Apple has run the numbers and they are making a killing selling Apple Pay. That's why Apple Store employees are pushed to try to sell it to customers. Easy money.
 
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Appel Care+ came in handy for me with my iPhone 6. About a month before it was about to run out my battery started acting up, took it into the apple store and they ran tests on it. It passed the test but the guy could see the battery had issues. He told me that the system would not let him replace just the battery so he would need to replace the whole phone. He then gave me a 6S.
 
I should say the same for you. Extended warranties are not gifts. They are not pushed by the manufacturers out of the goodness of their hearts. They are pushed because they are very profitable.

I've been buying Apple products for nearly 35 years. If I'd bought AppleCare on them, I'd have spend thousands. And how much would I have collected in claims? Nothing. Zero.

So go ahead and bet that a product is more likely to break than the company that sold it to you believes. After all, you know way better than they do.

I don't "bet" that it breaks and saying that you would have spent thousands and received nothing out of it as a reason not to buy protection plans, extended warranties, or insurance policies is absurd.

It's like saying: "I'm an excellent driver and have purchased and driven numerous cars over 35 years. I've spent a fortune on insurance and never had to collect on it!!!"

You may be right. You may be an excellent driver who obeys the posted signs does not text, and any incident you have been a part of has not been your fault. But the truth of the matter is things happen, and not having insurance on a car or your phone are potentially both bad ideas. Obviously I understand that not having it for your car is significantly worse.

I have not had AppleCare on my phone for over two years, and that is mostly because I'm on AT&T Next12 and I don't drop my phone. However, if I tripped and that poor thing smashed, I'd be SOL and I recognize that. I also recognize that other people may be more clumsy and I wont ever recommend that someone not buy it because "they're always bad deals." That's absurd, people should be given the full, unbiased complete picture of what that expense entails and be allowed to make an informed decision.

Telling people not to get them because "look at me 35 years later, my singular example is proof that the whole thing is a scam" is not good enough. This is like when I worked in the animal hospitals and people would tell me "nah, your doctor is probably wrong because I've had dogs for all my life and since I was young and that's NEVER happened to them!!!" That's nice, but every animal is different, and you also may not have paid enough attention to care. The same type of person shows up 5 years later trying to figure out why their pet has cancer.

Let us please not pretend that just because it never happened to one person and was not useful to one person that it suddenly becomes useless to everyone.
 
Same here. I did the math for me... total number of times I could have used AppleCare: 0. Total saved by not buying AppleCare: $3K. The one device that DID fail was my 2011 15.4" Macbook Pro. It would've been outside of AppleCare. It was supposed to be eligible under Apple's repair program but they refused to accept it because it didn't "fail" their test.

The Apple community-at-large fosters a "fear factor" that encourages people to spend more money, "just in case". Buy AppleCare "just in case" I drop my phone. Spend extra for the next storage capacity model "just in case" I need more storage. And so on.

Features are different. Storage and LTE are always priorities for me. Running out of space on a phone is the worst and LTE on devices like the iPad is just magical. If you drop your phone, you can always pay Apple to fix it at a relatively reasonable rate. The only way to add LTE or storage is to purchase a new device. That’s the difference to me really.
 
Bypass AppleCare, buy a 7 or 7+ with an aluminum back. You just saved a ton of money and have a less delicate phone. Glass back was stupid with the 4 and stupid now. Your credit card offers even better protection than AppleCare and comes with your purchase for free.
 
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It isn't worth it for me since my credit card has extended warranty for any purchase made through them. Over the past decade, I have had 1 accidental damage (cracked screen for iPhone which was charged $149), 1 known issues fully covered by Apple even after 2 years of ownership (loose backpiece for Apple Watch), and 1 case which require out of warranty replacement (iPad Pro unable to turn on with unknown reasons in 1 yr and 9 months).

Interestingly, all of the above happened in 2016 to 2017. I wonder if Apple's quality has gone downwards recently.

Only the last case really caused me quite a lot ($599) and it was covered by the credit card.

So I don't buy AppleCare on all of my Apple products.
 
It’s definetly worth it in my country... law says they can’t charge the extra 129$ AND they can’t give you refurbished (must be exchanged for new).
 
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I can’t count how many Apple products I’ve purchased since my first iPhone 3GS back in whatever year that was. Never once have I had any in-warranty or out-of-warranty repair that was needed nor have I experienced any cracked screens or other meaningful damage. Had I been purchasing Apple Care + on each of those products, I imagine I would have spent somewhere in the $2k-$3k range. In the unlikely event I need to pay for a repair on a new Apple product, I won’t mind shelling out the full repair price knowing that it will cost me much, much less than had I been purchasing Apple Care + all along on every product. Apple Care +, if you’re not someone who ends up cracking every screen of every iPhone you’ve ever owned, is expensive insurance and one where Apple will make more money than you will save should you have to use it.

Spot on! I have never damaged an iPhone, and I use them caseless. I have had them since Genetation 1. Insurance for me merely subsidises the carelessness of others (and worse, those who, effectively, steal by causing deliberate damage), as well as lining further Apple’s pockets. I will never buy such insurance.
 
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Why is this confusing me?

How much does it cost to fix a cracked screen without apple care?

How much does it cost to fix a cracked screen with apple care?
 
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