Should I purchase Apple care with an iMac?

[craiger902]

I'm looking to purchase an iMac in the near future and I'm just wondering if it is worthwhile purchasing the Apple Care protection. I normally don't bother with extended warranties when making purchases but with some of the problems being reported on the 27" iMac's, I'm wondering if it would make sense to purchase it in this case. So, should I purchase Apple Care?

 

[OldCorpse]

Two things. FIRST, make sure you purchase the iMac with a qualified credit card that has a product warranty extension built in. For example, I bought my iMac with my AmEx card. If I didn't buy AppleCare, I'd have 1 year coverage from Apple, plus one additional year extension through my AmEx card. SECOND, I did buy AppleCare - mostly, because this is an all-in-one, and if any component fails, it is a bear to repair it yourself - better let a qualified technician do that. Also, I bought the i7 - as a percentage of the total purchase price, the $169 of AppleCare is a very small cost for a computer I'm hoping to keep around for at least 4-5 years. Finally, because I bought the AppleCare with my AmEx card, it again got extended by one year, so now I have coverage of my iMac for 4 years combined AppleCare + AmEx, all for only the original $169 cost of AppleCare. Additionally, your card should qualify you for some kind of cash back or reward points which you can turn into cash - and that in turn will in a small way cut down on your ultimate cost - I'll get about $20 back through my AmEx... not much, but it brings down my cost of AppleCare to $149... totally worth it for 4 years coverage IMHO, plus you get phone support the entire time (without AC, it's limited to 90 days) and the option of home service. I'd absolutely do it, if I were you.

 

[Macky-Mac]

you're under warranty for a year so you can always wait to buy applecare....you can buy it any time right up to the end of your basic warranty

so maybe you should wait and see how it goes

 

[jlc1978]

I'm looking to purchase an iMac in the near future and I'm just wondering if it is worthwhile purchasing the Apple Care protection. I normally don't bother with extended warranties when making purchases but with some of the problems being reported on the 27" iMac's, I'm wondering if it would make sense to purchase it in this case. So, should I purchase Apple Care?

I bought Applecare since not only do you get the added warranty but the added tech support. Also, at $138 for the educational price plus support for peripherals such as a time Capsule it's really not that expensive in exchange for the added warranty.

I usually avoid extended warranties; but Apple's seems to be a reasonable balance between cost / security.