These days the vast majority of Americans leave the house with a smartphone in their pocket. These incredible devices can complete a phone call from the majority of locations around the earth, but that’s only the beginning of their application. Gone are the days when sending a text message was looked at as high technology. People now use their smartphones to deposit checks and transfer money from accounts all across the world. Smartphones are our navigators and GPS locators in the wilds. They’re an endless supply of apps, from video games to recipe guides. Smartphones are our cameras and our social networking portals. People spend huge chunks of their days with their eyes on those tiny screens, and really who can blame them? Smartphones are incredibly powerful computing devices, yet so simple that even small children can use them. With so much riding on your smartphone working when you need it to it’s natural to want to protect it from all possible issues. Should you consider buying insurance for your smartphone?
Every mobile carrier offers insurance policies, but they are not all the same. So the first step is to determine the details of their offer. The main issues are price, coverage and exclusions. In most cases the price will be a monthly fee added into your service payment. The cost will have some sort of relationship to the expense of your phone, but make sure that you can handle this add-on to your service plan. Once you sign up for it you’ll be stuck with it for the duration of your contract. In most cases that’s at least two years, so while a $7 monthly fee for insurance doesn’t seem like a lot at the time, remember that you are actually agreeing to pay at least $168 over two years.
The next issue is coverage. Any insurance plan for smartphones that’s worth the sticker price should cover your phone from all sorts of damage. That means if the phone fails for any reason they should replace it. It shouldn’t matter if the problem arose because you stepped on the phone and broke the screen, or if you dropped it in the bathtub, or if a poorly-designed download fried the internal memory. Regardless of the issue, the insurance should handle the repairs. Insurance should also protect you from loss or theft, and should do so in a timely manner. Just check out the fine print when it comes to replacement. In most cases they will first attempt to repair the phone, but if that doesn’t work they should replace it. Will they give you an entirely new phone, or will it be a refurbished model? It may not make a difference to you, but a new phone is obviously preferable. And make sure that there aren’t any exclusions that could come back to bite you. Insurance is supposed to provide you with peace of mind, regardless of the situation.
So all things considered, purchasing insurance for your smartphone seems like a great idea. But there are certain instances when you might not need it. This is truly up to you, and it’s going to come down to your current and future usage. First of all, if you religiously keep your smartphone in a carrying case and only use it with a BlueTooth headset you can probably do without the insurance. Your smartphone won’t be handled that often, and will probably remain in great shape. You also won’t need cell phone insurance if you’re purchasing an old phone, if you plan on giving up your phone and your plan within the next six months, or if you have ‘cracked’ a phone so you can use it on a different service. Stuff happens, and smartphones are expensive little devices. But in these special circumstances you should be able to do without the added expenditure.
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