Apple
Best iPhone Warranty & Insurance Options You Can Buy Now
An iPhone warranty or insurance plan isn’t the first thing that many iPhone owners purchase, typically it’s a case or accessory that takes top billing. Or, like a growing number of iPhone owners, it may be a used iPhone without an easy in-store offer for a warranty or insurance.
The iPhone warranty and insurance options are more limited for users that don’t buy within 30 days of purchasing an iPhone, but there are still many great iPhone warranties for used iPhones and for iPhones that owners initially turned down coverage for.
The most popular iPhone warranty and insurance options as chosen by Gotta Be Mobile readers are available to buy now, even if your iPhone is months or years old.
You can still buy an iPhone warranty or iPhone insurance on an old or used iPhone. Image via Mike Lovell
When picking an iPhone protection plan it is important to know the difference between and iPhone warranty and an iPhone insurance plan. In simplest terms a warranty will cover standard warranty issues and those listed below also cover accidental damage like a drop or water damage, but you will need to give the phone to the warranty company. iPhone insurance plans cover loss and theft in addition to damage. So if you drop your iPhone in a lake, you will need to recover it to send in for warranty repair, but with insurance you can claim it as lost if you happen to drop it into a lake that is too deep to recover it.
For the past two years Gotta Be Mobile ranked the top iPhone insurance and warranty options and asked readers to let us know which ones they like the best. We test our many of the services and research consumer feedback, but our readers are able to deliver a deeper dive into how each iPhone warranty and insurance service stacks up.
While AppleCare+ is a winner every year, it is not available 30 days after buying a new iPhone. If you are buying a new iPhone it is a good option to consider, but if you are past that point here are the best to choose.
SquareTrade and Protect Your Bubble are the top choices for an iPhone warranty and an iPhone insurance plan. Carriers are a close third, but it’s tougher to get in after the 30-day mark. Let’s take a look at each of these options to see what is covered and what it costs.
SquareTrade iPhone Warranty
SquareTrade sells an iPhone warranty for iPhones older than 30 days and for used iPhones through an app available free in the iTunes App Store.
A SquareTrade iPhone warranty on a used or older than 30-day iPhone is $7.99 a month with a $75 deductible. For that price users get protection from drops, spills, mechanical or electrical defects, display failures, antenna and WiFi problems, broken dock connectors, touchscreen failures and protection against an iPhone that won’t power on.
A used iPhone warranty is available for any iPhone from SquareTrade.
The SquareTrade iPhone warranty is an exceptional value for users who buy a used iPhone on eBay or Craigslist and need to protect it from damage.
If you need service you can walk into an Apple Store, pay Apple to fix it and SquareTrade will cover the bill, or you can opt for next-day replacement from SquareTrade. Users get up to four replacements or repairs. This is available for any iPhone model.
The total cost of this plan is just shy of $100 for a year of coverage or $191 for two years plus $75 for one claim.
Protect Your Bubble iPhone Insurance
Protect Your Bubble offers iPhone insurance which means in addition to all the things that a warranty covers, it also handles loss and theft. Because it covers more the iPhone insurance is $143 for two years of coverage or $7.99 a month. The lump sum plan is almost a $50 savings over monthly payments.
Used iPhone insurance is available from Protect Your Bubble if the iPhone is less than a year old.
Protect Your Bubble is a little more strict, so you can only buy it within the first year after the iPhone is purchased, and it must be under the manufacturer’s warranty. So you can add this to a used iPhone, but it needs to be one sold by Apple or a carrier within the last year. Users can make two claims in a 12 month period and the deductible is $120 per claim.
The deductible is higher thanks to the additional coverage. Users paying monthly will see the same cost as SquareTrade, paying in a lump sum drops the total cost to $143.99 and $120 for one claim. There are discounts for buying more than one policy.
Carrier Insurance
Verizon routinely offers open enrollment for iPhone insurance and in the past several years T-Mobile and Sprint offered similar plans. Each carrier charges different monthly rates and only offers open enrollment at limited times. If you prefer to keep your iPhone insurance at a carrier you can bring the iPhone into a local store when they offer open enrollment to sign up.
Verizon charges $9.99 a month and charges a $99 to $199 deductible depending on the iPhone.
Out of Warranty iPhone Replacements
For users that don’t want insurance or an iPhone warranty, Apple offers a better out of warranty iPhone replacement option than carriers do. The price depends on the iPhone model and won’t cover all types of damage, but it is much cheaper than buying an iPhone off contract at $549 or $649. Here are the Out of Warranty iPhone replacement prices for current models.
- iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5 – $269
- iPhone 4s – $199
- iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, Original iPhone – $149
You can call Apple or stop in an Apple store to get an Out of Warranty iPhone replacement. This won’t cover catastrophic failure or an iPhone in multiple pieces, but if you didn’t buy insurance or an iPhone warranty a one time payment of $149 to $269 is available and can cover water damage.
