eHelpfulTips™    How To Advice & Thrifty Tips     

Main Page

Electronics & Computers

Home Projects

Gardening

Health & Fitness

Outdoors

Education & Kids

Automotive

Food, Beverages, Recipes

Pets & Animals

Money & Thrifty Tips

Business and Employment

Travel and Leisure

Thrifty Living Books 

Links To More How - To Articles

Search Amazon.com  

Can You Get Insurance For An iPhone For Loss and Damage?

If you have recently purchased an iPhone you may be thinking of obtaining insurance from your carrier for loss and damage. Unfortunately AT&T has refused to add the iPhone to the list of phones covered by their $5.00 monthly insurance plan. Obviously they calculated that losses would exceed revenue from offering insurance on the iPhone. You get one year under Apple's factory warranty, that covers defects, and you can add two more years through their extended plan.

What Are Your Options?

You have a couple of options and surely there will be new ones come about in the coming months. One is to contact your homeowner insurance and add coverage under a Personal Articles policy. This will cost you about $30 a month. State Farm will cover phones that cost over $400. You will need proof of the cost of the phone to obtain coverage. This is the tricky part. If you have got your phone under a new contract discount for $199 it may be hard to convince your agent you are eligible. Some have had success by showing the replacement cost outside of contract.

A company called Squaretrade.com offers coverage for your iPhone against damage. It costs about $100 to cover a 16 Gig iPhone for two years. It offers protection against damage, including dropping and water damage, with a $50 deductable.

Best Buy will cover the iPhone 3GS under the Geek Squad Black Tie protection plan. The cost is $15.00, which is a bit pricey, but covers the phone for damage. It does not cover water damage, theft or loss. This coverage is only for phones bought at Best Buy.

Of course the cost of the iPhone 16 Gig will go down in those two years, which is one way that they make their money. Expect to see 16 Gigabyte iPhones in two years for less than $100 on eBay, so weigh this in your decision before your fork out $200 for an insurance plan. On the other hand, if you are clumsy, or work in environments where you may damage your phone, it might be worthwhile.

Protecting Your iPhone Yourself

To protect our iPhone from loss try http://www.rewardingreturn.com . They offer an application that you download to your phone. A reward notice is displayed on your phone so the finder can easily claim a reward. There is a small charge for the service. Here is what the notice looks like.

As far as damage is concerned, invest in a skin, screen cover and a case. Keep your iPhone in a case when not in use and don't carry it in your pocket, especially if there is a chance you might get wet. The best way to insure your iPhone is to take good care of it. You might consider an Otterbox case such as the one below, which protects against water and impact.

Click Here for more info on the Otterbox iPhone case.

For information on how to boost your iPhone's signal for better reception see:  How To Boost Your iPhone Signal

Cheers.