<p>Son will get a mac laptop due to his major. We have only had PC’s. Is the Apple insurance worth getting?
D has a Dell and did use her insurance after a spill.</p>
<p>Everyone I’ve heard says yes, if you get ANY laptop, get a 3 year protection plan. My d just got a MacBook Pro with the Apple Care.</p>
<p>My dad made me get the 3 year one. You automatically get 1 year insurance, within that 1 year you have the option of extending the warranty, so you don’t have to decide right away if you don’t want to.</p>
<p>What usually seems to happen is those with the extended warranty have nothing happen to their computer. Those who don’t have it seem to have something go horribly wrong. 
Its always nice to have though, especially if it has to last all 4 years.</p>
<p>You need applecare if you want coverage for the motherboard.</p>
<p>Mamenyu, can you or someone else explain applecare? Child also just bought a Mac after only having PC’s. Did the three year extended warranty not cover the motherboard? Thanks.</p>
<p>To those who haven’t had the experience, a motherboard repair is a major expense - almost the cost of the computer.</p>
<p>Both S & D have Macs (the G4 powerbooks) and both got the Apple Care insurance. D used it within the 1st year for some weird random problem.</p>
<p>S’s laptop is going on 3 years old and he will get a new power cord and battery replaced via the coverage. (They both were also involved in that Mac battery recall awhile back).</p>
<p>Compared to most (all) their friends, they feel their Macs have been more reliable than those who don’t have them. They’ve both mentioned problems with viruses etc at their campuses that affected many others, but didn’t affect either one of them at all.</p>
<p>I’d definitely recommend buying it. I don’t know how much their “loaded” laptops are now, but we paid over $2000 for the G4. It’s worth a little extra to protect them, especially in a campus environment.</p>
<p><a href=“http://images.apple.com/legal/applecare/docs/AppleCare_Protect_Plan_NA_en.pdf[/url]”>http://images.apple.com/legal/applecare/docs/AppleCare_Protect_Plan_NA_en.pdf</a></p>
<p>^ That goes into the specifics of what Apple will and will not cover. I think its important to know that Apple will not cover “accidents.” So if you spill something, you won’t be covered. Same as if you drop it, bang it, etc.</p>
<p>If the motherboard goes out and there is no reason for them to believe you had anything to do with it, you’d be covered. I’ve heard of a few people saying the motherboard needed to be replaced and had no problem.</p>
<p>We put our D’s new MacBook on the family insurance plan. It’s covered in case of loss or theft which I don’t think Apple Insurance covers. Even if you buy the Apple Insurance to cover the internal stuff, put it on the reg. insurance just like jewelry.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about apple, but if you buy a dell laptop definitely buy as much as you can, you will need it.</p>
<p>SOad and Novelisto, thanks, I thought the motherboard was covered, baring accidents.</p>
<p>Novelisto, I wonder if it would pay today to file an insurance claim for a 2-3K item. Where I live, I know my home owner’s insurance would either be cancelled or increased drastically.</p>
<p>tell your kid not to leave your laptop in a position to be stolen and tell them not to loose it and you don’t need to put it on that policy. Simple as that.</p>
<p>Son got a MacBook Pro last May 2006. He’s a bit of a nerd and found bugs and other issues that eventually he asked Apple to fix, which they did first by updating the Bios and then by replacing motherboard. He did not purchase a warrenty.</p>
<p>merrymom- I think your right that it doesn’t pay to make a claim on the homeowners insurance.
Interesting that the Mac policy doesn’t cover spills.</p>
<p>why would any warranty cover spills? i would be astonished if they did. that’s your own fault, not the fault of the maker… to me anyway.</p>
<p>There is NO SUCH THING AS an Apple insurance plan.</p>
<p>The extra AppleCare plan simply extends the standard 1 year warranty plan for an additional 2 years; meaning, you will get 3 years of total coverage. I highly recommend getting this, especially if you are planning on using the Mac for the whole 3 years. Apple is excellent with warranty coverage, and they’ll cover almost anything as long as it is obviously not the user’s fault (spills, drops, etc). This is especially useful if you are near an Apple store - just make an appointment online and see a “genius” who’ll determine the problem and fix it right away.</p>
<p>Since I’ve gotten a Mac, I’ve used AppleCare for a motherboard replacement as well as a battery replacement. In addition, when I complained about my MacBook’s inner-plastic case chipping away, they replaced the inside casing including keyboard, trackpad, etc.</p>
<p>The additional AppleCare warranty can be added on anytime during the first year, so you can always decide to buy it later. I suggest you use the Mac for a year, and if you decide to still use it after a year add on the AppleCare warranty.</p>
<p>2-3K item loss…sure, if you can absorb it and replace the item (which means you’re out 2x the cost). But if I did 2500 damage to my car, I’d put in a claim. Ask your agent how much your insurance would increase if you did make a claim of that size – before you have a problem – then decide if it’s worthwhile. I wouldn’t assume that the premiums would increase all that much. </p>
<p>Fendergirl – Things do get stolen, no matter how careful you are, and things do disappear mysteriously (aliens like apples!). My mother had her purse stolen right off her arm in Miami – they cut the strap – and if she’d had her laptop they might have taken that too. It’s not always carelessness that leads to theft.</p>
<p>they would raise. I don’t know how much, but they would raise. And it’s not like it’s just for one year. I believe an accident like that would increase your premiums for 3 years or something like that. so you have to take all of that into consideration prior to putting in that claim.</p>
<p>and i think most theft can be deferred by being more careful. My grill was stolen during college because my roommates left it outside all night. I don’t know why they didn’t just write a note on it that said HEY COME TAKE ME. I spent the night somewhere else that night, came home in the morning and not only was my grill MIA but our apartment door was unlocked. I woke up everyone at 7 am and explained to each and every one of them (there were 4 of us) that if anything of mine is missing out of our apartment as a result of them not locking the door, they would be paying for it. I had my laptop with me when I was gone but I had two of my guitars in the living room and i would have been pretty mad if they would have been stolen. After that I moved them into my bedroom and made sure I locked my bedroom door when I left the apartment because I didn’t trust them. That was the last time we had any situation with the locking of the apartment door to my knowledge (and to this day, they still have not replaced my grill). </p>
<p>I know not all theft can be prevented, but I think a large majority can. I don’t like men wearing their wallets in their back pocket. to me that’s another HEY COME TAKE ME. no offense to the men on this board who do that. ;)</p>
<p>Novelisto - It doesn’t involve whether you can absorb the money initially. Home owner’s insurance has changed drastically in the last few years. Things I would have claimed 20 years ago, I wouldn’t now.</p>
<p>It is the salability of your home that is at issue. A national database is kept of all home owner’s insurance claims, and if your house is listed, insurance companies are reluctant to provide insurance. Sometimes it might just be that the previous agent recorded the information in the database incorrectly. There are so many excuses insurance companies will attempt to use.</p>
<p>We used this company to insure some of my son’s property at college, and will do the same next year. He has an expensive digital slr camera, an electric guitar and his laptop at school. For 50.00 per year, any one of them could be replaced if lost or stolen with a deductible of 50.00. I especially worried about the camera because he carries it about. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nssi.com%5B/url%5D”>www.nssi.com</a> </p>
<p>The student insurance covers a variety of items, clothing, sports equipment, jewelery and electronics and others. They offer a variety of coverage amounts and deductibles, from $2,000 - $10,000. Their information was included in his Pomona info packet.</p>