I’m going to preorder the iPhone 7 and replace my original iPhone 5. Trying to decide which coverage I should pick. The Verizon coverage is $11/month :(( which seems highway robbery. Wondering if AppleCare or square trade would be alright. The 7 is water resistant (yea!) so I am looking for damage or if it’s lost or stolen.
Is there any compelling reason to go with Verizon’s coverage?
Also can’t decide which color to get? Trying to decide between the matte black or the rose gold.
I’m also going to preorder the new phone as my old one is barely hanging on to life. I think I’m going with the IPhone program where you essentially lease the phone and the applecare is built in. I’m leaning towards matte black. Not sure which size phone to get. Still need to look into the difference into the cameras on both models.
I’m going to go with the 7 and not the 7plus. My H has a plus which he loves for work and reading and replying to emails. It’s just too big for me, I have small hands. And I’m going to go with the 128g phone, I think the 32 is going to be like the 16 where it’s just not enough storage in the future.
Watching this thread with interest Deb - just yesterday I read that AppleCare dropped the price you have to pay for a cracked screen (beyond your normal AppleCare payment) to $29. It made me really think about why the heck we are paying the outrageous Verizon insurance fees - H cracked his screen a month or so ago and still had to pay something like $150! It would sometimes seem that the Verizon plan is only worthwhile if you have to actually replace your phone!
Edited to say that while I have never insured/warrantied a phone through SquareTrade I have done many other electronic items and have been very happy with the process when I’ve needed to use it.
I used Square Trade with my son’s phone based largely on a co-worker’s recommendation. We’ve never had to use it. For my iPhone I used Apple Care because it seems slightly more convenient to go into the store (we have an Apple store close by). Never have had to use it though. That $29 screen repair is a nice plus with the new plans for sure.
Apple Care will not cover damages if the phone is lost or stolen. We had the insurance through our wireless provider and the one time I looked into using it I discovered that we would have to pay a close to $300.00 deductible in addition to the amount we had payed monthly for the coverage in order to replace the phone. Not sure how Square Trade works.
Square Trade does not cover loss or theft either. I think the phone carrier coverages do which is one reason there is a significant price difference.
ETA: I’ve used Square Trade. I’ve only made a claim once, but it was easy to do. No problems.
You need to check the fine details on all the insurance. For example, if a phone is lost or destroyed, how much it will cost you to replace it, depending on the model and price of the phone, you generally will be paying a fairly significant deductible with many plans. My local wireless store had their own plan, and it wasn’t bad, for a 600 dollar phone you got a replacement (usually refurbished) for like 100 bucks (I don’t know what the plan would be on an iphone7, my last phone was a Samsung).
I got a new Ipad thru AppleCare when a piece of the charging port broke. Five minute drive to the Apple store, quick check of the equipment and I was out the door with my new machine. I was one very satisfied consumer (unlike whenever I have dealt with Verizon). I have to admit that it hadn’t occurred to me to price shop for options other than AppleCare. My Iphone is also AppleCare.
I keep thinking there has to be something other than phone company insurance that can address the lost/stolen phone issue. I’m paying $30 for 3 insurance plans on my family plan. Add that up for a year and I’m paying $360/year in insurance. That is throwing money away, but don’t want to worry about replacing a $700 phone if lost or stolen. I’m also thinking of doing apple phone plan going forward.
We need a side by side comparison of what AppleCare, Squaretrade and Verizon insurance covers and costs for a new phone these days…
https://www.squaretrade.com/family-plans?utm_medium=iPhoneLP&utm_campaign=FPButton
(Scroll down a little bit)
Trying to preorder and running into a few issues. What the?? Apple does not have an option to preorder a unlocked iPhone 7?
That $129 for Apple Care for 2 years is a ripoff.
I tried to preorder and the shipping wasn’t until late October. Normally I would just wait, but my phone is on its last legs and may not make it until then. I’ve never bought a brand new apple product before. Does anyone know if there likely will be much stock available in stores in late September absent a pre-order?
@pittsburghscribe Did they have an option for in store pickup? I just looked out of curiosity and my local store was not available for pickup. The closest one offering it was 50 miles away.
@BunsenBurner I selected my carrier and there was an option for an unlocked phone but only if paying in full.
@livinginLA - no local pickup options available. I think they are reopening that on the 17th so I may try again then.
We bought our 6s phone from the Apple Store so it was unlocked and could work with any carrier. S charged it with his Discover card and pays bills for the cell plan with Wells Fargo. Each of them offered a warranty, so he had one screen replaced compliments of Discover and the 2nd compliments of WF. Hopefully he will stop cracking his screen!
Have never bought insurance or anything else–so far. I have not made any claims for broken phone or screen or loss or theft, so no personal experience.
“BunsenBurner I selected my carrier and there was an option for an unlocked phone but only if paying in full.”
For me, Apple still needed my account number and 4 digits of my SSN to sell me a phone for full price! It is ridiculous. It is not a truly no strings attached phone, because the carrier will then take away my pay by month option.
I ended up preordering the rose gold 128g iPhone 7. I ordered from Verizon as we have been with them for a long time and they have the best service by far in my area. I have an iPhone 5 in good working order and so I am trading that in. They are giving me $400 for my old phone and are going to prorate that over the 24 months I’m paying for my new phone. So instead of $31.xx/month it’s $15.5x/month.
Is it the best I could do? Not sure but I’m happy to upgrade my phone for less than $16 more a month. My 5 is 4 years old so to get $400 for it, I’m ok with.
I preordered around 7 this morning and Verizon says I will have it on the 16th.
I still think I’m going to go with some sort of insurance, either square trade or AppleCare. AppleCare is looking good with the $29 deductible for a cracked screen. Although now I have a tempered glass screen protector on the phone now and it has worked well for me.
@deb922 – Verizon is giving you $400 for a 5 trade-in? They are offering $65 for our old 5 and only $220 for each 6 (the two year old model). All phones are 64GB. I would consider trading in for $400, but otherwise, see no point in moving from the 6s. (The 5 is just a placeholder for son who is waiting to buy an LG or some other non-Apple phone.)