Phone Insurance

Every major cellular carrier offers some sort of phone insurance service. Most of the plans cost from $4-$6 a month, or $48-$72 a year. If you file a claim on your plan, you must pay a deductible in addition to the monthly cost. Deductibles average around $50, but can be as high as $110 depending on the type of phone. That’s a total cost of at least $100 to replace your phone in the first year of your contract. Remember, however, if you have to get a new phone without insurance, you’ll have to pay full retail price. The Cingular and Verizon online stores both offer phones that retail for $30 (and Cingular even offers a couple for under $20). But the cheapest retail price for a phone at T-Mobile’s online store is $99.99, and Sprint’s lowest priced phone retails for $149.99. Figure out the price of your phone excluding rebates and promotions. If it’s much less than $100, the phone insurance may not be worth it, especially if you can find phones at cheap retail prices. Phone insurance makes more sense for high-end cell phone owners. If the phone is lost, stolen, or damaged, it’s a lot cheaper to pay the deductible and monthly fees than to buy a new phone at full retail.

Links to carriers’ “phone protection” pages: