--- title: Is Cell Phone Insurance Worth It? description: Before signing up for phone insurance, learn what you'll really pay to get a replacement if you lose or break the phone you've got. authors: - name: Kerri Anne Renzulli url: https://money.com/author/kerri-anne-renzulli/ at_money_since: 2014 articles: 185 covers: - Insurance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://x.com/kerenzulli former_staff: true published: '2016-06-13T12:00:08.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T02:13:11.000Z' section: Insurance tags: - Best Cell Phones - cell phone - Insurance word_count: 598 canonical: https://money.com/worth-it-buy-cell-phone-insurance/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![160610_CEL_Insurance](https://img.money.com/2016/06/160610_cel_insurance.jpg) It may sound like a good idea to pay a little extra each month for the security of knowing you could get a replacement phone any time you need it. But month-to-month cellphone insurance isn't always the helpful solution it appears to be. High deductibles, policy restrictions, and limited replacement options can make the plans less desirable, industry watchers caution: "95% or more of the time, cell phone insurance is not worth buying," says Logan Abbott, president of Wirefly, an online comparison shopping tool for cell phone plans. If you are considering a plan, make sure you understand a few key things. ### **Who you can buy insurance from** If you do want to buy insurance, you have two basic options: from your wireless provider or from a third-party company such as SquareTrade. Insurance offered by wireless providers tends to be more robust, covering device malfunction, damage, loss and theft, but it tends to cost more — roughly $10 a month for full insurance, although some providers offer tiers with more limited coverage. (Verizon, for example, offers four insurance tiers ranging in price from $3 to $11 a month.) Third-party insurers typically cover only malfunction and damage — which is fine if you drop your phone in a puddle, less so if it gets stolen — and tends to cost $7 a month. ### **How big a deductible you'd face** No matter who you buy from, you'll still wind up paying a deductible for each claim you file — and that can come as a nasty shock. "Most people when they sign up for these insurance plans don’t realize there is a fairly large deductible. They assume the monthly payment is it," says Abbott. The deductible on wireless carrier plans typically ranges from $50 to $200, Money finds, depending on the kind of phone you own and how new it is. If you've got a brand-new iPhone, expect to be at the top end of that deductible range. Third-party insurance providers offer a lower deductible — $99 for SquareTrade, for instance — but, remember, they also cover fewer types of incidents. Some companies, such as AT&T, reward you for not filing a claim by offering a deductible discount. Six months without incident allows you to save 25% to 50% off the standard deductible. ### **What replacement phone you could get** If your phone cannot be repaired, most insurance policies say they will provide you with a replacement that is generally comparable to the device you had — but you might not even get the same model or brand as before, and you may wind up with a refurbished phone rather than a brand new one. SquareTrade says it will either repair your phone or give you a reimbursement amount based on the retail value of the phone for your carrier. ### **What your bottom line will be** All of this means that, even if you have to make a claim, there's a good chance the insurance won't have been worth it. Let's say you got a [smartphone](https://money.com/best-smartphone/) last year, paid $10 a month for the first year of insurance, then lost the phone. You already spent $120, your deductible is probably another $200, and your insurer could give you a refurbished version of last year's model rather than a new phone. Add in the fact that phones typically come with a manufacturer warranty for the first year — and are becoming much more durable — and "there is less and less of a reason to get insurance," Abbott says. *For more Money coverage, check out [The Best Cell Phone Plans of 2016.](https://money.com/best-cell-phone-plans/)* ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/worth-it-buy-cell-phone-insurance/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Insurance", "item": "https://money.com/insurance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Insurance Policy", "item": "https://money.com/insurance-policy/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Is Cell Phone Insurance Worth It?" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/worth-it-buy-cell-phone-insurance/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/worth-it-buy-cell-phone-insurance/", "name": "Is Cell Phone Insurance Worth It?", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-06-13T12:00:08.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/worth-it-buy-cell-phone-insurance/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/worth-it-buy-cell-phone-insurance/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T02:13:11.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Is Cell Phone Insurance Worth It?", "articleSection": "Insurance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/06/160610_cel_insurance.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1400, "caption": "160610_CEL_Insurance" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kerri Anne Renzulli", "url": "https://money.com/author/kerri-anne-renzulli/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kerri-anne-renzulli/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/05/14-05-21_bio_author_renzulli.jpg?quality=85&w=190&h=190&crop=1", "email": "kerri.renzulli@moneymail.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/kerenzulli" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-06-13T12:00:08.000Z", "description": "Before signing up for phone insurance, learn what you'll really pay to get a replacement if you lose or break the phone you've got.", "abstract": "Before signing up for phone insurance, learn what you'll really pay to get a replacement if you lose or break the phone you've got.", "@id": "https://money.com/worth-it-buy-cell-phone-insurance/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T02:13:11.000Z", "wordCount": 598, "keywords": [ "Best Cell Phones", "cell phone", "Insurance" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Insurance", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurance" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Insurance policy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurance_policy" ] } ] } ] } ```