Repairing your portable device can be better and more cost effective than having to pay your cell phone insurance deductible. If you take a look at the price of a no-contract mobile device, you’ll see that these little devices aren’t cheap at all, and in fact, many of them cost over $500 USD! That’s not the price you paid for your phone though, is it? This is because stores that sell mobile phones get paid for every contract they sign, and if you terminate your contract early, they’ll still get your money. Portable device insurance can be a good investment if you lose your device, but with sites like eBay, Craigslist and Amazon it can be cheaper to get a new portable device than to make an insurance claim. So, is it worth repairing a cell phone?
Did you break your digitizer by dropping your phone? Many people every day drop their phones on the pavement, in the bathroom, and in places beyond me. Now to have your digitizer repaired by a cell phone repair specialist will cost you less than $120 on an iPhone 4. The cost for your insurance to replace your iPhone with a refurbished device is $180 for an iPhone 4 if You have your insurance through Seguro. This doesn’t include your monthly deductible that you’ve been paying every month throughout your career, and they make money off of that too. I found that the average monthly premium price is around $10, even for your iPhone 4. A little basic math will show you that it’s cheaper to have your digitizer replaced by a mobile device repair specialist, and a cracked screen is something that Apple will not cover under its warranty.
I know you must be thinking that having mobile device insurance is a scam, and it may depend on your view of the situation. These phone insurance companies buy broken phones in bulk and repair them. Then they send you one of those mobile phones. I’ve taken a couple of those refurbished phones apart, and some are missing screws, show signs of water damage, and the list could go on and on. If you lost your cell phone, you can get a used one at one of the sites listed above for about the same price as your deductible. With handheld device repair becoming more prominent in larger cities, it will be easier for you to find a cell phone repair center near you. It seems I’ve seen a lot of these device repair agencies pop up overnight, and you might want to be careful about your choice.
I would do my research before needing this type of service so I don’t have to struggle to make a decision on a company. I would follow these rules when choosing a mobile device repair company: Do they list their prices on their website? If they do, they are more likely not to change their prices on a regular basis, and they should know their market. Do you offer a guarantee? Most portable device repair companies I’ve found offer a warranty of at least 90 days. Do you have spare parts in stock? Any of these companies that have been around a while will have parts in stock for the most popular phones they service, because no one wants to wait. Do you receive mail on the phones? The strongest of these companies are ready to accept phones from anywhere in the world. Most of the time, they can get your phone back to you in less time than your insurance can.
We can all hope that we never drop our phones, run over them, or take them swimming. Honestly, the chances of this happening are higher than if you find $5 bucks on the sidewalk. We may all need a great cell phone repair service one day, but not all of us need cell phone insurance. It’s a huge waste of money, and even though it’s only $10 a month. Ten dollars a month for a year is the same price to have your screen replaced, and if your regular cell phone fails and fails, get an Otter Box!