Is it worth buying extended warranty on a Laptop

xxdeebeexx

DS1 has save up his money and bought himself a 17'' Acer Laptop. I have recently received an email from Acer offering a 3yr extended warranty for £92 it includes
Notebook 3-Year Warranty

• Priority repair service at Acer repair center
• Including Accidental Damages Cover
• 3-year International Travellers Warranty
• Free help desk
• Free delivery back to customer
• More...

When I read the small print I think its only an additional 2 yrs added onto the original 1yr.

Is it worth spending the money?
Ds1 won't be taking the laptop abroad or probably out of the house.

Is there a cheaper way of covering accidental damage and extending the breakdown cover?

Many thanks

Dx

Leopard

If he's a careful person, your household is not rowdy and he's not going to be taking it out of your home, it's probably not worth the money.

If he were taking it out of the house, and particularly if he was likely to take it abroad, or travel with it generally, it's good insurance against an expensive mishap or misfortune.

suthy99

Hi, I have cover for my laptop with a company called compucover I dont know how this compares for price to yours but may be worth a look

macman

Check your own home insurance first, as this may provide some of that cover anyway (I'm thinking of the accidental damage and travel angles).

JasX

With half decent new laptops costing £250-£350 these days I'd save my money, unless you are expecting it to be mistreated and happy to be without it for weeks on end arguing with extended warranty people.

are extended warranties ever worth the money?

asininity

Search a few online stores 3 years warranties for acers can be a cheap as £60 for all thats offered in that one.

Leopard

JasX,

JasX wrote: »

With half decent new laptops costing £250-£350 these days I'd save my money, unless you are expecting it to be mistreated and happy to be without it for weeks on end arguing with extended warranty people.

are extended warranties ever worth the money?

As you point out out generally, it depends upon the actual ratio between the cost of the insurance and the value (or the replacement cost) of the laptop.

For the OP's £92, it would be worth taking out extended warranty on an £1,840 laptop (20 times the price of the premium) but not on a £276 laptop (3 times the price of the premium).

AppleCare extended warranty (for an additional two years – making the cover three years from new) for a 15" or 17" MacBook Pro costs (currently) £273 from Apple but can be purchased (in its sealed box) for around £100 on eBay.

The cheapest 15" MacBook Pro costs (currently) £1,300 and the most expensive 17" MacBook Pro (with a £520 solid-state hard drive of 256 GB) costs £3,130.

The £100 AppleCare purchased on eBay, applied to the most expensive 17" MacBook Pro is thus an insurance ratio of 31.3 to 1. The same AppleCare, purchased from Apple for £273 and applied to the cheapest 15" MacBook Pro works out at a ratio of 4.8 to 1. The cover is the same but the value of it is 6.5 times less!

At the end of the day, you need to insure things you can't easily afford to replace but if you can afford to replace things you weigh up the likelihood of them failing against the price (and cover) of the extended warranty and it becomes, in effect, a bet. You don't take out extended warranty on a light bulb but you do (if you've got any sense) insure your house and its contents.

If you think that's ducking the question, , all the MacBooks Pro in our own household are covered by AppleCare (and for accidental damage, under our house contents insurance) but neither the fridge/freezers nor the washing machine are on extended warranties.

catch22

£58 http://www.pcwb.co.uk/catalogue/item/A0477440

£42 http://www.microwarehouse.co.uk/catalogue/item/ACAC572

Some of the contracts are; on-site, others collect.

I have to say, I had a couple of problems with my Acer laptop within the three year period, there was absolutely no problem getting it fixed.

esuhl

Also worth reading every word of small-print when buying insurance. You'd be surprised at what is excluded from some policies, and how much similar policies from different companies vary.