Laptop insurance, extended warranty?

knightstyle

Just looked on Google, 830000 results for UK insurance for my Macbook, so who can I trust to extend my warranty, not Applecare as they are soooo expensive and include things like assistance that I found to be a waste of time.

Oscar_The_Grouch

Hi there

I have very strong views on extended warranties; I wouldn't use one as toilet paper.

Take out "accidental damage" cover on your home contents insurance and if you are likely to take the laptop out of the house, specify it on your "personal possessions" (always specify laptops, as some of the cheaper insurance companies will not cover them if you don't). This will then mean that if you spill something on the machine or drop it, it's covered. It also means that the rest of your possessions (including carpets and the like) are covered for accidental damage too.

Do you know about Quidco and the other cashback sites? Use one of them and buy yourself an external hard disc drive (will cost you less than £45 from PC World). Copy all your photos, songs, videos, documents and the like to the hard disc. This is something that is not covered by warranties, but is just a damn good idea!! Remember to back up anything new to the hard disc every month or so.

Take the money you would have spent on the warranty and shove it in the bank. Let's say a warranty is going to cost you £60 a year. They will only ever repair your laptop, not replace it, so over 3 years you will save £180. That's about half the cost of a new machine and in 3 years you will probably want to replace it anyway!! If at any time you damage your laptop, your insurance policy WILL replace the machine and by saving your £60 each year, you will be more than covering the excess (usually £50 on personal possessions).

knightstyle

Thanks. So is it possible to buy an extended waranty from a third party, like you can do for a car?