Just bought a new tumble dryer from AO, and within minutes there was someone on the phone trying to sell me a care plan. Now, I know I used to take them out years ago and never needed them, but what are peoples current thoughts on them, considering the complexity and cost of modern appliances?
Appliance care plans
- Thread starter Uther
- Start date
I have it on my fridge freezer, which is 8 years old now. It's £4 a month. AO were really good when the control board broke awhile back they where out and it was fixed within 24hours of me reporting it. I think it of it now as I'm kind of hiring a fridge as if it breaks really badly they'll get me a new one.
I don't have it on any of my other appliances as I'll generally have a go at fixing myself.
I don't have it on any of my other appliances as I'll generally have a go at fixing myself.
Soldato
- Joined
- 24 Sep 2007
- Posts
- 6,274
I avoid paying for any form of insurance other than that required by law. It's a rip off. In general, I save money, and through not having m(any) monthly payments for insurance, I have a rainy day fund. What I hate about insurance and warranties is often if you make a valid claim, they will try and get out of it. You never get paid what it really costs anyway. In general, it's just not worth it. Avoid.
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Some people fail at maths though remember. It's only £4 a month, that's nothing.
Just have a rainy day pot of money, enough to fix anything, it'll earn you interest and it's there for any thing.
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Soldato
- Joined
- 27 Mar 2013
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- 9,578
We've not bothered on anything, although pur bosch dishwasher has had 2 problems, one on a valve (which iirc was about £100 to fix), and the element went which cost about 50 and I chamged myself. The dishwasher is 8 or 9 years old so overall its much cheaper not paying 4 quid a month. On the other hand my mum and dad pay for one (think it's the British gas one), and they had loads of repairs to their washing machine which is 7 years old (although it gets used twice a day (ocd with cleanliness)), so it's probably had the equivalent of about 20 years wear and tear 
. Remember the reason these rings don't cost much per month is due to not many people needing to claim.
. Remember the reason these rings don't cost much per month is due to not many people needing to claim.
Soldato
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- 2 Jul 2019
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- 2,710
Problem is when a product becomes old, parts aren't always available for replacement. So then broken item gets scrapped and they try to fob you off with some cheap replacement which despite their claims isn't the same as original.
Learnt this one the hard way. But thankfully after much pushing over a long period, support from a rep at store (luckily!), i ended up with a product near twice the value of the original. Never again though.
If it's a decent shop though, then sure it can be piece of mind and handy. Just need to be cautious.
Learnt this one the hard way. But thankfully after much pushing over a long period, support from a rep at store (luckily!), i ended up with a product near twice the value of the original. Never again though.
If it's a decent shop though, then sure it can be piece of mind and handy. Just need to be cautious.
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I've never had appliance insurance as they are cheap enough to replace, Sky keep trying to flog me theirs and say if it breaks it'll £100 call out charge to which my reply is "If the equipment that belongs to you that I hire for your service doesn't work you either repair it for free or I cancel my service with you, simples"
We've had our american fridge\freezer 12+ years and it was only £600 when purchased, if it breaks it doesn't owe me anything, tumble dryer probably 17 years and it was only £200 when I bought it, stuff doesn't break too much anymore
We've had our american fridge\freezer 12+ years and it was only £600 when purchased, if it breaks it doesn't owe me anything, tumble dryer probably 17 years and it was only £200 when I bought it, stuff doesn't break too much anymore
£4 a month for 8 years is almost 400, so yep he failed at maths but not by a lot.
In response to OP
In general avoid insurance if poss, the insurance company is making a profit so is charging a premium over the actual cost of providing the cover, also there are a lot of fraudulent claims which are paid for by the honest customers in the long run.
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My point is if you keep a pot of money for such things it can be used for anything, boiler repair, new fridge, dishwasher, car repairs.£4 a month for 8 years is almost 400, so yep he failed at maths but not by a lot.
In response to OP
In general avoid insurance if poss, the insurance company is making a profit so is charging a premium over the actual cost of providing the cover, also there are a lot of fraudulent claims which are paid for by the honest customers in the long run.
Especially now you're also getting about 7% interest on it, and the amount is there forever and doesn't just disappear if you don't use it.
Insurance to cover things that have a very low possible expenditure to me seems silly. Only needed for things like car insurance (for the big bills) or house.