appliance insurance???

[Paul Oman]

anyone have any experience/comments/vendors etc. regarding purchasing appliance insurance for our home? Mostly new appliances but a very old but still working fine, oil furnace.

paul

[HeyBub]

The consensus is: (wait for it now) Scams.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Waste of money. Put that cash aside and buy what you want, not the cheap crap the insurance company will allow. They are out to make a profit, not to help you. As for the oil furnace, there may be a reasonably price service policy that includes a cleaning that may be worth having. You may also be able to replace that oil burner and pay for it with the fuel savings. My boiler so far is using 32% less oil than the old one.

[Red Green]

"HeyBub" wrote in news:IJydnWIhGtuaFOXXnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Woman across the street fought a battle with one over her split system AC/gas system for over a year. They kept trying to patch it on the cheap and she spent just about all last summer with broken AC (mid-south/90+ degrees most of July & Aug).

She finally got a reporter from one of those "on your side" spots on the TV news station to take an interest. Single mom with infant. They ate it up. Only after this they finally fixed it.

That's the closest to personal experience I have. Just one story about one particular company.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, If you are good at getting upset and frustrated. I never bother with stuff like that. Mostly Ifx things myself.

[SteveBell]

I had the functional equivalent: a homeowner's warranty paid for by the guy who sold me our house.

We had low water flow, so I called the warranty people. They said I had to use their plumber, who wasn't available for weeks, and if he didn't find a problem that was on their short approval list, they would bill me for the call.

Don't waste your money.

[sligoNoSPAMjoe]

These insurance policies all make money for the person selling them and for the insurance company managing them. In oter words about half of the money you pay goes directly to the person selling them and the insurance company and the rest goes towards administering the policy and clames and acturally paying clames.

So if you feel that your feeling of secuity is worth at least half of he cost, then go ahead, otherwise save your moeny and pay out any needed repairs and replacements out of what you saved.

[Phisherman]

Appliance insurance is very good if you are the salesperson or company, bad if you are the buyer. It is wise for home owners to have a few thousand in a money market account, ready when you absolutely need it. It cannot be that difficult to put away $100 a month to an account in your name, why give it away to an insurance company? Insurance companies will try to deny your claim because that improves their profit, not something you want in an emergency. Insurance is a statistics game, nothing more. Taking good care of your appliances is the best insurance you can get.

[stan]

That's the problem with ALL insurance systems. Insurance companies have whole departments and policies whose purpose is to 'Contain Costs'. In other words, to NOT pay out any claims they can avoid and/or pay out as little as possible. That pressure probably extends to local dealers who actually do the maintenance work? So that the insurance company/ies can maximize their bottom line ........ or profit. It is one factor that makes, for example, insured health care insurance, in the USA, so expensive for users/customers!

While we would never go one day without overall home insurance, which costs only a very small percentage of capital worth of the home, we have generally considered appliance insurance very expensive and not worth while. Better to take the premium money and put it (plus interest) towards buying a replacement appliance unit in say ten years time. Or just resolve that one of the costs of owning and using a home involves annual and regular costs for repairs and maintenance.

Although many good appliances last longer, especially if one is 'handy' doing one's own straightforward repairs. e.g. Late last year a relative bought used washer and dryer for around $200 (for both). Recently had to install a pump on the washer, himself, at a replacement cost of under $40.

A few auto companies, notably Hyundai here, have included some very complete insurance in their sales and auto-leasing contracts. Cynics will say 'Cheap Korean product so maintenance guarantees needed!'. But a few owners spoken with have expressed great satisfaction with having 'everything' covered.

[Jon Danniken]

Take the money you would spend on the premium, every month, and buy whatever tool(s) you don't currently have, but which, based on your experience fixing and building things, would have made a previous job easier.

Eventually you get to a point where you rarely have to run out to buy a particular tool, and that's half the battle of fixing stuff right there.

Jon

[RobertPatrick]

"Jon Danniken" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

My sister got it a few years ago. I think it was for a furnace when she bought her condo. Well, the company didn't want to pay for anything so she insisted on getting her "join" fee. She got it back.

Now, I got one on a used car and it was worth the money when I needed a new transmission within the same year I bought it. I recall it would have been approx. $4,000 if I had to pay for the tranny.