thoiboi

I doubt that's how it works...

BigFlyer

I agree that each person should run the numbers.

A few other points:

• With a contract plan, if you don't upgrade at the end of two years you need to take youself off the contract as you are paying the higher monthly rate which includes the phone subisdy;
• If you have the financial wherewithal to buy the Iphone from Apple by paying the full price upfront (not installments), the phone will be unlocked and you can use any SIM you like. Unless AT&T has changed its policy, it will not unlock a phone until the end of the two-year contract or until the phone is paid off on an installment plan. So, you won't be able to travel and use local SIMs.
• The article referenced in the post is almost two years old, the metrics may or may not have changed since then

mintcilantro

I did some more research and found that a good way to stay covered would be to pay cell phone bill with wells fargo card.

https://www08.wellsfargomedia.com/as...deBenefits.pdf

BigFlyer

Interesting - I wonder how you satisfy this provision of the terms of the program if you are not paying the carrier monthly for the phone:

A document from the Cellular Wireless Telephone provider or other sufficient proof, as determined by the benefit
administrator, that the telephone you are claiming is currently linked to your Cellular Wireless Telephone account.

thoiboi

Yup... was gonna cancel my WF card a few months backbut kept it for this very reason



IRT amex covering the full unsubsidized price when paying only x is more what I was referring to.. This thread was referring to AmEx Extended Warranty.

mintcilantro

I'm slightly confused by what you mean but this is my understanding now. I'm covered upto $399 by amex if phone dies between 12 and 24 months. WF is a good back up option as well but it also goes upto $600.

BigFlyer

Also appears that WF covers physical damage to the phone which Amex would not cover.

brosnan6

Has anybody conclusively had any luck claiming a replacement cost for a cell phone paid by monthly installment?

I was thinking about this as an option - I had to obtain an insurance replacement device from Tmobile which required a $175 deductible, and that was charged onto the same amex as my monthly phone bill (which includes equipment installment payments). However, when I purchased the phone I was required to put a "down payment" for the taxes + $99 for the phone as it was not the base model iPhone. That totaled just about $198. I was thinking about using that charge as my "purchase" reference point against which to claim the $175 replacement deductible.

Thoughts?

mintcilantro

i don't have any experience, but please try it out and let us know. It would be an important data point as cell phone contracts is a common purchase.

BigFlyer

Looking at the Amex Extended Warranty provisions for my Platinum Business Card, it says as follows:

We will provide a benefit equal to
the coverage of the original manufacturer's
warranty on warranties of up to five (5) years.
We will pay up to the actual amount charged to
Your Account for the product for which a Loss is
claimed.

Seems pretty clear that with the old contract system, the "actual amount charged" would be the subsidized price.

Seems like with the new installment plans you would have an anomalous situation - the maximum would depend on how far you were into the installment payment contract. And, I suppose there would always be the option of prepaying all or a portion of the rest of the contract if you needed to make a claim.

cloney

Just wanted to share my recent experience with Amex Extended Warranty with a purchase I had less than 2 years ago.

I purchased a phone directly from the manufacturer in 2013 and the phone just started dying almost 8 months after the initial warranty end. I was bummed but I sent the phone in to get a quote to repair while opening a claim on the americanexpress.com/onlineclaims. The process was painless, I submitted but didnt hear anything back until 4 days later, it asked for my itemized receipt which I had in my email and then nothing for another 7 days. I woke up one day and received an email from Assurion saying my claim was closed and here's the paperwork. Lo and behold they ended my claim and credited the ENTIRE cost of the phone purchase into my card. That's it. No phone calls nothing, they just credited the entire purchase with no questions asked after filling out the initial claim.

3 thumbs up to this process.

DaveInLA

My wife wants a Nespresso/Lattissima machine that is listed at $290 at Sur La Table. All of my AMEX cards have the $10 off $50 offer, so I'm inclined to buy 6 separate $50 gift cards for an effective 20% off the purchase price. But in my experience, these machines are fragile and can have problems. Our Starbucks Verismo broke just less than 2 years after we got it.

I know if I make the entire purchase with gift cards, I get no extended warranty. But what if I apply a single $50 gift card and use an AMEX to pay the remaining ~$250? Will AMEX's warranty cover ~80% of the warranty costs?

helvetic

Nespresso is much higher quality than Starbucks, for what it's worth. Swiss Engineering…

That said, I think that the extended warranty will apply to your purchase, but only up to the amount that you put on the card. So if only $50 gets charged to your amex and amex pays for a replacement, they might only put $50 towards the replacement.

mia

See also this short thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...amex-card.html

happyvoid

For the extended warranty I got an email saying I need "satisfactory Proof of Loss documents," It doesn't provide info where I need to mail the document or what documents these are, did anyone ever get this email