Why You Need Apple Care+ For Your iPhone
Here's why you need Apple Care for your iPhone.
This article is more than 2 years old
Apple’s iPhones are notoriously pricey. If you decide to buy one outright, you’ll likely drop close to or over a grand on just the phone alone. That’s a big hit to the wallets of people still trying to financially recover from the ravages of the pandemic. However, even given the fact that a new iPhone is likely to put a big dent in your checkbook, it’s still is a good idea to consider adding on Apple Care. The extra $150-$200 might be a big pill to swallow initially, but it’s something that could end up saving you hundreds down the line.
Have you ever accidentally dropped your iPhone to then pick it up and see that the screen now has an ugly crack positioned diagonally across it with spider cracks spewing out from either end? I have, and what follows the initial shock of seeing your once pristine digital companion instantly fall from grace, is the sinking feeling that you get in the pit of your stomach when you realize the amount you’re going to have to dish out to fix its screen. This is where Apple Care can really come in handy.
Let’s take the newest iPhone lineup for instance. According to Life Hacker, if you bring any iPhone 13 model in need of a screen repair to the Genius Bar that is not covered by Apple Care, you can expect to dole out $329. This means that a $1000 phone just became a $1329 phone. If your iPhone 13 was instead covered by Apple Care that screen repair would only run you $29. So in that case, you might have to forgo ordering Pizza for a night, but it’s not the earth-shattering $329 that might be equivalent to what you pay for your car every month.
Additionally, having Apple Care can also come in handy if your phone is so damaged that it is beyond repair. It goes without saying that a full replacement of a phone will cost you just as much as what you initially paid for the phone. Ouch. However, with Apple Care there is hope. If your phone is covered you will only need to dish out $99 to get a brand new phone, no questions asked, no strings attached. That alone provides a nice piece of mind. Both screen repairs and full phone replacements can be done up to two times over a 12-month period.
Moreover, Apple (along with their devices) is known for not playing well with 3rd parties looking to cash in on repairs that would have otherwise gone to their genius bar. For instance, while you could bring your very pricey iPhone to a place like iFix It, technicians have found that any attempts to repair certain iPhone models away from in-house disables the Face ID mechanism in the phones. This is a shrewd move by Apple, but it also plays up the need for one to purchase Apple Care all the more. At least until better right-to-repair policies are put in place. So the takeaway here is that Apple Care, for now at least, is worth the extra upfront cost so that iPhone users can prevent a big headache as well as save money down the line.
