Extended third party warranties

[tradosaurus]

I had a 1 year home warranty that was supplied by the seller when we bought our house.

While in the process of moving in, the AC went out. Would have been $1200 for repairs. Cost me the $65 copay.

Granted the home warranty would have cost me $450 a year if I wanted to keep it going.

After 3 years, I would have paid that $1200 anyway.

It's not really worth the money for a home warranty unless you can get $450 or more worth of service each year.

Now if you got an old ancient heating and AC system in your home.....

Depends upon how old your house is. I will try never to do without a home warranty. $500/yr is cheap once you have a plumber or electrician call out. Things inevitably break in a house. Also my appliances are covered too under my home warranty. Really a no brainer for me.

 

[Doughknob]

I am my own home warranty; fix or replace everything myself.

 

[Doughknob]

Dunno if anyone else has noticed this, but in the Carshield ad with the pitchman at a desk in a repair shop, there's a picture of someone using a ratchet...looks to me like they're tightening a LH thread bolt.

i did not see that. But in the one with Mr. Biggs, they have him using wrong grammar. Just sounds cheesey.

 

[LouNY]

I actually have an extended warranty on my 2019 RAM 1500, 6 years or 125,000 mile from RAM or fiat whomever it is.
Also had one on my 2015 for 5 years and 100,000 no issues on coverage at any Chrysler dealership.
Expensive, yes but with all the bells and whistles on these trucks worth it to me.
A few years ago I may not have thought so, back when I could yank an engine and tranny out in a night work on them for the weekend and shove it back in and go Monday morning. My old carcass doesn't handle that work good anymore.

 

[txdon]

The sellers provided a home warranty on my house and the dishwasher leaked. Deductible was $75 and they could not find a leak twice. on the third time I just replaced the dishwasher and was mad I had wasted $150 in service calls that could have gone for the purchase. Needless to say when they wanted me to extend the home warranty they got an earful.

 

[ddbackhoe]

I just wish they would stop calling my number

 

[Dftodd]

Depends upon how old your house is. I will try never to do without a home warranty. $500/yr is cheap once you have a plumber or electrician call out. Things inevitably break in a house. Also my appliances are covered too under my home warranty. Really a no brainer for me.

My house was built in 87. Nephew is an electrical engineer. If I couldn't handle the electrical, he could handle it.

Plumber with a service call charge the last time I had him out was $185.

I can handle minor stuff myself. Sink, faucet issues no worries. Even could snake my own lines.

About the only other thing that the warranty handled was the heat and ac unit. If you have gone over 3 years without a service call on your unit, then you just paid for a service call in full. Especially if it's something minor like a capacitor.

What they covered for appliance repairs wasn't really worth the paper the warranty was printed on.

If thats the only thing you have called them on in a few years, then you more then paid for a new stove, dishwasher, washer, or dryer out of pocket and handed them a nice profit on top of it.

 

[tradosaurus]

My house was built in 87. Nephew is an electrical engineer. If I couldn't handle the electrical, he could handle it.

Plumber with a service call charge the last time I had him out was $185.

I can handle minor stuff myself. Sink, faucet issues no worries. Even could snake my own lines.

About the only other thing that the warranty handled was the heat and ac unit. If you have gone over 3 years without a service call on your unit, then you just paid for a service call in full. Especially if it's something minor like a capacitor.

What they covered for appliance repairs wasn't really worth the paper the warranty was printed on.

If thats the only thing you have called them on in a few years, then you more then paid for a new stove, dishwasher, washer, or dryer out of pocket and handed them a nice profit on top of it.

Sorry you are wrong. I've at least broken even over the last 4 years. One electrical board for my oven was $400.00 but only $65 service call. Also had a computer board in my washer go bad. Another $350 plus labor with only $65 call out.

A new A/C unit will easily run $4k so, again, its a not brainer.

 

[Hilbilly]

I bought an extended warranty for my previous F350 Diesel, crew cab truck, just because of all the electronic crap that can go wrong and everything is costly to repair now. I think I paid $1900 for the extended warranty and it was good for 8 years or 160,000 km and covered everything. I ended up using it a few times and it paid for itself but there was not much of a savings over paying for the repairs myself. But all it takes is one significant repair and that would have been money well spent. The rear diff had to be rebuilt but that was covered under the drive train warranty. If not, I would have saved a bunch. I also bought an extended warranty for my 2021 GMC diesel crew cab. It was more expensive but it has a refund clause. If I don't use it before it expires I get something like half the cost back. In any case, it only takes a small repair these days to pay for the cost of these plans. I can afford to pay for the repairs and don't really need it for protection of repairs I can't afford but choose to gamble on spending some money now for a repair that could be extremely expensive down the road. From what I've read, some of these diesel trucks require the cab to be pulled to replace an injector. The cost of removing and replacing the cab was in the order of $3,500, not including the repairs / replacement of parts. The electronics on these new trucks also aren't cheap to replace. Time will tell if it was a smart purchase or not. Either way, I am comfortable with my decision.

Like others have said, there is a sort of scam element to these warranties. Like getting a $5 warranty for a $10 DVD or a $20 warranty for a $60 item. Absolute nonsense, IMO.

 

[Dftodd]

Sorry you are wrong. I've at least broken even over the last 4 years. One electrical board for my oven was $400.00 but only $65 service call. Also had a computer board in my washer go bad. Another $350 plus labor with only $65 call out.

A new A/C unit will easily run $4k so, again, its a not brainer.

Fridge is still going strong. Had to replace a light bulb. Going on 13 years. Need to order a new drawer for it if one is still available. Accidently overloaded it with beer

Replaced the heating element and control board for the dishwasher myself.

Cost parts and shipping. Was under $200.

Washer cost $350 and lasted 10 years. I think I was ahead on that one. Dryer was similar. paid $350 for that as well, but the store screwed up and gave me the $700 one. That thing is still going strong.

Stove, replaced the oven element. Didn't cost much. Was able to source that locally. 13 years so far

Flip the lid up and the control board is easily accessible. Couple screws and a quick connect. I would source that either locally or online and just pay for parts.

Ac unit after the initial repair covered by the home warranty worked 10 years flawlessly. Had to have the tech out this year to replace a capacitor. Bill was around $400. That will be the only time a tech will be out for a capacitor. As easy as that fix was, if it ever does it again, I'll source one and replace it myself.

Water heater was replaced by me. Picked one up locally and installed it myself. Can't remember what the new water heater cost, but it wasn't much.

I'm way under the $500 premium per year.

A home warranty is all about perspective and your personal needs.