Appliance delivery people are carrying a brand new refrigerator into my house as I write this blog post. The best part of this particular refrigerator is the cost: Zero.
That’s not entirely true, to be honest. Our old refrigerator stopped working, was not repairable, and therefore being replaced under our appliance protection plan which costs us $60 a month.
How Our Appliance Protection Plan Works
Under the plan, repairs to the covered appliances have no cost. If an appliance cannot be repaired, it is replaced with a comparable new one. Another perspective is we’re paying each month towards future appliance repairs and replacement.
We didn’t get to pick any fridge we wanted. Our service provider estimated we could get a comparable fridge for $1200. Therefore, we could pick out a fridge worth $1200 or less. We could select one with a higher cost and pay the difference.
Did It Save Us Money?
Simple math reveals that at $60 a month, it would take 20 months of payments to the appliance protection plan to equal the replacement cost of our new refrigerator. However, there may be many months where we don’t have a need for a service call or replacement. To know if the plan really saves you money you’d have to keep track of the cost vs benefit over the life of the plan.
However, saving money isn’t really the point of the appliance protection plan for us. As mentioned, we look at it more like paying a little each month for future for service calls and new appliances. When you need to have a critical appliance serviced or replaced it’s already a major inconvenience without having to figure out how you’re going to pay for it.
Appliance protection plans may not be for everyone. If your appliances are nearing 10 years in age, the current average life expectancy, getting an appliance protection plan with replacement is something you may want to look into. In the last year we’ve replaced our air conditioner, water heater, and now refrigerator and the others are likely sure to follow. Having our appliance protection plan gives us peace of mind we won’t be caught in a budget pinch when they do.
How about you, EOD Nation, do you have an appliance protection plan?
We ditched ours. The number of exclusions kept growing and growing until it became clear to us that they’re covering themselves to that when an appliance wears out, they’re not paying for a new one. We just take the money that we were paying into the plan and use it to pay for either repairs or replacement to our appliances.