It’s generally accepted that extended warranties, home warranties, etc are generally not good deals if you can handle a shock expense with your savings/income. To stay in business, these companies have to come out ahead so the odds are against you that it will pay off. However, there are some cases where you may want to take the gamble such as nearing end of life on several expensive systems or appliances.
With that said, what have members found to be some of the best options for home appliance & systems warranties? Or, is there an alternate strategy other than complete self-insurance?
I received a mailer from TotalProtect (response letter goes to Home Service Plan Protection in Fort Lauderdale, FL) advertising $48/month for both home systems & appliances, $38/month just for systems, and $20/month just for appliances. $100 service fee. I have to send it in to get the full agreement to look for gotchas, but those were the highlights in this mailer. This is supposedly a promo for Pentagon Federal Credit Union members which many of us from FWF were.
The mailer has a lot of red flags like scare tactics, and suggesting they’ll replace your systems when likely they will just keep trying to repair/patch. One major appliance or system if really replaced would pay for several years of this protection - so I’m sure that is very rare.
I’ve got a link to FWF thread (FatWallet - Thank you!), so if an archive is ever up, it might be a good source of info.
It is frequently recommended for rentals (example) if you’re not handy or not local. I read recommendations both ways for homeowners. IIRC, @SIS has some experience with this subject and maintains home warranties for his rentals. I get home warranty for 1 year when I buy a property (customary in CA for seller to pay for it) and I got full value out of the 1st one (which I did not renew) and about half the value (so far) out of the 2nd one (which I may renew). Plumbing issues in both cases.
Hey there, so I have a bit (well, more than a bit) of experience here. I have 4 policies on 4 of my rental properties.
I’ve had the policies in force between 1 and 5 years (based on when I purchased the rentals).
My tenants or I have filed probably 30 claims across the 4 policies.
2 of the claims were rejected, due to problems being caused by listed exclusions on the policies.
3 of the claims were not paid, because the tech could not identify the problem the tenants allegedly stated they had. (so I had to pay a service fee for nothing, and not worth it to charge the tenants given they’ve been paying on time and good tenants)
The remainder of the claims:
No air conditioning or no heat, where they refilled the refrigerant, replaced circuitry, replaced blower motors, and last year they replaced an entire 4 ton combined heat/AC gas package unit at my cost being the deductible and permitting fees.
Two hot water heaters fully replaced, with the cost being the deductible.
Multiple plumbing stoppages, fully corrected, minus the deductible.
An oven and a microwave repaired, and a different oven and microwave replaced, with a payment to me being approx. $400 each to purchase replacements (minus the deductible). (the ones I had were bought for approx $300 each) Then purchased new ones at Lowe’s.
I’ve had dishwashers repaired, washing machines repaired, dryers repaired, minus the deductibles.
Multiple other minor things from water issues, to garage opener issues, to lights not working, to electrical issues.
I’ve had emergency service where the tech had to come out on 24 hours notice due to the issue being an emergency.
I’ve had to have techs recalled a couple of times, due to issues with the first repair, and I was not charged a deductible.
I have NEVER had a claim rejected due to lack of maintenance or negligence.
First American.
I pay approx $500/yr per property, and I’d say if I combine how many years I’ve had the policies (different for each property) times the number of properties plus the deductibles I’ve paid, I’d guess I’ve paid $6k for the policies and around $2k for the trade call (deductible) fees. $8k in total.
Just for the HVAC repairs alone, I’d say realistically I’d have paid out $8-10K without the warranties. Forgetting about the rest of it (like hot water heaters), and the unbelievable time savings in getting contractors assigned and the tenants dealing with it without me.
And I say this at a time where First American is replacing a reversing valve in a HVAC unit (on a new rental) for $75, where the contractor told me his normal fee would be $902.
Absolutely a worthwhile expense, in my case, and honestly - First American has been reasonable.
I just got a mailer for them, was wondering if this is some Google data-selling arrangement to see I was asking about them - strange timing. They say only $60 per service call, and were offering a month free and save $50, was that the same as yours?
I received a call from them when I did a price quote online and they reduced the service call to 45 and online quote was 550 reduced it to 375…kind of too good to be true…
I have had a home warranty on my condo for 4 years through American Home Warranty services. In that time I’ve had the following issues:
3 HVAC issues ranging from low-refrigerant to requiring a new blower motor. AHS pays only $10/lb for refrigerant when the company they hire charges $40/lb. They are the only company that can service my unit since it is a high-rise and you have to be specially insured to work on the roof of a high-rise. The blower motor has been replaced at AHS cost 2x.
1 electrical service call for $50 to replace a defective wall sconce. I just didn’t want to be bothered to do it myself.
1 malfunctioning ice maker on a refrigerator.
If it were not for the HVAC blower this policy would not have been cost effective for me.
@ alchemista you might wanna stay away from choice home warranty .after purchasing the policy for one yr n reading the reviews and the contract which has more exclusions than inclusions I decide to cancel.
Strange thing was the agent was willing to add An addendum to the contract to remove any exclusions you don’t like in the contract.