Early this year, I unintentionally put my cellphone in the washing machine. Needless to say, the thing became useless. But since I was paying an insurance that was supposed to cover such accidents, I went to my carrier confident that it will be ok.

After explaining that my phone stopped working because I got caught under heavy rain (Insurance does not cover washing machine hazards :). I was told that the cellphone will be repaired BUT I will have to pay fees. According to what they said, the insurance does not cover 100% of the repair cost, just a portion of it. Furthermore, the battery is not covered by the insurance. So finally I ended up paying around 100USD!! to get my phone working again.

I was so annoyed by this experience that I actually removed the insurance from my contract. I used to pay 5USD insurance per month.

A couple of month later, another unhappy event involving my cellphone occurred. I went to my carrier to get a new one. This time I had no insurance, so I was expecting a much heftier bill. To my surprise, the new cellphone actually costed much less. I know it makes no sense but this is what happened. When I explained the situation to the agent, she checked my plan and noticed that I don't have insurance. I let her know that I am not ready to pay for a new one, I explained that I needed to know whether I can renew my contract for two more years and get a device for free (In Japan every two years, you can get a cellphone for free if you renew your contract for two more years). My contract at the time was one year old. So I was thinking that my request will be denied. The agent went to talk to her superior for 10 minutes, then at my surprise, the agent agreed to give me a new cellphone for just 50USD if I renew my contract for 2 years.

There you go, the new cellphone costed less without an insurance. It made my day and I learned not to pay for insurance blindly. I limited my plan to the strict minimum, no MMS, no insurance, no weather forecast service no crappy features that I never need. I ended up paying 10USD/month for limitless communication with my girlfriend. Moral of the story, know what you are paying for. If you really need an insurance, make sure to read the fine prints.

Labels: finance