Cell phone insurance/protection plans?

I've just recently upgraded my wife and I to the LG G3 and during this process, Best Buy has updated their warranty to no longer have free accidental coverage. It's now $150 if the phone has been dropped or has other physical damage. This made it the same as Sprint.

So I started to look into other options for insurance and have yet to come nay closer to finding a good deal with the service.

Some of the options:

SquareTrade
Sprint
Best Buy
Mobile Rhino

What do you use and why?

I don't use anything, its all a scam now days. Like you said if you need to use it you have to fork over $150 on top of what you already paid. Most likely what ever is wrong you could get it fixed for that price. Out of the 4 smart phones I have only cracked one screen, its $100 to get it repaired. I saved all the money on insurance and its cheaper to fix it not through insurance.

The only downside is loss, you have to pony up for a new phone and usually insurance will cover that. Though I have lost 0 phones.

Only insurance I would ever get is something like apple care, pay once, lasts for two years, and its a reasonable fee ($79 for phones) to get it fixed. Everything else is way to expensive from what I have seen. The squaretrade seems ok, still probably wouldn't get it as I'm not rough on my phones.

If you break or lose your phone once a year then insurance is probably for you, if not then you'll probably save more by not getting it.

Funny you mention Best Buy. I went to start a claim on my HTC One M8 because I cracked the screen. I was told there would be a $149 deductible. I declined. I'd like to know when this change went into effect. Pisses me off.

I don't remember when it changed, however I do know that some phones are grandfathered in before that change. Our S4 that's left on our account can be swapped out without any questions. So you might want to re-inquire.

Irrelevant with iPhones since you can walk into an Apple store and get a replacement no problem.

Further, in the case of theft/loss you can claim it on your renters/homeowners insurance.

I had Assurion with Sprint for a while. At first it started off at $50 a deductable, then up to $100, and last time I had to do a claim on my S4 it was $150! That's on top of the $11 a month I pay also.

I'm leaning towards squaretrade at this time.