Applecare v. Amex or Applecare + Amex?

Hi K J,

I read a lot of misinformation on the forums on this topic, and when I see any I just hop on and set folks straight.

Let me happily assure you that in my experience AMEX is the only smart way to buy a Mac, especially providing you buy Applecare. For years I had all our employees buy their systems through their AMEX accounts for this reason, been doing this since around 2001.

Simply put:

1) Buying a Mac without Applecare with AMEX is 1 year Apple warranty, second year AMEX reimburses all repairs in full.

2) Buy a Mac with Applecare with AMEX is 3 years Apple warranty, FOURTH year AMEX reimburses repairs in full.

It requires that you produce all original receipts with your AMEX warranty claim as well as repair quote, and that you have an active AMEX membership at the time of the warranty claim.

Caveats are no single purchases over $10K and total purchases cannot exceed $50K for the year (per AMEX account), and a 5 year warranty is maximum (including AMEX extension). AMEX can also choose to replace rather than repair your item with a current equivalent.

In my direct experience, AMEX claims processing for our Macs has been immediate, and at least for me been a cash reimbursement for the repair charge on the AMEX card. Since 2001 as a company I have probably seen 50 or so AMEX claims, and all have been handled without issue.

This AMEX deal works for anything, like if you buy a plasma TV with a 3 year extended warranty, AMEX reimburses repairs for year 4.

Also for the first 90 days AMEX also would cover for accidental damage or theft up to $1K per item, not to exceed $50K for the year.

As far as I know, no other card offers this broad and excellent coverage. I encourage you to call AMEX and verify what I have said before your purchase, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Hope this helps,

KJ Doyle

Applecare Protection Plan is an extended service contract. Here is a direct quote Amex makes about service "Plans":

From: https://web.aexp-static.com/us/content/pdf/card-benefits/TrueEarningsCardfromCos tcoandAmericanExpress/EW-DOC-CCSG.pdf

The original Apple warranty is one year.

Amex would add one year to extend that to two years, any phone support after the first year would cost you.

AppleCare adds TWO years to extend the warranty and phone support to three years.

Double coverage from AppleCare and AMEX would basically mean nothing unless AMEX would cover damage that AppleCare wouldn't. I always recommend buying AppleCare.

Not being familiar with AMEX, I highly recommend you get AppleCare this will give you the Original 1 year Apple Warrantee and the AppleCare gives you an additional 2 years giving you a total of 3 years.

So unless AMEX will kick in after the AppleCare it would, in my opinion be a waste of money.

Not to mention, that unless AMEX offers something over and above AppleCare it just doesn't make since.

Cheers

Don

'a waste of money'? Let me clarify something. OP was talking about Amex's Extended Warranty (EW), which does not charge extra money from card holders. As long as OP uses Amex card to buy Apple product, he is covered by EW, no matter whether OP purchases AC.

Actually I don't think the OP asked a good question. AC is something OP needs to purchase to have, while EW is something that comes with credit card by default. He was trying to compare an apple (the fruit) to an orange.

I saw a lot of posts comparing Amex's EW with other credit cards' extended warranties. This makes sense, because one has to make a decision which card to use to buy an Apple product. But comparing Amex's EW with AC doesn't make any sense to me, and leading you to make the wrong conclusion that buying AC is better than 'buying' EW. The bottom line is, by purchasing Apple products using an Amex card, one will not lose anything, irrelevant to whether purchasing AC.

For more details, you can take a look at KJ Doyle's post above.

HTH