Are the home warranty protection plans worth buying?
Average household spending on home improvements and maintenance costs are in the range of thousands of dollars every year. In many instances maintenance costs exceed the rate of home appreciation value when you include major upgrades. Equipments and appliances typically need repair and replacement services as they age. You can either spend money on repairs or can invest in an alternative form of insurance – called home warranty protection. You can buy home warranty coverage to insure repair and replacement costs.
Home warranties are supposed to provide an insurance hedge against major home appliances such as HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) units, plumbing systems, refrigerators etc.
Some positive and negative experiences with home warranty
Related posts:
I have been fortunate to not have had to use my AHS warranty much. On the occassions that I have, I have scheduled online and had a service techinician call within 24 hours and generally out within a day or two. My only complaint is when my ac had to be replaced we upgraded it to a larger unit and AHS cash out option paid less than the cost to replace with the same size unit.
I also went online and quoted a neighbors property (which is the exact same as mine) and they could get all of the appliances covered (including washer/dryer/refrig which were listed as additional appliances) for about $30 more than my policy and my policy said it would cost $144 to add these three appliances. I am currently shopping for another company and/or dropping coverage.
By T. Martin, Tucson, AZ