Any home repair warranty/insurance NOT a scam?

[swbsam]

Had to spend $200 on a gas heat issue last night and, as a new home owner, I don't like surprises. Home repair insurance services seem like a good idea, but I'm guessing most of these are scams.

Are their any out there that are not scams?

 

[SandEagle]

i have American Home Shield. they are awesome.

 

[swbsam]

Originally posted by: SandEagle
i have American Home Shield. they are awesome.

I'll google, but what repairs have you needed, what was covered, and what was the out of pocket expense each time? Thanks so much!

 

[K1052]

No and if this is a problem you should have stuck to renting.

Welcome to home ownership.

 

[dullard]

I had one for the first year when I bought my first house. The sellers provided it, but I realize in the end that just meant that I couldn't bargain the house price down as much, so I likely paid for it.

I was disappointed. Why? Three reasons:

1) The common annoying problems aren't covered. For me, that was a broken garage door spring. It is $200 to replace my type of spring ($100+ for parts alone). But, of course, garage door springs weren't covered.

2) There is a massive copay. For me, I think it was $60/trip a repair person came over (and the next year they wanted to raise it to $75 I think). For many minor repairs, that is the same as paying for it out of pocket. Think about minor pluming problems or electrical problems that take about 1 hour of repair person time. They'd likely only charge $75 as it was, so in effect the warranty paid for nothing. If it is a moderate repair requiring one trip to diagnose and another to fix, suddenly that is a $150 charge to you for a ~$200 repair. Sure, it was covered under the warranty, but you'd pay almost all of it anyways.

3) You are left with the major repairs that the math just doesn't justify. Sure, it will cover a bad furnace or replace a refrigerator. But, those things tend to last for 20+ years. You have maybe 5 major things to repair: furnace, heat pump (or AC compressor), water heater, refrigerator, and dish washer. If they last an average of 20 years, you'll need to replace one major item every 4 years on average. Fridges, water heaters, and dish washers are under $1000. Furnaces and heat pumps are roughly $2000. So, without a warranty, you'll have to expect to pay $1500 every four years and you get to choose what brand/model/energy efficiency to use when replacing them. The warranty itself: $2000 for four years and the company chooses the bottom of the line models to replace them. The math just didn't add up for me.

I don't recall my company as this was more than 5 years ago, but it sounded very much like the American Home Shield mentioned above.

True, you can win with any warranty. You could have the warranty for 1 month and suddenly everything in your home breaks. That would be a great win for you if you had the warranty. But for most people, I think they are money losers. Most people would be better off placing that ~$500/year warranty cost into a bank account and using that bank account to pay for the repairs themselves.

 

[jaha2000]

i have american home shield.
It has paid off but just depends. I had them replace a hot water heater as well as my outside compressor and a coil for my ac.
Total that has cost me was 120 bucks.
Plan costs about 30 dollars a month.

 

[jaha2000]

i have american home shield.
It has paid off but just depends. I had them replace a hot water heater as well as my outside compressor and a coil for my ac.
Total that has cost me was 120 bucks.
Plan costs about 30 dollars a month.


I consider myself pretty handy so for most minor things i do myself. But when the major stuff has happened i just call. For 30 bucks a month ill take the peace of mind.

 

[swbsam]

Originally posted by: dullard
I had one for the first year when I bought my first house. The sellers provided it, but I realize in the end that just meant that I couldn't bargain the house price down as much, so I likely paid for it.

I was disappointed. Why? Three reasons:

1) The common annoying problems aren't covered. For me, that was a broken garage door spring. It is $200 to replace my type of spring ($100+ for parts alone). But, of course, garage door springs weren't covered.

2) There is a massive copay. For me, I think it was $60/trip a repair person came over (and the next year they wanted to raise it to $75 I think). For many minor repairs, that is the same as paying for it out of pocket. Think about minor pluming problems or electrical problems that take about 1 hour of repair person time. They'd likely only charge $75 as it was, so in effect the warranty paid for nothing. If it is a moderate repair requiring one trip to diagnose and another to fix, suddenly that is a $150 charge to you for a ~$200 repair. Sure, it was covered under the warranty, but you'd pay almost all of it anyways.

3) You are left with the major repairs that the math just doesn't justify. Sure, it will cover a bad furnace or replace a refrigerator. But, those things tend to last for 20+ years. You have maybe 5 major things to repair: furnace, heat pump (or AC compressor), water heater, refrigerator, and dish washer. If they last an average of 20 years, you'll need to replace one major item every 4 years on average. Fridges, water heaters, and dish washers are under $1000. Furnaces and heat pumps are roughly $2000. So, without a warranty, you'll have to expect to pay $1500 every four years. The warranty itself: $2000 for four years. The math just didn't add up for me.

I don't recall my company as this was more than 5 years ago, but it sounded very much like the American Home Shield mentioned above.

True, you can win with any warranty. You could have the warranty for 1 month and suddenly everything in your home breaks. That would be a great win for you if you had the warranty. But for most people, I think they are money losers.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Turns out the biggest guy in this industry, AHS, is not available in NYC. I requested a quote anyways (for a different zip) and I would have to pay $805/yr. At that price it's very hard to justify, especially since the co-pay is now $90 a visit.

I just have to buck up and find a good handyman that's not going to rip me off. Yesterday's 20 minute visit from the HVAC guy cost me the equivalent of a nintendo Wii, and all he did was flip a lever... Argh! I hate being ignorant of this stuff, but I've always lived in apartments.

 

[brtspears2]

I hate home warranties. I had one through Old Republic. New dishwasher got a leak and a guy came out to look at it. He said "It is not covered, this is due to lack of maintenance!"

Lucky for me it was still under warranty with GE.

 

[trmiv]

We had pretty good luck with American Home Shield when we bought our house. The seller paid for it, and we definitely used it. The hot water heater stopped working after about six months, and was not repairable, so it was replaced with a brand new unit. It only cost us the cost of the service call, $55. We also had the blower motor on our heat pump replaced for the cost of the service call, $55. I know not everyone has a great experience with AHS and some complain they can be hard to get to process claims, but for us it was great. That said, when the time came to renew, we didn't. It was great for free, but I didn't want to pay for it myself.

 

[jlee]

Originally posted by: swbsam

Originally posted by: dullard
I had one for the first year when I bought my first house. The sellers provided it, but I realize in the end that just meant that I couldn't bargain the house price down as much, so I likely paid for it.

I was disappointed. Why? Three reasons:

1) The common annoying problems aren't covered. For me, that was a broken garage door spring. It is $200 to replace my type of spring ($100+ for parts alone). But, of course, garage door springs weren't covered.

2) There is a massive copay. For me, I think it was $60/trip a repair person came over (and the next year they wanted to raise it to $75 I think). For many minor repairs, that is the same as paying for it out of pocket. Think about minor pluming problems or electrical problems that take about 1 hour of repair person time. They'd likely only charge $75 as it was, so in effect the warranty paid for nothing. If it is a moderate repair requiring one trip to diagnose and another to fix, suddenly that is a $150 charge to you for a ~$200 repair. Sure, it was covered under the warranty, but you'd pay almost all of it anyways.

3) You are left with the major repairs that the math just doesn't justify. Sure, it will cover a bad furnace or replace a refrigerator. But, those things tend to last for 20+ years. You have maybe 5 major things to repair: furnace, heat pump (or AC compressor), water heater, refrigerator, and dish washer. If they last an average of 20 years, you'll need to replace one major item every 4 years on average. Fridges, water heaters, and dish washers are under $1000. Furnaces and heat pumps are roughly $2000. So, without a warranty, you'll have to expect to pay $1500 every four years. The warranty itself: $2000 for four years. The math just didn't add up for me.

I don't recall my company as this was more than 5 years ago, but it sounded very much like the American Home Shield mentioned above.

True, you can win with any warranty. You could have the warranty for 1 month and suddenly everything in your home breaks. That would be a great win for you if you had the warranty. But for most people, I think they are money losers.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Turns out the biggest guy in this industry, AHS, is not available in NYC. I requested a quote anyways (for a different zip) and I would have to pay $805/yr. At that price it's very hard to justify, especially since the co-pay is now $90 a visit.

I just have to buck up and find a good handyman that's not going to rip me off. Yesterday's 20 minute visit from the HVAC guy cost me the equivalent of a nintendo Wii, and all he did was flip a lever... Argh! I hate being ignorant of this stuff, but I've always lived in apartments.

There are some HVAC people on ATOT, btw.

 

[Abe Froman]

Who do you all use for your home warranty?

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: swbsam
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Turns out the biggest guy in this industry, AHS, is not available in NYC. I requested a quote anyways (for a different zip) and I would have to pay $805/yr. At that price it's very hard to justify, especially since the co-pay is now $90 a visit.

I just have to buck up and find a good handyman that's not going to rip me off. Yesterday's 20 minute visit from the HVAC guy cost me the equivalent of a nintendo Wii, and all he did was flip a lever... Argh! I hate being ignorant of this stuff, but I've always lived in apartments.

The little lever on the side of a small metal box inside the furnace... the box is about 1 inch thick, 2 1/2 - 3" wide, 5" tall? That's the reset switch I was talking about in your other thread.

Next time, listen! I wish you had posted pictures of the inside of your furnace. Oh well, too late now.

The insurance wouldn't be worth it to me - all I'd ever have to pay for is parts. The annual cost exceeds the price of just about everything they replace, unless they replace it with top of the line stuff (which they don't, from what I understand.) example: a natural gas forced air furnace is only about $700ish, plus a couple hours labor.

 

[SandEagle]

Originally posted by: swbsam

Originally posted by: SandEagle
i have American Home Shield. they are awesome.

I'll google, but what repairs have you needed, what was covered, and what was the out of pocket expense each time? Thanks so much!

they charge $40/month. Every service call is $50 or $60 per repair item. If it breaks again within 30 days, they'll come back free of charge. If they can't fix the item, they replace it. Last summer my heat pump stopped working and they replaced it. The unit itself is over $1000. Got plumbing work done, HVAC, electric stove fixes, etc.

Covered items include all kitchen appliances, washer/dryer, plumbing, and I think electrical. Usually most of the service providers are pretty good, but I ran into a few bad ones. Good customer service overall.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

We have been with, http://www.2-10.com/ for 3 years now, and are very, VERY happy we are! In the old days, stuff lasted forever, but now days, not so much. GE charged us $186 service call to repair their brand new microwave, STILL under warranty. It has since needed repairs twice. Our brand new GE stove had to be repaired 3 times, thank goodness the first time was before we even moved in. Our brand new GE refrigerator had to be repaired only once, and our brand new water heater had to be replaced. Without the home warranty these repairs would have been a lot more than the $50 a pop that we paid. Also, the contractors know that if they don't get it right on the first visit, future visits comes out of their pocket, and if there are customer complaints, the warranty company could end their contract. I saw them do this to a contractor in northern Va. who wasn't returning calls, and not showing up on time.
With anything, "buyer beware" http://www.homewarrantyreviews.com/reviews