Repair your smashed iPhone for less with Zagg’s new insurance plan

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Repair your smashed iPhone for less with a Zagg Protect insurance plan
If your iPhone has its worst day ever, you’ll be happy if you have a Zagg Protect insurance plan.
Photo: Zagg

Zagg Protect is a new insurance plan for iPhones, covering drops, liquid damage, cracked screens and more.

The new service is going into competition with AppleCare+. Unlike the Apple version, Zagg Protect can be added to older phones.

Zagg Protect covers new and old smartphones

Zagg Protect is available for most functional smartphones currently in use — new or used. It’s open to any iPhone running iOS 11 or newer. And many Androids, too.

The insurance plan covers the usual damage from dropping the device, but also dead batteries not resulting from too many years of use, power failures, touchscreen failures, non-functional cameras, bad ports, speaker problems and more.

The user must get the device fixed at an authorized repair location, pay for it, then request a reimbursement from Zagg.

Zagg Protect is $99 a year. There’s a $49 deductible for each repair. For comparison, Apple charges $329 for replacing an iPhone 13 Pro Max broken display without insurance.

More details on the new insurance plan are available on the Zagg website.

Vs. AppleCare+

The 500-pound gorilla of iPhone insurance plans is Apple’s own AppleCare+. The cost for this varies by device. As one example, the iPhone 13 is $149 for two years of insurance, plus $29 for repairing the display each time.

But a primary difference between AppleCare+ and Zagg Protect is availability. Apple will only start insurance plans for new devices. They must be purchased within 60 of the buying the iPhone. Though Apple has reportedly begun exploring extending the purchase window under certain circumstances.

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