Home Warranty? - Saint Paul,MN

If you never buy a warranty for any product you will be ahead of the game in the long run. However, as you mention, people are not likely to have a chunk of money to pay for repairs. So it is a form of a forced savings plan, but the warranty company is making money because you pay in more than they pay out (over the long run). If you can force yourself to put aside the same amount of money into a 'home repairs' account, you can insure yourself.

I'm an insurance adjuster who has handled both home owners and warranty type claims. The warranty is designed, most of the time, to cover manufacturer defect. The majority of the claims we received were the result of normal wear and tear, which was not covered. Warranties have exclusions, just like insurance policies. Warranties are great for a year...this is when most manufactuter defects present themselves..but after that I find that the majority of losses are the result of over use/ weathering/ wear and tear etc. I would ask about the exclusions, however, usually the person selling it to you doesn't even know what they are. If they could provide you a copy of the warranty provisions/exclusions to read over before you decide, that would be the best information to help you decide. Oh, and read over the plan you currently have on your appliances... read the exclusion portion so you are aware of exactly what type of failure is covered. As I said before chances are, normal wear and tear is not one of them.

You won't think it's a bad deal when you need a new $7000 compressor.

We had 20/10 home warranty and were happy w/ them - but their prices got high so we switched to the Xcel program. I'll be switching back next year.

Pros of the Xcel - cheaper annual cost and no cost for visits to home

CONS of Xcel - they DON'T replace the appliance if they can't fix it... you have to pay an additional monthly fee and that gets you into their "Preferred Buying Program" which only gets you a few hundred dollars off the cost of a new appliance that their 'program' has negotiated a lower cost for. Total BS if you ask me.

My double ovens are 3K ... what the heck is $200 - $300 going to do for me? the other service was more expensive.... and you pay $75 to have them come out, but if they can't fix it they replace w/ the same kind of appliance. That to me is worth the extra money.

I know this question is a little old, but I read an article about who these sort of things are a good fit for. (http://www.startribune.com/who-s-a-good-fit-for-an-applia...) According to the article, those who have really high-end appliances or for those who live paycheck to paycheck are good candidates for this. I would just say make sure you're aware of all the terms and conditions beforehand and that's how you can make the right choice. (Here are HomeSmart's http://homesmartminnesota.com/terms-conditions)

We have had three home warranties. I consider them a waste of money. We have only had them because our real estate agent has put them into the contract and that is what the homeowners had to provide us with.
We have used it twice.
In one house for a broken window. Really my husband could have fixed it himself, but he was deployed.
THis last year they came out to fix our hot water heater. Had I not had the warranty I would have had water in about two days. As it was I had to go through the company and had to wait 17 days for hot water. It was a nightmare.

We moved into this house in JUne and I will not be renewing this policy.
WE have American Home Shield, they are nice but overpriced and not worth it. We had a General something or other in one house and they took two days to fix a window after a hurricane.

I would much rather find my own repair man and have whatever needs fixed yslef.
I do buy manufacture extended warranties on my appliances when I buy new ones and those cover more and actually are a better deal.

I agree with Robin M., if you have a big item such as an air conditioner (which mine has broken 3 times) then it is worth it. I also had my 4 year old refrigerator go out & it was covered. I was frustrated at how long it took to fix it, however I only paid $60 for about $400-500 worth of parts & labor. So there's good with the bad. And yes you do have to do yearly maintenance updates on your airconditioning unit at your expense, kind of like how you have to change the oil in your car. Shop around when you hire a company to do the service to get the best price. Some of the mom & pop places will bargain with you. I guess you have to weigh what is more important to you: paying less & waiting to get it fixed or paying an arm & a leg & getting it done quickly...

I have to diagree with Bobbi. We have American Home Shield and love them and have had them for seven years on two different houses. The cost of the policy goes up every year as do most insurance policies and the out of pocket cost for each service call has went from 45.00 to 65.00 in that time frame but that is all we pay for repair or replacement unless any code upgrades have to be made, we pay 100% of those. As for them making money sure they do most years we do not need to use them so we have given them 500.00 that they get to keep but on the years we have used them the cost of whatever they replaced has been more than 500.00 so they lost money on our account but probably made money on someone elses. They also cover more then just appliances, no limit on how old something is or a house is, they try to use local companies instead of big name ones, and have been really good to us. Research the different ones, look at your financial situation to see if you can set aside about 10,000.00 to cover potential repairs, and decide what is best for you. I could afford to buy a new hot water heater (20 years old), stove/oven (5 yo), swamp cooler (5 yo), and washing machine (6 yo) but I could afford the policy that paid for all of those things. Do you think car and home insurances are a scam or waste of time? This is just another form of insurance but no law says you have to have it.

Total rip-off. Just search the BBB and you will see the tons of complaints against these companies. In fact the company we had was involved in a class action law suit. We did have our air compressor go out soon after we bought our house. We live in Texas and it was in the middle of summer. The home warranty claimed we did not properly care for the unit by having it serviced regularly. We had only lived in the house for 2 months. They claimed it did not matter but they might help us out if we got service records from the previous oweners. We ended up turning in 2 service records from the previous owners but they came back and said they needed three. Total rip off.

we bought one for our new home. 2 broken pipes, a leaky shower, and a broken dishwasher later, we are thrilled to have had the warrenty! We are renewing ours for sure next month. :)

www.ahs.com