What's Visible Protect and should I get it when signing up for service?

Best answer: It depends on how expensive your phone is or if you're prone to accidents. Visible Protect offers device replacements and repairs for a discounted rate on devices purchased directly from Visible. Rates range from $10-12 per month depending on the device.

• Forget about the gigs on your phone: Visible ($40/mo. at Visible)
• Don't panic: Visible Protect ($10-12/mo. at Visible)

Your phone is probably quite expensive

Many phones today are worth several hundred dollars and many customers pay for them a little bit at a time as part of a lease. Make no mistake, if you lose that device or it gets destroyed, you're still on the hook for the full value of the phone unless you have an insurance program like Visible Protect provided by Assurant.

If you lease a phone from any carrier and it gets stolen, not only will the carrier not provide you with another one for free, but it'll expect you to keep paying for the device until you've paid the full amount. This is the situation Visible Protect was designed to help with. Visible Protect will replace your lost, stolen, or destroyed phone as long as you are a member and you pay the deductible.

Visible Protect also offers discounted repairs for broken displays and other accidental damage. The rates you'll pay depend on the device you choose. Usually, newer, more valuable devices will cost more to cover and replace.

Pricing

The price for Visible Protect is $10-12 per month depending on which tier the phone is in. This tier will also affect the replacement cost for lost or stolen devices. There are a lot of conditions attached including a limit to how many claims you can make but this will vary by device and is really worth checking out before you sign up. Most of the time it will be a maximum of two claims per year or $2,000.

You can visit Visible Protect's claims website for the most up to date information about phone tiers as new phones become available.

The iPhone advantage

You may have noticed that the prices are a bit lower for some services on iPhone. This is down to ACS, or AppleCare Services. With Visible Protect, you'll get AppleCare coverage which bring screen repairs down to $29 and full replacements to $99. It does not however help with the cost of theft or lost phones.

Replacement for lost and stolen devices is one big reason to get Visible Protect over standard AppleCare.

Android phones are much simpler with no additional partnerships for their coverage. Even so, $99 for a replaced display on a modern Android phone is still a very nice deal considering how advanced modern screens are. Keep in mind, modern displays are often waterproof, made of special glass, pressure sensitive, and some even have fingerprint scanners built right in.

Is it worth the money?

It really depends on how you use your phone. Accidents can happen to anyone and considering how much it costs to replace a high end phone, it can be a great value and really pay for itself the first time your phone falls to the bottom of a lake or gets crushed under a truck tire.

Some technically skilled people will be able to replace components themselves, but without trusted supply of parts, it can be hard to know if you are getting the real deal.

It's also worth remembering that some phone makers like Samsung and Apple offer their own coverage which might work better for you. You should also remember that a malfunctioning phone may be covered by a warranty through the manuafacturer.

If your phone is a lower-end device or a few years old, it may honestly be cheaper to simply purchase a new one than paying the full replacement or repair cost. This is why it can be a good idea to subscribe to insurance for the first year or two and then cancel it as the phone itself become less valuable.