I have moved often and used warranties from a few different companies. In my experience, they don't exactly depreciate the appliances but the replacements they offer often have the bare minimum features.

They often offer you money instead of replacing. Unfortunately, it is their discount amount so you will have to chip in your own money to actually be able to purchase and install your own choice.

In general, home warranty companies don't have good reputations. They send out their own repair people. Some are good, some are terrible. The repair people are paid discounted amounts so you will not be a priority customer.

Warranty companies are in the business to make money. Online reps are trained to pressure customers to make quick decisions about repairs, replacements, settlements, etc.

If you have an old heating or air system that is on it's way out, a home warranty might be worth it. If you are worried about a stove or a fridge, the amount of the premium plus the service call fees will probably be fairly close to cost of replacing the item on your own.. Plus, you have the hassle of dealing with the warranty people and repairman.

Here is a link that might be useful: Home Warranties

This post was edited by deee on Sun, Nov 2, 14 at 11:05

My various family members have had American Home Shield for many years. My daughter had bought, as I did, an LG fridge almost 9 years ago, during the debacle of the burning lights and fridge fires. After her 2 year old fridge caught on fire and was replaced with another newer model by LG, her now new LG needed repair after a year. This fridge was no longer covered by an lg warranty, so AHS sent a repair person. BTW, the repair people are through regular service companies, not their "own" repair people.

Making a long story short, after several replacement control panels were sent and were wrong, or didn't fit, AHS directly got involved again to determine where the issue lay, and found that the correct control panel was no longer available for a 1 year old fridge! So AHS made my daughter an offer....either she could have one of the Whirlpool fridges they offered or she could get cash. She chose cash...just about what she had paid for the first LG 3 years earlier, and then added money to buy a larger GE which she has been happy with for several years.

We have had multiple air conditioner and heating system repairs over the years which have saved us many more bucks.

Some years we don't use it, but the years we do have really been worth it.