(TechRax)
As
you pick the shattered remnant of your life from the pavement — that
is, the smartphone you just dropped — your mind races. You didn’t have
insurance on your handset. You can’t afford to spend $800 on a new one.
How will you check your work email? Who will send your friends Snapchats
at 2 a.m.? How will you play Crossy Road?
But take a deep breath and know that this can be fixed. You have options. Life will go on. Here are some of the things you can try if you break your phone.
Try repairing it yourself
Smartphones
are held together with screws and pins, which means in many cases, if
you’re handy enough, you can easily fix them. In fact, there are entire
websites dedicated to helping you repair your own phone.
(ABC)
One site in particular, ifixit.com,
offers guides for replacing and fixing nearly every part of a wide
variety of smartphones, ranging from the very first iPhone all the way
to the iPhone 6 Plus.
It’s
important to know, however, that as soon as you crack the seal on your
phone and start tinkering with its insides, you’ll void its
manufacturer’s warranty. So you’ll want to make sure your phone doesn’t
have some kind of manufacturer’s defect that you can get repaired before
you open it yourself.
Bring it to a repair shop
Smartphone
repair shops and kiosks are all over the place these days. So why not
see if one of these stores can fix your busted handset?
Depending
on the damage to your phone, the price for repairs can range anywhere
from $29 to more than $250. If you break the screen on your Samsung
Galaxy Note 4, for example, you could end up paying $190. If you need to
replace the LCD underneath the phone’s screen, it’ll cost you $250.
National chains, including Best Buy, also offer repair services for smartphones.
Take your iPhone to Apple
If you’ve got an iPhone, you’ve got an advantage over your Android-loving brethren: the Apple Store.
If
you break your iPhone 6’s or iPhone 6 Plus’s screen and don’t have
Apple’s Apple Care service, you can still get it repaired at the Apple
Store. Max prices for replacing a broken screen: $109 for an iPhone 6 or
$129 for a 6 Plus.
Try selling your busted phone
So
your phone is busted, and you don’t want to spend the money to get it
fixed. Why not try selling it? Even if your smartphone has a smashed
screen, busted buttons, or cracked chassis, you can still sell it to any
number of services willing to pay for broken handsets.
How
much you get for your damaged phone depends on the model and what kind
of issues it has. Gazelle, for example, will pay you $40 for a 16 GB
iPhone 5s with a broken display, while Glyde will pay you $142 for an
iPhone 6 with a cracked screen.
EcoATM
kiosks, which are available at malls across the country, will pay
between $10 and $100 for a Galaxy S5 depending on its condition.
The
point is, there are plenty of places that are more than willing to pay
for your beat-up smartphone. And if they don’t want your phone and you
want to make sure that it’s at least recycled, they’ll do that too.
Buy a refurbished phone
So
you’ve sold your broken smartphone and now you’ve got some extra
spending cash, but it’s still nowhere near enough to cover the full cost
of a new smartphone, which can run more than $600. What can you do?
Well,
if preowned phones don’t bother you, you can buy a refurbished handset
from any number of carriers or stores at a modest discount.
Verizon,
for example, sells a refurbished Samsung Galaxy S5 for $420. A new S5,
meanwhile, would cost you $500. Similarly, a refurbished 16 GB iPhone 6
for AT&T costs $570 on Amazon, compared with a new iPhone 6, which
costs $700.
If
you do buy a refurbished phone, though, you’ll have to make sure it
works on your provider’s network. So if you broke a Galaxy S6 for
Sprint, you’ll want to get a phone that runs on Sprint’s network.
Get insurance next time
You broke your phone, and now you’re cursing yourself for having skimped on insurance way back when. Hindsight is indeed 20/20.
So
what kind of insurance should you buy when you inevitably get your next
handset? If you’re going for an iPhone, your best bet is to purchase
AppleCare+.
Sure,
it costs $99, but it will cover at least two instances of damage to
your iPhone. And though you’ll have to pay an additional $79 fee
whenever your phone is serviced, it beats having to fork over $600 for a
completely new phone.
You
could also opt for insurance through your carrier. Verizon sells
insurance for $11 per month, but you’ll have to pay a hefty deductible —
up to $150 for a smartphone and up to $200 for an iPhone — for each
incident. Fortunately, Verizon will cover up to four incidents over the
course of two years.
T-Mobile
charges $8 per month for its Premium Handset Protection plan, which
also requires a deductible of between $20 and $75 for each incident,
depending on the type of phone you have, plus a $5 processing fee.
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