Nope!

I think it depends on what the warranty is for and how much it costs.

For the laundry appliances I want to buy, their warranty is for 5 years, is transferable (even though I will not leave the appliances with the house when we move), and if we DON'T have to use them in 5 years, they let us use the amount we paid for the warranty towards another purchase at this retailer....I think that's smart money.

I don't normally buy them on little items like computers, etc. (I replace my computer every year anyway). I didn't buy one for my refridgerator--sort of wish I had, but the warranty would have only covered for 2 years--we had a manufacturers warranty for a year and because I paid with my Mastercard, we automatically get warranty coverage for double the manufacturers warranty--so it would have been a waste of $$---but we are having major ref. problems and with the optional warranty--they had a no-lemon part--and that would have been nice to have.

Normally I don't buy them, but when they include things like filters, routine servicing, etc. or in the case of my appliances--a refund if I don't use it....it's a no brainer.

We've never bought a warranty on anything other than my car (which I regret now, but it made sense at the time since I had a 120 mile/day commute). Most of the warranties on household goods are either too expensive to be logical, or not long enough to really cover anything. We do research things before we buy, and avoid brands that have had reliability problems in the past, though. That, plus keeping up on regular maintenence, helps things last longer.

Of course, we've had good luck with electronics and appliances so far. Most of the appliances in our place are 15+ years old. We did replace the washer & dryer after the washer died last year, and the fridge when it started to go, but all three were well over 10 years old. The other electronics are also sturdy (don't ask how old the TV is) and going strong. The only thing we had problems with was a scanner that died, but it cost less than $100 new and was replaced with a $70 all-in-one, so paying half that or more for a warranty wouldn't have made sense.

I'm going to replace the digital camera I dropped, but after 4 years, I doubt a warranty would have still been in effect, and it probably wouldn't have covered my negligence. I'm probably going to buy a refurbished camera from the manufacturer, and since they only have a 90-day warranty on refurbs, I'll make sure to use it a lot in the first months and test all the features to make sure everything works.

Plus, most extended warranties are from third parties, not the manufacturer, so who knows what kind of runaround you'll get when you try to use the warranty (if the company's even still in business)? Warranties for everything in the ouse are a different story, and I'm not familiar enough with them to judge.

I am also torn on this one. I did just buy a new washer and dryer and got the warrenty. It was super expensive, but when it was all said and done the warrenty turned out to be free. The man gave me one of my pedestals for free since I bought the warrenty (paid for warrenty on the dryer). I got 15% back on my purchase(Paid for the warrenty on the washer) The only reason I did this is they will come out and service and clean once a year. I have it on my calender. Also my Mom just got a new refrigerator because hers was a lemon after 8 years of fixing problems and 12 new ice makers. She got the full price she paid toward a brand new one no questions asked. That is pretty cool. We did the warrenty through Sears and have never had any problems.

I read somewhere that appliance sellers (Best Buy, Circuit City, Sears, etc.) actually make more profit on warranties than they do on the underlying products. This means that, statistically, a lot fewer products break than are insured (a warranty is purchased). The odds are very much in your favor that over time you will save money if you do not buy warranties. Therefore, we never buy the warranties.

I always do for consumer electronics and have lived to regret it when we haven't. We've replaced four dvd players, two computer monitors, a couple of phones, and had our 7 year old dryer repaired twice using extended warranties. I don't know if we just have terrible luck, or if things are just poorly made these days.

Either you've had bad luck, or we've had pretty good luck. Most everything we have is still going strong. The DVD player is 5+ years, TV is probably 10+, there's a stove & dishwasher that are heading for 20. Never had a problem with phones or most PC stuff - I was running an ooooold PC with Windows 98 until last sprint. Our washer died at around 15, ditto for the fridge, and the HP flatbed scanner flaked out around 5 (might have been able to fix it, but we got a new printer/scanner/copier after Thanksgiving cheap).

My digital camera lasted 4 years, and it would have gone longer if I hadn't managed to drop it. It actually still works, but has intermittent problems; the price quote I got for trying to fix it was about half of what I spent on a replacement. The extended warranty from the manufacturer is only 2 years, plus the original one-year, so it wouldn't have been covered anyway (even if they covered owner clumsiness).

My mom does have a hard time with phones (not cell phones), but they live in an odd area that has a lot of lightning strikes and power surges. Her cordless phones seem to attract problems, and even with a surge protector they seem to last about a year before they get fried.

We did buy the extended warranty on our new fridge, but it was only $59.99 for an extra 2 yrs, vs Sears who charges $279.00 for the exact same fridge. (yet another reason we went to Home Depot VS Sears).