AppleCare+ monthly payments rolling out in Canada, Australia and Japan

Apple fans in Canada, Australia and Japan now have the option to pay for extended ‌AppleCare‌+ warranty coverage for their iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch devices on a monthly basis, should they choose to do so, rather than pay upfront for the entire period with a discount.

AppleCare+ monthly payments

This was confirmed yesterday in an AppleCare+ support document confirming that the payment option is now being rolled out in the aforementioned countries:

In the United States, Australia, Canada and Japan, when you purchase AppleCare+ coverage for your iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch, you can choose to pay monthly or pay upfront for 24 months of coverage. (For Apple Watch Edition and Hermes, you can pay upfront for 36 months.) If you paid upfront, you can go to mysupport.apple.com to continue coverage on a monthly basis after the 24 or 36 months is over.

The monthly payment option is unavailable when getting AppleCare+ for devices like the Apple TV, AirPods, HomePod and other accessories. According to MacRumors, customers in Canada, Australia and Japan should now be able to pick AppleCare+ monthly payment options on the online Apple store when checking out after new device purchases.

AppleCare+ subscription model

The monthly payment option was added to AppleCare+ in September 2018 along with a new theft-and-loss protection plan. In September 2019, AppleCare+ switched to the subscription model and now appears as a regular subscription service in your Apple ID account info.

Here’s how it works, as per the Plan Term and Renewal section of the AppleCare+ agreement:

For Monthly Plans, your Plan Term is one (1) month. Your Plan will automatically renew each month unless cancelled as set forth in the ‘Cancellation’ Section 9 below, including in the event that Apple is no longer able to service your Covered Equipment due to the unavailability of service parts, in which case Apple will provide you with thirty (30) days’ prior written notice of cancellation or as otherwise required by law.

In other words, the subscription model permits customers to optionally continue their month-to-month AppleCare+ coverage as long as they’d like, or until cancelled.

Do you use AppleCare protection?

Both the regular AppleCare+ plan and its AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss variant extend your standard 1-year Apple warranty to up to three years with accidental damage coverage. You get drastically reduced service pricing for things like smashed device screens, broken logic boards and so forth (you get two such incidents during the duration of your AppleCare+ protection).

While a simple math may discourage you from signing up for AppleCare+, this is your device protection in case a catastrophe happen — that’s how your health or car insurance works, too.

Do you use AppleCare+?

Let us know in the comments down below!