My misuse of Apple Care+ for my iPhone

iPhone 15 pro is the first apple device that I subscribe Apple Care+ for, having thought that I could get a free battery replacement after two years (September 2025).

That’s my only goal of subscribing, and keeping Apple Care+ for two years and four months, spending $13.49 + taxes monthly. I still used cases, Belkin screen protector, every day. I even purchased many different cases, and have exchanged the screen protectors three times or four times.

I have protected my iPhone 15 pro so well – it is still in pristine condition. No damage or scratches at all. Hence there is no way to make an apple care+ claim under this condition. Anyway, I do not want my device to break, therefore it is a good thing that no claim was made.

But what about the battery life? It’s been 80% since early last December, so it has been stuck at 80% for two months. So unfortunately, I have to keep the subscriptions until it is finally dropping to 79%!

Apparently, it is not a wise investment. The out of pocket fee to have the battery replacement is $135 (without apple care+). That is just a little bit more than having AC+ for 10 months! That means that, if I did not have the AC+ at the very beginning, I would have my battery replaced twice – which would give me a much better use experience too (I am now suffering from the reduced battery capacity).

So if my (and your) goal to have apple care+ just for the battery replacement, then it is a totally wrong reason to have AC+!

I have made the following changes since last week, to fix the mistakes:

1. I took off case: this gave me a much lighter phone – similar to iPhone Air if someone puts a case on their Airs. Much better feeling holding it.
2. I just let it go: without the cognitive thought that I needed to protect my phone from being damaged – it gave me a sense of relief, which I think AC+ is worth for.

When to stop AC+ now? Under the following two possibilities:

1. When the battery drops to 79% and my phone is still in a good condition;
2. When my phone breaks somehow – I will pay to have it repaired/replaced and then stop AC+;
3. When I lose my patience of keeping AC+ (maybe in 6 months?), I will have my phone express replaced – the genius from the Apple Store told me that I could just go this way to get the battery replaced earlier, no need to actually have a broken phone.