[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] thos25:
Yes. Math is rather difficult for some.

At any rate, I underwrite insurance for the largest insurance company in the United States. I would like to think I know a little about what I am talking about. And, no offense, but I am pretty sure I know more about insurance than anyone who has posted in this thread.

An ATT rep may write the policy, much like an agent would write a policy for us, but it still needs to be underwritten by assurion. I guarantee you that the underwriters at assurion do NOT want to take on a policy that they know they would lose money on.

And I see some people on here saying that AT&T would still make money, but that isnt how it works anyhow. That $10 a month doesnt all go to ATT. Some goes to the agent who wrote it (IE the ATT Rep) in the form of a commission. Part of it goes to ATT. And the rest goes to assurion. The portion that goes to assurion is the true cost of the policy and is all that assurion cares about.

This is because assurion isnt making money on the voice/text/data plans like ATT is. All Assurion makes money on is the plan itself. And after ATT takes their cut of the $10, lets say assurion only makes $7 a month. A whole whopping $84a year. The underwriting department is responsible for making sure that the premium matches the risk. In other words, they try to make sure that the company doesnt have to pay out more money than it takes in. So, if an underwriter knows that you are immediately going to turn in a claim for a $550 phone before they even take in a months worth of premium, they are going to decline the risk. Even with the $199 deductible and discount that assurion gets for being such a large purchaser of phones, it wont make up for the initial loss. And ATT more than likely takes a hit because they likely get charged back a bit of their take.

In addition to this, some people are saying that ATT also guarantees themself the $10 a month for the life of the contract. However, there is nothing that Im aware of that locks you into the policy. You can cancel at anytime. An underwriter also has to take that into account. They literally dont even make a single months worth of premium, have to pay out a couple hundred dollars for a new phone, then you turn around and cancel your insurance.

The fact is that the OP is talking about insurance fraud. He is taking out a policy on a product which is no longer in new, like new, or even in working condition with the sole intention of getting a device which is in better condition than the one he has now.

And perhaps the AT&T rep told him that it was okay. But as already pointed out above, it is becasue the AT&T rep gets a commission or some sort of compensation for selling the policy. As I said before, ask an underwriter for assurion if it is okay and I guarantee you that they say no.

Try this next time. Call in to AT&T and add a policy to a phone you have had for a few weeks, but within the 30 day window. As soon as the agent tells you that you are good to go and it is on the policy, immediately tell them that you need to file a claim. See what they say. At best you might get a rep who will tell you to wait a while and call back. Worst case scenario they alert assurion, they decide to make an example out of you, they allow you to file the claim and they charge you with fraud. However unlikely, it is possible. Most likely they tell a TM and they refuse to add the insurance to the account.

And honestly, the simple fact that the people are saying to wait a while before filing a claim is indicative of the fact that it is fraud. If it wasnt, people wouldnt say to wait a while.