Comment by Gareth321

For an individual it kind of is. To calculate the financial value of an insurance plan you would multiply the average cost of a claim by the probability of it occurring, and divide that by the average expected number of months until claim. For all insurance, the monthly fee is more expensive than the calculation above. This is obvious, because the insurance company needs to make a profit. This implies that no one should ever have insurance. *However,* some events are quite financially catastrophic, and the potential size of the financial burden warrants paying the premium. Examples include houses and cars. Most people can't afford to pay out of pocket if a house burns down.

In the realm of consumer electronics, why would you pay the premium if you can afford to replace the device? Unless, of course, you know you're prone to losing or breaking things.