The Swedish price also includes 25% VAT, as well as the cost of consumer protection afforded by Swedish/EU laws (which in the US you have to pay extra to get through AppleCare - although AppleCare does go further)
Using credit cards in the US give a pretty high level of consumer protection (over and above usual consumer protection laws) although not as much as buying an explicit warranty.
That doesn't protect you against accidental breakage. Outside of that, I rely on actual consumer protection laws, which aren't so hefty in the US - hence folks using credit cards to get some extra protection. It isn't like you are taking a big risk with Apple or your phone company ripping you off anyway.
Only some of us haven't kept those in many, many years. And the one I had back then certainly didn't have such things, but it might have changed since the late 90's. For myself personally, it doesn't seem worth the hassle. Another bill every month that is non-necessary when I could just save some money to cover such things or get it repaired. It kinda sucked not having an actual card in the US, but here it isn't.
Is this sort of thing common on credit cards nowadays? I saw two replies mentioning their banks, and I'm now wondering how widespread such a thing is.
I don't see my credit card as "another bill"; in fact I use it to autopay as well as make daily purchases, so it becomes "the only bill" (or, one of the only).
Yeah, you can autopay on debit cards too, but I don't trust that as much.
Purchase protection is pretty common on good credit cards.
It's only for 120 days but, e.g. this is from one of Chase's cards: What's covered: "Eligible personal property that has been damaged, stolen, or involuntary and accidental parting with property within 120 days from the date of purchase"
This is in addition to a year of additional warranty protection and various other purchase protections.
It certainly does. Most of Chase's cards cover up to $500 per occurrence. The Sapphire Reserve, and I believe Ink Preferred, cover up to $10k per occurrence. There are plenty of accounts of people taking advantage of these benefits online.
I'm genuinely curious if credit card companies get involved with warranty-related actions, or really anything beyond the fitness and accurate representation at the time of purchase. As far as I can tell, thigs like AppleCare and EU VAT protections cover an almost entirely exclusive set of concerns, namely, the fitness of the product after initial purchase.
I'm not knowledgeable enough to compare directly to VAT, but many credit cards extend a product's existing warranty (90 days to two years, depending on the card), and some offer things like 90-day purchase protection (if the price changes or if merchant/manufacturer won't accept a return, the credit card will).
Purchase protection took care of a theft I had in my house last month. They just needed a receipt and a police report, and the purchase price was refunded a few days later.
I think there's some confusion here as to what VAT means.
VAT in the EU (or anywhere else really that has the concept of VAT) normally affords no additional consumer protections on its own. It's a tax, not dissimilar at a high level to sales tax in the US, applied to goods or services at time of sale.
Thanks for the response. This is something that's not well known to me and in the age of retailers trying to upsell the same thing for a fee, I'm not surprised that it is obscured.
In all fairness, it's not a standard thing. Most of the extended card protections that go beyond purchase dispute resolution/defective product come from various premium cards more so than basic no-charge ones.
I can only speak to my personal experience, but my Citi Premier card has pretty good coverage for theft and accidental damage, albeit with a relatively short coverage window compared to something like Apple Care. I'd have to look it up, but I think it was about 6 months post-purchase.
