TLDR; you can get up to an extra 60 days of hardware coverage by purchasing AppleCare+ for your device as late as possible to the end of the 60-day purchase window.
So, this is an interesting one. I’ve been a proponent of AppleCare+ ever since it was introduced, even though it’s more of a insurance policy these days rather than a better tier of warranty coverage.
For the uninitiated, you have 60 days to purchase AppleCare+ on your brand new Apple hardware. I tweeted about the possibility of extending your hardware warranty by purchasing AppleCare+ as close to this 60 day limit as possible, based on Apple’s website stating that “coverage begins on your AppleCare+ purchase date”, then deleted my tweet after discovering I was wrong based on receipts and the expiry date of AppleCare+ for my iPhone X. But wait, what? Surely Apple’s website can’t be wrong about this?
As it turns out, I was right. Well, sort of.
Apple’s terms and conditions for AppleCare+ has this really cool thing where you can go back and see the previous terms and conditions for any period of time. So if I wanted to know what the terms and conditions of AppleCare+ were on the 29th of December, 2017, when I purchased AppleCare+ for my iPhone X, I can do that.
When I purchased AppleCare+ for my iPhone X in late 2017, the terms and conditions at the time said that I was covered for two years from the original hardware purchase date, meaning that even if you purchased AppleCare+ for iPhone on the 59th day it was available, you were missing out on those 59 days of benefits, not extending the warranty of your device by 59 days.
You can probably see where I’m going with this.
But since October 30, 2018, the AppleCare+ for HomePod/iPad/iPhone/iPod/Headphones terms and conditions say that AppleCare+ coverage “begins when you purchase the Plan and continues through, unless cancelled, the date specified in your Plan Confirmation”. That’s two years of AppleCare+ hardware coverage from when you purchase AppleCare+, not when you originally purchase your device, meaning you can get up to an extra 60 days of hardware coverage by purchasing as close as possible to the 60 day AppleCare+ purchase window you get when you buy new Apple hardware.
This also seems to be the case for Macs and other Apple hardware
So, for you day-one iPhone 11/11 Pro/11 Pro Max owners who haven’t already purchased AppleCare+ for your device: set a reminder for the 28th November. Or 27th, if you’re paranoid.
It’s not much, but it’s something!