Do you need an extended warranty?

Anything you buy for personal or household use from a New Zealand business comes with the Consumer Guarantees Act. Goods must be of acceptable quality and last as long as a reasonable person would expect, given what they are and what they cost.

That has no fixed end date. For a mid-priced appliance it can easily run well past the manufacturer’s one or two years, which is the same period an extended warranty is usually sold to cover. How the CGA works.

If the warranty promises repair or replacement for faults that appear while the product should still reasonably be working, you are paying for a right you already hold. The shop that sold it to you has to deal with that fault under the Act regardless.

The honest test is a single question: what does this give me that the CGA doesn’t? If the answer is “peace of mind”, it’s probably nothing.

Some extended warranties do cover things the Act doesn’t. Look for:

• Accidental damage. Drops, spills and cracked screens are not a failure of quality, so the CGA doesn’t cover them.
• Cover beyond reasonable life. For cheap goods, the CGA period may be short. A warranty that clearly runs longer can be worth more there.
• Service terms. On-site repair, a loan unit while yours is away, or replacement instead of repair.
• Business use. Things bought for a business can be outside the CGA, so a warranty may be the only cover.

Check your contents insurance too. Accidental damage is sometimes already covered there.

Under the Fair Trading Act, an extended warranty has to come with a written agreement. Its front page must summarise your rights under the CGA, compare them with what the warranty adds, explain how to cancel, and give the business’s contact details.

Read that comparison. It is there precisely so you can see what you would be paying for.

You can cancel an extended warranty within 5 working days after the date you must be given a copy of the agreement, and get a full refund of what you paid for the warranty. Cancelling it doesn’t affect the product you bought.

So if you said yes at the counter under a bit of pressure, you have time to go home and think about it.

The same logic applies. The Australian Consumer Law gives you consumer guarantees that last as long as goods should reasonably last, and the ACCC says businesses must not pressure you into an extended warranty or mislead you into paying for rights you already have. How the consumer guarantees work.

The CGA is only useful if you can prove when you bought something and what you paid. I Kept It keeps the receipt, registers the manufacturer warranty, and shows how long the Act should reasonably cover each item, so the next time someone offers you three more years, you know what you already have.