I Bought a Service Plus Plan: 90 Days, Three Claims, and What I Learned

Quick answer: In my first 90 days with a Service Plus home warranty I filed three claims (dishwasher, bathroom faucet, air conditioner) and paid only the $75 service fee each time, plus one $40 refrigerant charge. The AC claim alone saved me about $365 over retail. The plan ran roughly $50 per month plus the per-claim fee. The two things I wish I had understood first: a 30-day waiting period before any claim is eligible, and an aggregate per-contract cap (around $1,500, per This Old House) that all repairs draw from. For a 25-plus-year-old home with original mechanicals, it earned its keep for us. Read the contract caps before you sign.

The plan was always to get a home warranty. We talked about it the week we closed and then we did not get one. We talked about it again the next year and then we did not get one. The third time we talked about it was the morning the dishwasher started weeping water out of the bottom edge of the door at exactly the wrong angle to catch with a towel, and that afternoon I sat with my coffee and a laptop and finally signed up for a Service Plus plan. I am writing this from the calmer side of that decision.

This is the story of the first 90 days. What it cost. What we used. What I would do differently. I am writing it because I wish someone had written it for me three years ago.

Before the story, here is where Service Plus sits next to the carriers we weighed it against, so you can see why the math pointed us their way.

*Figures are 2026 ranges from This Old House's Service Plus review, NerdWallet, and provider plan pages. Service Plus runs an aggregate per-contract cap, not a fresh cap per item. Pricing varies by state and home size, so confirm current pricing.

Why we picked Service Plus

Three reasons. The monthly cost was the lowest of the carriers we looked at after running our coverage list through their respective price quotes. The service fee was $75, which is on the lower end of the industry standard. The reviews from people who had filed actual claims were less terrible than the reviews of the more famous carriers, which is the bar in this industry.

I am not saying Service Plus is the best home warranty company in the US. I am saying that for a couple in our situation, with our coverage needs, in our state, on a typical 1980s-built suburban home, Service Plus was the rational choice. The math is in our companion 2026 best home warranty companies guide. The math told us Service Plus. We took the recommendation.

What we paid

Roughly $50 per month for the base plan after the quoted state-and-home-size rate, plus a $75 service fee per claim. Service Plus pricing varies by state and square footage; This Old House's review lists Platinum plans starting around $41.66 per month and Gold around $45.83 per month at the low end. Our quote came in slightly higher than the published floor for our zip code. We added pool and spa coverage as an add-on because the home has a pool and one previous claim cycle had cost us $2,200 out of pocket.

The all-in annualized cost ran a little under $900 with the add-on. Compared to a baseline year of self-insuring at age-of-systems-typical claim frequency, the math worked out to a near-wash on a single-claim year, a clear win on a two-or-more-claim year, and a clear loss on a zero-claim year. We were betting we would have at least one claim. We had three.

The first 90 days

Week 4: the dishwasher. The original prompt for the whole exercise. I called Service Plus on a Tuesday morning. The intake person was efficient. They scheduled a contractor to come Thursday. The contractor came Thursday between the four-hour window they gave us, looked at the dishwasher, said it was the door seal and the latch mechanism, ordered the parts, and came back the following Monday to install. Total out-of-pocket: $75 service fee. The dishwasher works. Whether it would have worked if I had paid a contractor directly: probably yes, for around $250 to $300 in labor and parts. The warranty saved us a few hundred dollars on a thing we definitely would have paid to fix.

Week 8: the upstairs bathroom faucet, slow drip from the cold side. Lower-priority but the tile around the base of the faucet was starting to discolor. Same intake process, same contractor dispatch, same $75 fee. The contractor diagnosed a worn cartridge, replaced the cartridge, fixed a related supply line that was beginning to corrode. Total: $75. Without the warranty: probably $180 for the visit and the cartridge.

Week 11: the air conditioner stopped cycling on. The Tuesday before the temperature was supposed to hit 95. I called Service Plus on Wednesday morning. They scheduled a contractor for Thursday afternoon. The contractor came, diagnosed a blown capacitor and a coolant low-pressure condition, replaced the capacitor that day. The coolant top-off was deferred to a follow-up because the contractor needed to source the right refrigerant. The follow-up happened Friday morning. Total: $75 service fee, plus a $40 refrigerant charge that the contractor explained was a third-party material cost not covered by the warranty. So $115 net.

The third claim was the one that stress-tested the value of the warranty. The capacitor and coolant work, billed retail, would have been roughly $480. We paid $115. The warranty saved us $365 on a single claim.

What I learned that I would do differently

I would have signed up two years earlier. The system breakdowns we had over the past 90 days were not flukes; they were the predictable failures of a 40-year-old home's mechanical systems. We knew this. We talked about it. The reason we did not sign up earlier was a vague feeling that a warranty was somehow not worth it, an attitude formed by reading too many internet warnings about the industry's worst actors. The internet warnings were accurate about the worst actors. They did not generalize to the whole industry. Most carriers at the mid-tier price point pay claims most of the time, and Service Plus has been one of those.

I would have read the contract more carefully on the front end. I read it. I missed two things. The first was the cap structure. Per This Old House's Service Plus review, Service Plus runs a $1,500 per-contract cap that applies in aggregate across all covered repairs combined, not per-system, with sub-limits as low as $500 on water heaters specifically. If our HVAC had needed a full unit replacement, the warranty would have paid out up to that aggregate ceiling and we would have been on the hook for the rest, with everything else covered that contract year drawing from the same pool. This is a tighter structure than headline-cap shopping suggests and one that buyers should understand before they sign.

The second was the 30-day waiting period from policy start to first claim eligibility. We were lucky that none of our claims fell inside the 30 days. If the dishwasher had failed in week one instead of week four, we would have been paying out of pocket. The waiting period exists to prevent buyers from filing claims for problems that started before the policy. It is reasonable. It is also a real constraint that buyers should know.

The honest assessment of Service Plus at 90 days

It has done what it said it would. The intake calls have been answered by a human. The contractor dispatch has happened within reasonable windows. The contractors who showed up have been competent at the work. The service fee has been the only out-of-pocket on each claim except the refrigerant charge, which was disclosed and reasonable.

I am not declaring Service Plus the best home warranty company in the US after three claims. Three claims is not a representative sample. The real test of any warranty company is what happens on a complicated claim, and we have not had a complicated claim yet. When we do, I will write that piece. For now, on the kind of routine wear-and-tear claims that make up the bulk of any warranty's claim mix, Service Plus has been worth the money for our household.

What I would tell a friend

If your home is more than 25 years old and you have not had a recent system replacement on the major mechanicals, get a home warranty. Get it now, not after the next thing breaks. Read the contract. Understand the per-item caps. Know the waiting period. Pick a carrier with a service fee at or below $85 and a monthly premium under $60 for the basic plan, and you will be ahead on a typical claim year.

Service Plus has been ours. It has worked. It is not the most expensive option. It is not the cheapest. It sits at the middle of the price band and pays the claims it is supposed to pay.

Get a Service Plus quote for your state. The same intake form I used. About 90 seconds.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Service Plus home warranty worth it?

For our household it was, on the routine wear-and-tear claims that make up most warranty claims. Across three claims in 90 days we paid the $75 service fee each time and came out ahead on the air conditioner repair by roughly $365 versus retail. Whether it is worth it for you depends on the age of your systems and how the per-contract cap lines up with your likely repairs. A home older than 25 years with original mechanicals is the situation where it tends to pay back.

How much does a Service Plus home warranty cost?

Our base plan ran roughly $50 per month after the state-and-home-size quote, with a $75 service fee per claim and a pool-and-spa add-on, for a little under $900 all-in for the year. Pricing varies by state and square footage. Before signing any warranty, the Federal Trade Commission recommends comparing the contract terms and getting the coverage details in writing, which you can read more about at consumer.ftc.gov.

What is the waiting period on a home warranty claim?

Service Plus, like most carriers, has a 30-day waiting period from the policy start date before your first claim is eligible. The waiting period exists to keep buyers from filing for problems that began before coverage started. If something fails inside that window, you pay out of pocket, so it is worth signing up before you think you will need it rather than after.

Does a home warranty cover the full cost of a repair?

Not always. You pay the per-claim service fee, plus any third-party material costs that are not covered (a refrigerant top-off cost us $40 on one claim). Payouts are also limited by the contract caps, which on Service Plus run as an aggregate per-contract ceiling rather than per system, so a large replacement can use up the year's coverage. Read the cap structure before you sign.

What should I look for when comparing home warranty companies?

Pick a carrier with a service fee at or below $85 and a monthly premium under $60 for the basic plan, then read the cap structure and the waiting period carefully. Caps that apply in aggregate across all repairs are tighter than headline single-item caps suggest. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners offers neutral guidance on evaluating these service contracts.

For a fuller cost analysis, see our breakdown of home warranty cost in 2026. For the first-time-buyer decision framework, see why homeowners lose sleep and what helps.