When shopping for electronics and big-ticket items such as cameras, TVs and other appliances, we are often faced with strong and seemingly sensible encouragement from the salesman to take out an extended warranty on the product. After all, you’re paying a lot for this advanced technological gadget - don’t you want to protect your investment?

According to Consumer Reports extended warranties are not only not necessary, they are probably money wasted. Most of the products they have tracked have not needed major repairs in the two years since they were purchased and often the cost of the extended warranty is more than paying for a repair, if one is ever needed.

Retailers advise you to take the warranties because they get a large percentage of the price of the warranty. In fact, they make more money on extended warranties than they do on the products they are selling the warranties on.

According to Consumer Reports:

For the consumer, extended warranties are notoriously bad deals because:

* Products seldom break within the extended-warranty window (typically around three years), our data show.

* When electronics and appliances do break, the repair often costs about the same as the cost of the warranty.

Read the rest of the article at Consumer Reports