Skip to main content

Tile will refund up to $1,000 in products if it can’t find your lost item

Tile will refund up to $1,000 in products if it can’t find your lost item

/

The Premium Protect launches

Share this story

Tile

Tile, the company that makes trackers to monitor your stuff, is offering a new premium subscription plan starting this fall that’ll allow people to claim money for lost items. The plan, called Premium Protect, costs $99.99 per year and includes all of the perks of its premium subscription, including free battery replacements and a 30-day location history as well as item reimbursement up to $1,000. Premium, the original plan, is still available and costs $29.99 per year or $2.99 per month.

Premium Protect members can register most items to qualify it for reimbursement, and Tile is working with a company called Cover Genius to follow through and approve lost item requests. (The company does list some exemptions like antiques, commercial paper, drones, pets, prescription and non-prescription drugs, and firearms, among others.) To register it, the member will have to upload a photo and name their item, and if Tile can’t find the item within seven days, they can then start to make a claim. At this point, Tile will also verify that this member has subscribed to the service for at least 30 days and also had a working battery in their tracker. It could take between three and five days for the request to be approved and for the payment to be received.

With this plan, Tile is clearly trying to signal its belief in the reliability of its network, which isn’t just built on physical trackers people latch onto their items but also includes devices with Tile support directly built in. The company previously announced partnerships with Bose, Anker, and Sennheiser for built-in support. While Tile has mostly dominated the Bluetooth tracker space, Apple has been rumored for months to be entering the market, possibly with its own AirTag tracker. An insurance plan could help Tile stand out compared to whatever Apple launches, if and when it happens.

Correction 9/9, 1:47 PM ET: This story originally stated that Premium Protect would be available today; it’s actually coming out this fall. The Verge regrets the error.