How to keep track of appliance warranties (and stop paying twice)

People pay twice more often than they think. The washing machine fails at two and a half years, nobody remembers when it was bought or where the receipt is, and a repairer gets called. The legal guarantee covered it.

Keeping track of warranties isn't hard. It's that nobody does it until it's too late. Here's what to keep, how long it lasts, and how to track it without turning it into one more chore.

Updated 2026-09-13

How long a warranty lasts

Across the EU, the legal guarantee on new goods is at least two years, and several countries give more (Spain gives three for anything bought since 2022; in the UK, claims can be made for up to six years in England and Wales). It's the seller's obligation, not the manufacturer's: you claim where you bought it. Check the rule for your country, and note that the burden of proof usually sits with the seller for the first year or two.

On top of that there's the commercial warranty the manufacturer or shop offers on its own. It can be longer, but it usually has conditions. Both count, and it helps to know which one is in force on the day something breaks.

What to keep for each item

The receipt or invoice. It proves the purchase and the date. A photo is fine, and thermal receipts fade: take it the same day.

The purchase date. Everything else follows from it.

How long it lasts: the legal one, and the commercial one if there is one.

Where to claim: the shop, and the phone number or email of the service centre.

The model and serial number. The technician will ask for them before anything else.

Three ways to track it

The folder. Works if one person at home maintains it and everyone knows where it is. Fails when that person isn't around, or when the receipt can no longer be read.

A spreadsheet. It organises, but it doesn't warn you. And you have to remember to open it, which is exactly the problem.

An app. What it adds is the alert: telling you the dishwasher's warranty runs out next month, before rather than after. And letting the people you live with see it too, because on the day something breaks you're not always the one at home.

What a good warranty app has to do

Keep the photo of the receipt next to the date, so you don't have to hunt for it on the day something breaks.

Warn you before it expires, with time to claim.

Belong to the household, not to one person: shared.

Not sell what you give it. A photo of a receipt says where you shop, what you buy and how much you spend.

How besteed does it

In besteed a warranty is just another contract: who sold it, when it was bought and when it runs out, with the photo of the receipt attached. It warns you before it expires, with whatever margin you set, and the whole household can see it. The photo stays on the phone that took it: attached files are never uploaded anywhere. And there is no amount, on purpose: what it cost is already in the bank statement, and a price typed by hand goes stale. Warranties sit alongside the contracts that end and the rest of the home's paperwork, in the same place. For the bigger picture: what a household app has to do.

besteed does this

And it cannot read what you put in it: what you share with the people you live with is sealed on your phone before it leaves. Free for the whole household; the “Home” plan adds all your contracts and your whole money history, 4.99 € a month. No ads, on any plan.

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