Tracking extended warranties

[Rodf 0]

Over the years I've gotten into the habit, on expensive purchases, such as laptops and desktop PCs, to purchase extended warranties. Most of the time it isn't needed, but I've had a couple times it really came in useful. Recently, I've begun to wonder how to track them? Right now I've been putting the receipts for extended warranties into an envelop. That's OK, but I'd like to know if there's a better way to track them? For example, I've not paid attention to what the company's name is, that I've purchased an extended warranty from. Now, I realize just how dumb that is. How do I know whether or not I have purchased an extended warranty on a microwave, phone, or laptop a year ago or not? Because of where I live and what merchants are available in my area, I tend to buy tech from (in order) Best Buy, Costco and Sam's Club. Do these companies use the same warranty company for anything purchased from them? Or is it a hodgepodge of companies? To those who respond to this question, how do you track the extended warranties you purchase?

[JROrtiz 33]

I grew up with the idea that extended warranties were basically sales people swindling you; however, I've definitely benefited from extended warranties as of late. That being said, I still don't purchase an extended warranty outright. I simply make large purchases with a credit card that has an extended warranty built-in (in my case, 2 years on top of manufacturer warranty). What I do is simply save my order confirmation in a folder in gmail. Then if I need to file a warranty claim, I can easily find it and first determine if I go to the manufacturer or my credit card company. In either case, I have the receipt ready to go since it's usually required to file a claim anyway. 

[ShadowPeo 59]

I cannot answer your question exactly, I am looking for a solution to this kind of as well. However, currently, my process is to download the manual, scan receipts, warranty etc and stick it in a folder in my digital archives. This I have found works quite well. I was working on some software a couple of years back that managed this for me partially, it was an expanded "home inventory" software as some of the very basic assumptions made by most software in this field are fundamentally flawed, got it to a working prototype stage and then lost interest due to other projects, never got back around to it. I am thinking of converting it to web-based these days, but then I need to update my HTML skills, its moved on since HTML3/4