The Credit Card " Free Insurance " Thread (Lost Luggage, Rental Car Coverage, Extended Warranty, Lost Item, etc)

I'm creating this thread to discuss some of the "free insurance" benefits offered when you charge items on (certain) credit cards...We Have existing threads on Dispute/Chargeback protection, and Best Value Guarantee (BVG) protection, so those should not be discussed here....

Some of the "free insurance" benefits provided by credit cards can include:

Lost Luggage Coverage
Travel Accident Insurance
Rental Car Collision Coverage
Extended Warranty
Lost Item Guarantee
Return Protection

(This post will be updated with more info soon)

To get started, lets discuss:
1. Who has filed claims, for which type of coverage, and what successes/failures have you encountered? (specify which bank and card if possible)
2. Discussion of which cards offer the best benefits (be sure to mention the ISSUING BANK as well as the type of CC, and provide link if available)

To start off:

1. LOST LUGGAGE CLAIM - filed with MBNA ("Platinum Plus Visa". Payout: $1400

Many CC issuers provide (supplemental) lost luggage coverage up to $3000. As with most CC insurance protection, this coverage is SECONDARY, meaning you typically MUST file a claim with the airline, and the CC insurance will take over above and beyond what the airline pays. (I think the airlines' limitation of liability is $2500).

If you've ever filed a lost luggage claim with an airline, you may have encountered a situation where they try to exclude and depreciate/devalue many of your items. I had a large loss (over $3000) with one airline, but they calculated my reimbursement as $1600. I them filed a claim with MBNA and promptly received a $1400 insurance payout for the difference. They do require you send them a copy of your airline claim AND a copy of the payment received from the airline.

EDIT: MBNA is DROPPING luggage insurance on my CC as of 2/04, they just sent a change in terms. This was for their "Elite Rewards" card. Luckily my AT&T Universal Citi card now has it!

Extended Warranty, filed with AmEx, payout $79

I got one of those KOSS DVD players from Target, stupidly not realizing that it had only a 90 day warranty. Five months after I bought it, the DVD player started to malfunction frequently, freezing and stuttering on a lot of DVDs.

Luckily I was still within 180 days, so I called AMEX. It was very easy: I explained what was wrong over the phone, and then FAXed them a copy of the original warranty and the receipt. A week later I got a check for the full amount I paid, and I also got to keep the DVD player (which still works some of the time, though I usually have to turn it off and on a couple times).

Thanks for starting this thread, SIS.

Does anyone know if filing the claim with Visa's extended warranty program is as easy as AmEx's?

I just noticed that I have this on my credit card. Does this only apply after the manufacturer warranty expires?

<< Hot and Humid - Very interesting! Nice to see they handled your claim largely based on "your word" - In this situation, looks like their coverage was PRIMARY, since you didnt need to file a homeowners' / renters' insurance claim...good thing they didnt require a police report... If you dont mind sharing, What was the amount the CC insurance paid out, and when did this occur..was it recent or a few years ago? >>

I did have to get my statement notarized and then send it into them, but they didn't require a police report. I took it as a gamble. The card offered insurance on all items purchased with it, so when I returned, I thought I would give it a try rather than just eat the loss (I didn't want to affect my renter's rates and would not have qualified since they did require a police report which I didn't have). Amazingly, with the statement, Citibank processed it. It was for $1100 and occured in spring of 2001. I don't know if it was an anomaly because of the whole "lost wedding ring" and somebody felt sorry for us, or if they would have processed it anyway because I've never filed a claim since.

After I got the check, I went back to the store and purchased an identical ring and the whole problem was solved.

Amex's extended warranty covers up to 1 year beyond the manufacturer's warranty and up to $10,000 in value (I think). So your Kia example wouldn't work. At most you'd get 1 extra year of coverage if you could keep the purchase price under $10k.

Master Rental Coverage from Citibank platinum Master card really works!

1. I rent a car in Spain last December, paid in full with this credit card, and declined CDW offered by rental company.

2. The body of the rent car was scratched by someone during overnight parking.

3. The car rental company charged the full repair cost (~$570) on my credit card after 2 weeks.

4. Filed a claim on master card. Got the check for the full amount in 2 weeks.

I was pretty impressed and happy. Should work for any premium master card.

Now I'm really interested in the Lost Luggage Coverage from this thread! Luckily I've never lost my lugguages during travel so far, but it can happen anytime and there's nothing much I can do to avoid. I need a solid protection!!

Another claim with AMEX Blue:

- I also have with AMEX Blue a "Premium" auto rental coverage. They charge $19.99 per rental for that and they provide a "primary" coverage without having to deal with your auto insurance. They paid $500 for damage to a rented car that had a slight fender bender. Easy process. Police report was not needed. They dealt directly with the rental company. Funny though is that the rental company tried to charge $120 for their "loss of use" or downtime. 2 days later, they cancelled these charges as they found out that California passed a new regulation last year that makes it illegal for car rental companies to charge for loss of use. AMEX doesn't pay for these charges.

AlexTheMan said:

<< I also have with AMEX Blue a "Premium" auto rental coverage ... a "primary" coverage >>

I think liability and collision(or very similar) is included by default if you pay with Diners Club, of course they have a high annual fee. Your AMEX deal is decent especially for foreign country rentals and insane drivers in Italy for example, when who knows(or has the time to figure out) how rental car insurance/coverage works over there.

slaman...yes SOME cards do provide coverage for lost items! As this thread progresses, I hope to develop a list of which cards offer the best benefits...

RE: AMEX and "optional coverages"...be careful as they do often solicit you to PAY for these otherwise "free insurance" benefits...they usually send me a letter asking to charge $14 everytime I put a plane ticket on my card to get the $1million common carrier insurance, which other CCs offer for FREE...and their primary car rental coverage is NOT the best...its still collission-only (NOT LIABILITY) and excludes "loss of use" charges...

Get a business visa/MC or the traditional Diners Club card, which provides free primary rental car coverage (Diners Club has an annual fee)

In my case, my personal insurance doesn't cover the car rentals overseas.(is this common?) So MC became primary automatically.

I guess Visa/MC is better than AMEX for renting overseas because they are free, as far as your own insurance doesn't cover the car rentals in foreign countries... Am I correct?

AlexTheMan said:

<< Yeah.. Diner's club provide a primary car rental coverage.. However their annual fee is high. I don't rent cars that often so getting a Diner's club for that reason is not worth it for me.. Also, with having the premium coverage with Amex, I get to choose before renting to either use AMEX and pay $19.99 and get a primary coverage or to use my Visa or MC and get a free secondary coverage. >>

parksh69, it's the same thing for AMEX.. It's secondary only if you have a primary coverage. So if your personal auto policy doesn't cover a rental, overseas for example, then AMEX would be primary.. That's why I like having the option of choosing which card to use depending on the risk factor

AFAIK, all credit card coverage are for damage or theft of the rental car only.. No liabilty is included..

Thanks, AlexTheMan. Looks like AMEX is definitely better then.

AlexTheMan said:

<< parksh69, it's the same thing for AMEX.. It's secondary only if you have a primary coverage. So if your personal auto policy doesn't cover a rental, overseas for example, then AMEX would be primary.. That's why I like having the option of choosing which card to use depending on the risk factor

AFAIK, all credit card coverage are for damage or theft of the rental car only.. No liabilty is included.. >>

SUCKISSTAPLES said:

<< i have yet to see any CC offer rental car liability coverage... >>


Not sure if this is the same thing since it doesn't say liability, but this is part of my CC policy:
"Auto rental protection. When you use your USAA Platinum card and decline collison/loss coverage offered by participating car rental companies, you'll be eligible for auto rental coverage."

I filed a claim through my Discover Platinum Card back in June 2001 for $3800 in damage I caused to a Budget rental truck. It was a moving truck and I hit a low hanging tree branch while parking.

Discover's insurance company never responded to my claim, and I figured my personal liability insurance would take care of it. The adjuster from my personal auto insurance company assured me at the time that the matter would be taken care of, and I never followed up on my claim with Discover Card.

Well now it's nearly two years later, and I recently began receiving collection notices from Budget's collection agency - JNR Adjustment. The person I spoke with stated that my claim was never paid by my insurance company because it was collision damage to a rental vehicle and I only had liability coverage at the time.

So now I am back to square one trying to deal with Discover's rental insurance coverage. But I'm getting the runaround because Discover has changed insurance companies over the past two years. Their previous insurance company does not handle claims through Discover anymore and denies ever receiving any claim from me back in 2001.

The situation looks pretty hopeless and I'm not sure how to proceed. I've been cleaning up my credit for the past four or five years and almost have my FICO score up to a 700 - so I hope this situation does not adversely affect my credit rating. There's no way I can pay the $3800 out of my own pocket.

Hopefully, the two year statute of limitations will apply and I will not get sued over this. In one month, it will be two years since the incident occured.

I guess I am somewhat to blame for not following up with Discover Card in a timely fashion, but I thought the matter had been taken care of until recently. Next time I rent a large vehicle, I will most likely pay the extra $ for the loss damage waiver.

00Diablo

double post

Howdy All,

Lets start a List of card that provide primary and secondary insurance for car rental, and others insurances.

Here some to get you started:

MBNA Quantum Card
Full-Value Auto Rental Collision / Loss Damage Insurance

QUANTUM MasterCard

Coverage: The cardholder* and those designated drivers on the rental agreement are covered for the full value of the vehicle (up to $50,000 per incident) if the entire amount of the rental vehicle is charged to a Quantum MasterCard and the collision damage waiver is declined. Coverage is secondary in the U.S., primary outside the U.S. Coverage applies if the contracted rental period does not exceed 15 consecutive days.

Claims must be reported to MasterCard within 30 days of the incident.

Additional provisions for Quantum Visa Cards

Coverage is secondary in the U.S., primary outside the U.S. Coverage applies if the contracted rental period does not exceed 15 consecutive days in the U.S., 31 consecutive days outside the U.S. Motor vehicles rented in Ireland, Israel, and Jamaica are not covered.

Claims must be reported to Visa within 20 days from the date of the incident.

No Annual fee for this card.

Advanta Mastercard Platinum:
No Annual fee
Primary vehicle rental insurance, and automatic theft and damage protection plus extended warranties

Lots more card that I'm trying to gather info on.

Kenshin

kenshin thanks...I will be adding which cards cover primary rental coverage to the first post in this thread. As it stands right now, ONLY the traditional Diners Club card, and some BUSINESS mastercards (such as Advanta) are primary. Most cards which provide secondary coverage in the US are primary in other countries, so MBNA does not really depart from the norm

Do keep in mind that when a particular insurance product is offered by Visa/MC, not all Visa/Mc cards include all these protections...each bank picks which features to include on its cards....

I just wanted to share a good experience. I bought a Panasonic cordless phone/answering machine at Staples last year (March 26th to be exact). Last Sunday, it died (no lights on the base unit). Turns out I thought I bought it on my Mastercard, but could not find the transaction in Quicken, so I contacted Staples, who was able to fax me the packing list, which showed that I paid for it on my AMEX Blue card (turns out this was around the time that Staples was selling the Visioneer 8100 scanner for close to free and everyone was BVG'ing it, so I had my Staples account set up to use my Blue card). Anyway, I contacted Panasonic, and they want $75 to replace it with a refurbished unit, so I called AMEX on Monday and registered a claim with their Buyers Assurance program. Much to my surprise, I received a check in the mail today from AMEX for $99.95, which is the cost of the unit not including sales tax.

Needless to say, the replacement phone will be charged on an AMEX card as well (I assume the Costco card also has Buyers Assurance).

This thread should be stickied into the FAQs, as it covers many very good questions often asked by Fatwallet members.

Thanks Mark, anyone know about buying things with AMEX on Paypal?