Beyond Rewards: Additional Credit Card Perks
A reward program is one credit card perk with which you are probably familiar. Each purchase made with a reward credit card earns points that can be redeemed for cash, gift cards, merchandise, airline miles, gasoline, and so on.
What you may not know is that most credit cards offer a number of other benefits. As an example, here is a selection of perks offered by the company that issues the credit card I use:
- Rental Car Insurance. An insurance program that pays for damage to or theft of the rental vehicle that is not covered by the cardholder’s automobile insurance. The cardholder must decline the Collision/Damage Waiver offered by the vehicle rental company to be eligible for this benefit.
- Purchase Protection. Replacement, repair, or reimbursement for up to $250 of the value of an item in the event of loss due to theft, damage, or involuntary and accidental parting with the property within 60 days of purchase. Involuntary and accidental parting is defined as the unintended separation from an item of personal property in which the item’s location is known but recovery is impractical to complete. For example: Your new camera accidentally got knocked over the side of a cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico.
- Price Protection. Payment of the difference in price of up to $250 per item if a better price for the item is discovered within 60 days of purchase.
- Extended Protection. Extension of the free repair period under the manufacturer’s warranty for up to one additional year on warranties of 3 years or less.
- Return Protection. Reimbursement up to $250 per item within 60 days of purchase if the cardholder is dissatisfied with the item for any reason and the retailer will not accept the return.
- Trip Insurance. Reimbursement of up to $1,500 per incident of the non-refundable amount of tickets if a trip is cancelled or interrupted due to the death, accidental injury, disease, or physical illness of the insured or an immediate family member of the insured, or the default of the common carrier resulting from financial insolvency. In addition to the above, there is separate coverage for the accidental loss of life, limb, sight, speech, or hearing up to $1,000 per person while traveling on a licensed common carrier. The cardholder, spouse, and any unmarried, dependent children are covered.
- Travel Accident Insurance. Insurance for the cardholder, spouse, and unmarried dependent children that pays up to $250,000 in the event that an insured suffers accidental loss of life, limb, sight, speech, or hearing while riding as a passenger on any licensed common carrier.
- Personal Identify Theft Protection. Reimbursement of up to a maximum of $1,000 for covered expenses incurred to restore the cardholder’s identity as a result of the theft or unauthorized or illegal use of the cardholder’s name, credit card account or account number, Social Security number, or any other method of identification. Covered expenses include notary costs, filing costs, postage, wage loss for the time spent on identity restoration activities, attorney’s fees, and court costs.
- Lost Luggage Reimbursement. Reimbursement up to $3,000 per insured for physical loss or damage to checked and/or carry-on baggage and its contents. Reimbursement is based on the actual cash value of the items in question at the time of loss.
- Travel and Emergency Assistance Services. Assistance and referral services provided 24/7 include emergency message service, medical and legal referral assistance, emergency transportation assistance, emergency ticket replacement assistance, lost luggage locator service, emergency translation service, prescription assistance, valuable document delivery, and pre-trip assistance. Note: This benefit provides for free referral and assistance only. The cardholder is responsible for the cost of any actual medical, legal, transportation, cash advance, or other services or goods provided.
As with all such offers of insurance, warranties, or other services, there are a host of exclusions, restrictions, limitations, and conditions that apply individually to each benefit. Common among these are:
- To be eligible for a benefit, the product or service in question must have been paid for entirely with the credit card that offers the benefit.
- Benefits offered by the credit card issuer provide secondary coverage to any insurance or product warranty that you may already have in force. In other words, whatever your insurance or the product warranty does not cover, such as a deductible amount, the credit card benefit will pay for within the conditions and limitations outlined in the benefit description.
- Credit card receipts and other documents related to the purchase of the product or service, along with documentation of a loss are required to process a claim for payment.
- Benefits are offered at the sole discretion of the credit card issuer and may be discontinued at any time with proper notification.
To get the most out of the benefits offered by your credit card issuer, do the following:
- Pay for products, automobile rentals, and travel with the credit card that offers the benefits.
- Retain credit card receipts and other purchase documentation.
- File the description of benefits provided by the credit card issuer with your other insurance papers to remind you of the availability of the benefits in the event of a loss.
- Pay your credit card statement balance in full each month to avoid finance charges. This keeps your free credit card benefits free.
K.C. Knouse is the author of True Prosperity: Your Guide to a Cash-Based Lifestyle, Double-Dome Publications, 224 pages
Great philosophy to live by! This is how I try to live each day.
Thank you for your comment, Linda. Hope to hear from you again.