Are Card Protection fees worth it?

birdboy

We are charged annually for card protection on our mastercard. This amounts to £30 per year. My family tells me it is unnecessary to have this as transactions should be insured by the card, but what happens with theft of the card? Are we liable for sums spent by a thief?

Is it sensible to have card protection or not?

skyrider007

IMO, not worth it. You're protected under the law in the event of fraud with or without card protection scheme anyway. Save your money.

sicker

Waste of money in my opimion. You should see the restrictions if you are unlucky enough to want to claim on this so called insurance.

terafarma

No is the answer. Pure waste of money if I may say.

Card gets stolen, simply contact card provider and it gets cancelled, and if any money is spent before you report it, you may be liable for the first £50 of any amount spent above this amount. Check your card provider's Ts&Cs as it relates to fraud.

NickX

I agree with the other posters - not worth it and just a money making exercise for the card companies.

PBA

Remember that with card protection, it's less the insurance you're paying for and more the convenience. If your wallet gets nicked you just make one call to them and they get everything cancelled and reissued for you, rather than you having to remember to call all your card issuers. Whether that's worth £30 a year is up to you.

DestroyingAngel_2

What a lot of people forget is that it's MORE than just card protection. It protects your handbag/wallet PLUS all the cards in it. This extends overseas as well as in the UK; say you're on holiday in Argentina and have just been mugged, you've lost all your possessions - handbag/wallet, cards, passport, driver's licence, travel tickets, the lot. You're in a strange country with no money, no ID. What are you going to do?

Scenario A - if you are NOT protected: sit down by the roadside and cry. Rack your brains thinking of what you need to do, who to contact, how to get back to your hotel, how to pay the hotel bill, how to continue on your holiday, how the h&%k are you supposed to get back to the UK, etc. You don't even speak the language! Where's the British Embassy/Consulate? You didn't even buy Travel Insurance because you felt it was not essential! DO cry for me, Argentina...!

Scenario B - luckily you had the foresight and wisdom to take out card protection. One FREE phone call to CPP/Sentinel/CardGuard. OK, that's all your plastic cards taken care of, replacements will be sent to your home address. No passport details? No problem, you've registered it with the policy - here are the details, here's the address and phone number of the British Embassy/Consulate. Need emergency money to get to the Embassy or to your hotel? No worries, we'll wire you £200 within the hour. Can't pay your hotel bill? No problem - here's £3000 as an interest-free loan, you can pay us back within 28 days, so you can continue with your holiday. What - lost the travel tickets as well? OK, we'll arrange replacements asap.

I know which Scenario I'd rather be in! What's £30 for 1 year, compared to sitting by the roadside bawling your eyes out because your holiday of a lifetime has been ruined by some smelly street urchin?!

neil9313

DestroyingAngel wrote: »

What a lot of people forget is that it's MORE than just card protection. It protects your handbag/wallet PLUS all the cards in it. This extends overseas as well as in the UK; say you're on holiday in Argentina and have just been mugged, you've lost all your possessions - handbag/wallet, cards, passport, driver's licence, travel tickets, the lot. You're in a strange country with no money, no ID. What are you going to do?

Scenario A - if you are NOT protected: sit down by the roadside and cry. Rack your brains thinking of what you need to do, who to contact, how to get back to your hotel, how to pay the hotel bill, how to continue on your holiday, how the h&%k are you supposed to get back to the UK, etc. You don't even speak the language! Where's the British Embassy/Consulate? You didn't even buy Travel Insurance because you felt it was not essential! DO cry for me, Argentina...!

Scenario B - luckily you had the foresight and wisdom to take out card protection. One FREE phone call to CPP/Sentinel/CardGuard. OK, that's all your plastic cards taken care of, replacements will be sent to your home address. No passport details? No problem, you've registered it with the policy - here are the details, here's the address and phone number of the British Embassy/Consulate. Need emergency money to get to the Embassy or to your hotel? No worries, we'll wire you £200 within the hour. Can't pay your hotel bill? No problem - here's £3000 as an interest-free loan, you can pay us back within 28 days, so you can continue with your holiday. What - lost the travel tickets as well? OK, we'll arrange replacements asap.

I know which Scenario I'd rather be in! What's £30 for 1 year, compared to sitting by the roadside bawling your eyes out because your holiday of a lifetime has been ruined by some smelly street urchin?!

what a load of tosh!

skyrider007

neil9313 wrote: »

what a load of tosh!

I totally agree with you on this. I once lost my AMEX card in Japan and a single phone call to them stopped the card and they issued me a replacement card right there and then in Japan. Emergency cash advance at preferential rate was also offered but I declined it.

If you're a responsible person and keep record of your card details, you can manage the report of lost/stolen cards in five minutes. AMEX/VISA/MasterCard have international toll-free numbers, you can report your loss directly to AMEX/VISA/MC therefore saving you the cost of calling your banks. And who takes all their cards abroad anyway? That would be a stupid thing to do. I only carry two cards with me when I travel abroad.

Roadside assistance, additional car rental cover and SOS evacuation services etc. are often included in CCs issued by AMEX. I know my Capital One card have free SOS service.

The £20-30 cost of card protection can't simply be justified for me.

methusala_2

What a simplicit view DestroyingAngel. Lets take another look at your 2 scenarios. OK scenario 1 you have ccp. Great. but your still sat at the roadside with no money, still dont speak the language. Still dont know the way back to the hotel. Still dont know where the british consulate is. Still have no money for taxi back to the hotel. Still dont even have any travel insurance. But hey, dont worry , you have card protection LOL

DestroyingAngel_2

methusala wrote: »

What a simplicit view DestroyingAngel. Lets take another look at your 2 scenarios. OK scenario 1 you have ccp. Great. but your still sat at the roadside with no money, still dont speak the language. Still dont know the way back to the hotel. Still dont know where the british consulate is. Still have no money for taxi back to the hotel. Still dont even have any travel insurance. But hey, dont worry , you have card protection LOL

Errrr actually methusala, in Scenario 1 you DON'T have CPP/Sentinel/CardGuard. If you DID, you'd have made that FREE phonecall IN ENGLISH, and you'd be back on track. It's not a simplistic view, it's a practical one. But hey, don't let me convince you; I'm just someone who was in a similar situation once and got it sorted without any hassle. I'm not selling you anything you don't want, so why shoot the messenger? Or, perhaps you should have a proper read of my previous post, so you don't get my meaning all twisted up.