Are Card Protection fees worth it?

skyrider007

DestroyingAngel wrote: »

If you DID, you'd have made that FREE phonecall IN ENGLISH, and you'd be back on track. I.

You don't need card protection insurance to benefit from free international phone calls (in any major language including English).

http://www.corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_services/lost_card.jsp

Visa provides around-the-clock emergency assistance to all Visa cardholders.

If your card is lost or stolen, the actions you need to take depend on where you are. If you’re close to home, immediately contact your financial institution to report the loss or theft and arrange for a replacement card to be mailed to you. You should keep a copy of your financial institution’s name, its customer service phone number, and your Visa account number in a convenient place-separate from your card.

If you’re traveling away from home–no matter where you are in the world–you should immediately contact the Visa Customer Care Services using our worldwide network of toll-free telephone numbers (see chart above).

http://www.mastercard.com/cgi-bin/emergserv.cgi
Wherever you travel worldwide, you can always count on MasterCard Global Service™ for any card-related need. Call us 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and we'll connect you with a representative who speaks your language, and can help with:

• Lost or stolen cards
• Emergency replacement cards
• Emergency cash advances
• Locate an ATM that accepts MasterCard®, Maestro®, and Cirrus® brands
• Access account-related information
• Access any applicable card benefits

DestroyingAngel_2

You're all missing the point here. If you'd care to read my previous posts, I said it's "more than just card protection".

birdboy

Many thanks for all you helpful posts.

Bazzybaz_2

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?!

No one should ever go abroad, and especially outside of Europe, without travel insurance.
Ever, ever.

DipStick

As I understand it, with the card protection you can register ALL your cards with one company (say Sentinel) and one phone call cancel all your cards.

Also, it seems from what DestroyingAngel says, you can register your passport details too, but I'm not sure how this helps - maybe I missed the point.

Anyway card protection seems useful IF you have many cards AND you are organised enough to register all your other cards etc with them AND you are going somewhere exotic.

But if you only have one card and aren't going to far flung places it's not worth it?

Would that be a fair summary?

ikr2

I have a CPP renewal in my hand. If I was on my own I think I'd ditch it. But now I have a family I don't have the time to worry about canceling all our cards and ensuring that the other aspects of CPP cover are otherwise sorted.

So I think I'll pay CPP for the convenience. Even though I have good travel insurance and home insurance now, which cover cash and items stolen whilst away..

What I was interested in is what is the best deal in this market? I think CPP were one of the early providers? Is someone else better value now?

opinions4u

This is one of those insurances that is often bundled up in fee paying current accounts (e.g. Halifax URCA). Sometimes £150 a year for Card Protection, Family Travel Insurance, Breakdown cover and the superb Home emergency cover (I love it) etc can be cheaper and easier than buying things separately. It depends on the individual as to how much value they place on a particular type of cover.

For me, £30 is too much for something I can sort out for myself. For others, it is a price well worth paying to cover peace of mind, hassle avoidance etc. For some, the bundled up deals are great value - but only if you know exactly what you've got and remember to use!

Rich_Richmond

The card protection charges on your credit card are not worth paying them. Even in the event of loosing it, you can claim it again from the Issuing authority. Save your money rather than wasting it on such charges by banks. These charges are basically banks earning tactics from it customers.

Regards