Card Protection Plans

Telegraph_Sam

I could not find any guidance on protection plans on MSE. CPP has just hiked my renewal premium to £39.99 which is all but identical to Sentinel (coincidence or price fix?). Yet CPP's quotes £35 on their web site ... The strategy seems to be to include lots of goodies which I don't really need to justify the price increase. I would be interested to know if in members' views these are the best value (for someone who has an excess of bits of plastic) or if there are better alternatives.

jonesMUFCforever

Some banks offer this as part of a fee paying current account.

opinions4u

Your fraud liability is £50.

Most banks don't apply that when they recredit your account after fraud.

Why do you need this cover? What appeals to you about it?

agrinnall

opinions4u wrote: »

You're fraud liability is £50.

Most banks don't apply that when they recredit your account after fraud.

Why do you need this cover? What appeals to you about it?

O4U - I had my wallet stolen recently and I found it useful to just be able to ring Sentinel and tell them so that they could stop all the cards that were in it rather than having to make separate calls to all the card companies as well as trying to find the card numbers when they were no longer in my possession and I was a long way from home. As a bonus (I hadn't realised they offered this) they also refunded the cash that was stolen and allowed me to buy a new wallet (up to the value of £200!).

OP - I pay £32 for my Sentinel cover via my Co-Op Visa card so that's a fair bit cheaper than CPP. My sister has taken out cover with M&S for something like £54 for 3 years but I'm not sure what the offer is there, it may be worth you looking around to see what's available if you're not happy to pay what CPP want.

opinions4u

agrinnall wrote: »

O4U - I had my wallet stolen recently and I found it useful to just be able to ring Sentinel and tell them so that they could stop all the cards that were in it rather than having to make separate calls to all the card companies as well as trying to find the card numbers when they were no longer in my possession and I was a long way from home. As a bonus (I hadn't realised they offered this) they also refunded the cash that was stolen and allowed me to buy a new wallet (up to the value of £200!).

OP - I pay £32 for my Sentinel cover via my Co-Op Visa card so that's a fair bit cheaper than CPP. My sister has taken out cover with M&S for something like £54 for 3 years but I'm not sure what the offer is there, it may be worth you looking around to see what's available if you're not happy to pay what CPP want.

You highlight the benefits of the cover very well.

Personally, I think it's overpriced.

But that is a decision that's very much for the buyer, not me.

Telegraph_Sam

My gut feeling is that the cover is indeed now getting overpriced - as a result of the inertia factor - but £32 might be borderline if I could repeat the Sentinel / Coop trick. Particularly if as in my case I have a load of cards to think about in an emergency (obvious solution ...)

I avoid "premium" bank accounts because the goodies you pay for are usually not necessary and/or can often be got more competitively elsewhere. May be card protection is the exception but I wouldn't open a bank account just for this. My experience of the cover offered by credit card cos is that they are offering just the same CPP/Sentinel package but no doubt getting themselves a commission for their troubles. But the M & S thing @ £54 could be worth investigating ...

With the margins these people rake in you'd think there would be scope for negotiation.

MONEYJADE

marks and spencers cover is through cpp aswel its just different banks and companies charge cpp more to provide the card protection for there customers so that has to reflect in there prices im afraid. but yes if you go through m and s it will be cheaper but thats only because cpp dont have to pay them as much to be buissness partners with them.

Telegraph_Sam

I have since found out that CPP markets their plan also as you say through various third parties, mostly at cheaper premiums than going direct. The best I have found is M & S as we discussed which does a single annual (CPP) plan for £22, vastly more attractive than the £40 renewal premium I was quoted.