Comprehensive List of Credit Card Insurances by Card

Preamble

While not strictly a Credit Card Review, I have placed this article in my Credit Card Review Series so that you can compare benefits.

Background

Just the other day I was lamenting how much of a pain it is to know which card to charge your travel to versus which one to use for purchases and everyday spend.  Much of that decision comes down to where you can extract the most value out of the points earned but another big aspect is the insurances that the card provides, especially when it comes to travel.

Most cards that have travel based rewards will often have an excellent insurance package that is built into the card’s benefits.  Below are some of the most common:

Types of Travel Insurance

Emergency Medical – this is an insurance you want for your travel, especially if you are travelling outside of Canada.  The coverage here will reimburse you in the event that you have an emergency medical situation and you need to go to a doctor/hospital.  As Canadians, we rarely think about the cost of medical procedures but trust me, it’s very, very, very expensive.  If you travel to the United States and have a heart attack, CBS estimates your costs would be around $760,000!  Without this insurance, you could be in for a very bad time.

Trip Interruption – helps to protect you from the costs that arise when a sickness, an injury or another unexpected covered risk causes you to disrupt your travel plans.

Trip Cancellation – same as Trip Interruption Insurance except that it covers the costs if you have to cancel your trip outright.

Car Rental Theft and Damage – this is a nice insurance to have if you rent vehicles on your vacation.  Basically it covers damage or theft of your rental car which allows you to decline the Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) that the rental agency will offer you.

Lost or Stolen Luggage –  covers you for loss or damage to your checked-in or carry on baggage and personal effects while in transit.  This can be a big benefit if the airline loses your bags and you need to replace your packed items.

Baggage Delay – this insurance is similar to that of the Lost or Stolen Luggage insurance except that it covers off the period between when you baggage is missing and when it is returned.  For example, if your airline sent your bag to Siberia instead of Palm Springs, your bags would not be considered lost but if you have baggage delay insurance, you can get reimbursed for the items you need to purchase until such time that your luggage is returned to you.

Flight Delay – while Baggage Delay and Lost or Stolen Luggage Insurance cover off your belongings, this insurance covers off your meals, hotels and sundry items in the event that your flight is delayed.

Hotel/Motel Burglary – let’s face it.  You’ll never (hopefully) enact this insurance but if you happen to have your hotel room burglarized, this covers off the items that are stolen.

Travel Accident – this insurance covers off the worst case scenarios in vacation travel.   It acts as life insurance and insurance against accidental death and dismemberment in the case of a travel accident.  Hopefully you will never face this situation but if you or a loved one was in a serious accident, you would receive a significant benefit.

Type of Purchase Insurances

Extended Warranty – exactly what you would expect.  This insurance often doubles the manufacturer’s warranty (usually by an additional year).

Price Protection – a really nice to have insurance that ensures you got the best price for your purchase.  If you find a lower advertised price (within a certain period), this insurance will reimburse you the difference.  I personally used this insurance for my Bose QC25s.

Purchase Protection – mark this one under “I can’t believe they offer this insurance”.  If you accidentally damage your item or have it stolen, this insurance reimburses you the cost of the item.  Some very generous insurances will even protect against accidental loss.

Table of Knowledge

I have taken some of the most common cards that a Travel Hacker might use and provided information about each card’s coverage.  I have done my best to be accurate but please double check the information before you rely on it as the gospel truth.  That being said, I went through the terms and conditions of each card to and tried to distill the essence of the coverage.

Also be aware that some of these cards have caveats.  For example, some cards will only provide coverage for things like baggage loss and flight delays if the full amount of travel was charged to the card.  This means that reward flights are not covered.

One of the most common requirements is that you use the card for the purchase you are trying to insure against.  If you purchased your travel with your debit card, don’t expect your credit card company to cover you just because you have the card.  You have to put the charges through the card.

Read your terms and conditions carefully.

To use this table to it’s fullest potential, hover over the check box for details on coverage and while it may not be abundantly clear, scroll to the right of the table for more cards.

Conclusion

This post took over 6 hours to compile and make pretty.  I did my best to make the table easy to read and informative but if I’ve missed any cards you would like to see in this table, feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll get it up for you.  If I’ve made a mistake somewhere, please feel free to let me know in the comments as well.

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