Effective July 29, 2018, Citi has updated the travel and consumer protection benefits provided by its credit cards, and they get worse! The last time Citi revamped the protection benefits was in May 2016 and it was a major enhancement. We think it was a little too generous and undoubtedly represented industry-leading benefits, and this time around Citi has reduced certain benefits to get closer to the rest in the market. The following summary is for Citi Prestige ($450 annual fee) which offers the best level of protection among Citicards; other cards may not have all these benefits, but if they do the changes will be the similar. However, at this point, we are not sure if Citi AA Executive WEMC which used to share all the same protection benefits as Citi Prestige will be affected, though we highly suspect Citi will exempt one card from what seems like a system wide change.
In general, we are sad to see Citi reduces these benefits, especially the loss of traveling companion coverage, Trip & Baggage Delay coverage minimum changing from 3-hour to 6-hour, reduced maximum for a few benefits, as well as loss of consumer coverage for items like lost items, firearms, jewelry, tires, furniture, etc. However, they are still considered reasonable adjustments. Note that Citi's travel protection is still considered the best in industry, probably on par with Chase's, as it covers cardholders plus family members as well as awards tickets; also Citi's Extended Warranty is still industry leading (now on par with Amex, see below) because it covers two additional years.
In comparison, you need to be aware of the fact that effective August 26, 2018, Chase will be eliminating two consumer protection benefits: Price Protection (for all Chase cards) and Return Protection (for Sapphire Preferred, Freedom, Freedom Unlimited, Ink Preferred, United Explorer). So we should actually give credits to Citi for at least not taking some benefit items away completely like Chase does.
Interestingly, when Citi and Chase scale back on the protection benefits, Amex has decided to improves some of its. Effective August 1, 2018, Amex will increase Extended Warranty from one additional year to two and will extend Purchase Protection from 90 days (from date of purchase or delivery) to 120 days.
- Car Rental Insurance: You may be reimbursed up to a maximum of $75,000, reduced from $100,000. In addition, coverage won't apply to charges or expenses for the loss of use of the rental car, rental agency fees, or taxes any more. Note that cheaper cards continue to have a maximum of $50,000.
- Trip Cancellation & Interruption: You may be reimbursed up to a maximum of $5,000 per trip - this maximum used to be per person per trip. Note that some cheaper cards reduce the maximum accordingly, for example, from $3,000 per trip to $1,500 per trip. In addition, coverage will be limited to you and your family members - it used to also cover traveling companions. Citi used to be the only issuer that cover traveling companions and it makes sense for them to reduce it to meet competitions.
- Trip Delay Protection & Baggage Delay Protection: Coverage will be limited to you and your family members - again it used to cover traveling companions. In addition, coverage will only apply to delays of 6 hours or more, down from 3 hours or more. Citi used to be the only issuer that cover delays of 3 hours or more, for certain cards (Citi Prestige and Citi AA Executive), which was very generous and beneficial in practice. Some other cards such as Citi ThankYou Premier continue to cover delays of 6 hours or more.
- Lost Baggage Protection and Travel & Emergency Assistance: Coverage will be limited to you and your family members - again traveling companions won't be covered any more.
- Citi Price Rewind: You may be reimbursed up to a maximum of $200 per item and $1,000 per calendar year - the maximum was down from $500 per item & $2,500 per year. In addition, coverage won't include consumables, tires, watches, firearms, or ammunition any more. You also won't be reimbursed if the lower priced item is found at a warehouse club where the merchant requires a membership fee.
- Damage & Theft Purchase Protection: You may be covered for up to $10,000 per incident for 90 days from the date of purchase or delivery of the item purchased with your card - it used to be 120 days from the date of purchase or delivery. In addition, coverage won't include lost items, firearms, ammunition, jewelry, watches, tires or items that are under the care and control of a third party including, but not limited to, the U.S. Postal Service, airlines, or delivery services. Also note that coverage will be secondary (meaning if you have another insurance policy, this benefit will cover only the amount your other policies do not).
- Return Protection: You may be reimbursed up to a maximum of $1,500 per calendar year, down from $2,500 per year. Coverage won't include firearms, ammunition, tires, jewelry, furniture or appliances any more.
In general, we are sad to see Citi reduces these benefits, especially the loss of traveling companion coverage, Trip & Baggage Delay coverage minimum changing from 3-hour to 6-hour, reduced maximum for a few benefits, as well as loss of consumer coverage for items like lost items, firearms, jewelry, tires, furniture, etc. However, they are still considered reasonable adjustments. Note that Citi's travel protection is still considered the best in industry, probably on par with Chase's, as it covers cardholders plus family members as well as awards tickets; also Citi's Extended Warranty is still industry leading (now on par with Amex, see below) because it covers two additional years.
In comparison, you need to be aware of the fact that effective August 26, 2018, Chase will be eliminating two consumer protection benefits: Price Protection (for all Chase cards) and Return Protection (for Sapphire Preferred, Freedom, Freedom Unlimited, Ink Preferred, United Explorer). So we should actually give credits to Citi for at least not taking some benefit items away completely like Chase does.
Interestingly, when Citi and Chase scale back on the protection benefits, Amex has decided to improves some of its. Effective August 1, 2018, Amex will increase Extended Warranty from one additional year to two and will extend Purchase Protection from 90 days (from date of purchase or delivery) to 120 days.
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