When I was writing the featured review "All About Credit Card Travel and Consumer Protection", like millions Citicard members, I received emails from Citi informing me of changes of protection benefit provider coming May 15, 2016. After I went through the documents I was surprisingly pleased to learn that there are HUGE improvement across the board. First of all, please find links to the new benefit guides effective May 15, 2016:
Now let's look at the improvements that will kick in as of May 15, 2016.
As you can see, these improvements are very exciting, and we hope that other issuers follow suit. We will be re-evaluating our ranking of credit cards for protection in May once the new benefits kick in.
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- Citi ThankYou Preferred, Double Cash, Forward, Dividend or another non-cobranded card without annual fees
- Citi AT&T Card
- Citi non-cobranded card (unconfirmed)
- Citi lower-tier AAdvantage Card
- Citi Hilton HHonors Visa Signature
- Citi Expedia+ Card
- Citi ThankYou Premier card
- Citi Platinum Select, or Gold AAdvantage Card
- Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve Visa Signature
- Citi Expedia+ Voyager Card
- Citi Prestige Card
- Citi Executive / AAdvantage Card
- Citi Chairman Card
Now let's look at the improvements that will kick in as of May 15, 2016.
- Several travel protection benefits (Trip Cancelation & Interruption, Trip Delay, Lost Baggage, Baggage Delay) and consumer protection benefits (Citi Price Rewind, Purchase Protection, Return Protection, Extended Warranty, Event Ticket Protection) will be available as long as a portion of the purchase is paid by your Citi Card or ThankYou points. While we don't normally charge a purchase partially to a credit card when buying consumer products, many of us pay a relatively small amount of fees and taxes when booking an awards ticket using frequent flyer miles. The implication that an award ticket is eligible to receive travel protection is pretty huge. Currently, like most credit card issuers Citi requires you pay in full to receive this type of protection, and Chase is the only issuer we are aware of to allow award tickets.
- Currently, Citi covers you (the card holder), your spouse/DP, and underaged children, for all travel protection. Citi is extending cover persons for most travel protection, except Travel Accident Insurance, to include the card holder, family members, and traveling companion(s). Family members are defined as your children, spouse, fiancée, Domestic Partner and their children, including adopted children or step-children; legal guardians or wards; siblings or siblings-in-law; son-in-law or daughter-in-law; parents or parents-in-law; grandparents or grandchildren; aunts or uncles; nieces or nephews. As you can see, just as with Chase Cards, the definition of family members is very wide. Also like with Chase Cards, your family members will be covered even when you are not traveling with them. In addition, Citi is providing coverage for traveling companions, which I believe is the first among credit card issuers.
- For the first time ever, Extended Warranty provided by a credit card will be two years, one year more than the current offering. In addition, Citi will covers up to a total of 7 years, leading the current industry best by 2 years! The latter matters when you purchase a long warranty with the original manufacturer.
- Citi Price Rewind's limit is increased from $300 to $500 per item, and from $1,200 to $2,500 per year.
As you can see, these improvements are very exciting, and we hope that other issuers follow suit. We will be re-evaluating our ranking of credit cards for protection in May once the new benefits kick in.
© 2016 DrCreditCard.net All rights reserved.
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