Author Topic: Credit Card Benefits | Price Protection, Trip Cancellation, etc.  (Read 3873 times)

hadabeardonce

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Credit Card Benefits | Price Protection, Trip Cancellation, etc.
« on: December 19, 2017, 04:53:22 PM »
I've been taking a closer look at the benefits associated with each of my credit cards. Three of my credit cards are with Chase, but only one of them lists benefits like trip cancellation insurance, price protection, extended warranty protection, etc. I'll have to review the terms more closely when I find them at home, but it looks like the my Amazon card and Southwest cards don't offer much of anything beyond reward points. Does this sound right? I would think the same company would provide the same benefits to all cards.

Discover It doesn't look like it offers a lot either when you compare it to something like the Chase Freedom card.

My plan is to use a different card as my main one for purchases if it provides a similar amount of cashback with additional protections. I'm curious if others have don't the same kind of benefit audit.

2018 CC Plan
Chase Amazon for Amazon(5%), restaurants(2%), drug stores(2%)
Discover Chrome for Gas(2%)
Star One Visa Signature for Reccuring Bills (auto pay) (1.5%)
Southwest for... 2018? Probably will cancel after the companion pass benefit ends. Could keep for travel/reward points.
Chase Freedom for everything else (1.5% & best benefits)

% listed are for cashback

inline five

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Re: Credit Card Benefits | Price Protection, Trip Cancellation, etc.
« Reply #1 on: December 19, 2017, 05:23:23 PM »
Waaaay too complicated IMO.

First I use the Citi double cash card for nearly everything. 2%. It does offer extended warranty and I used it this year to fix up my quadcopter that I crashed. They needed me to jump through hoops and get a repair estimate. I did, and it paid $350 to fix it.

If I happen upon a bonus deal I will open up a card for that as it's a lucrative way to go. I did this with the CSR card early this year. I use it to it's required min spend and then stop.

I pay recurring bills either on my citi card or write the check thru online bill pay for stuff like my water bill and mortgage.


hadabeardonce

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Re: Credit Card Benefits | Price Protection, Trip Cancellation, etc.
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2017, 08:02:03 PM »
Waaaay too complicated IMO.

First I use the Citi double cash card for nearly everything. 2%. It does offer extended warranty and I used it this year to fix up my quadcopter that I crashed. They needed me to jump through hoops and get a repair estimate. I did, and it paid $350 to fix it.

If I happen upon a bonus deal I will open up a card for that as it's a lucrative way to go. I did this with the CSR card early this year. I use it to it's required min spend and then stop.

I pay recurring bills either on my citi card or write the check thru online bill pay for stuff like my water bill and mortgage.
1/2 the strategy is to keep cards from being skimmed at places and the other 1/2 is to keep them active for credit score purposes...

There was one year our credit card number was taken three times, which caused major pains for updating automatic billing, so we added another card that was used solely for that purpose. Gas stations seemed like a likely culprit, so we started to use the Discover card for that. It's the oldest card we have and has a 29k limit, but I was disappointed when I looked up how their tiered rewards worked, so we stopped using it in favor of the Amazon card, which isn't looking all that beneficial. It's the 2nd oldest card with a 25k limit... I spent years calling each company every six months requesting credit line increases little by little.

I got the Southwest card in November for the 2018 companion pass. We picked up the Star One card this month after changing banks. If you make 10 purchases Star One will increase the interest rate on their checking account to match the 1.15% savings account rate.

We have a credit limit of 125k, combining all the cards. It's rediculous... our credit usage never goes above 6%.

Systems101

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Re: Credit Card Benefits | Price Protection, Trip Cancellation, etc.
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2017, 10:53:04 PM »
Does this sound right? I would think the same company would provide the same benefits to all cards.

Yes.  It's marketing (among other things)

Keep in mind it's not just the bank issuer, it's also the tier of card.  Visa has Gold, Platinum, Infinite.  Mastercard has World and World Elite.  There may even be other levels, I am not a true expert on the topic.

There are some bounds on things (some recommended levels if you have a Visa Infinite, for example), but the benefits are not universal even across issuers or banks... they will also be targeted to the general marketing of the card.  For an airline card, it will focus on those benefits; for an overall travel card, it will have others.  Each is a form of marketing specific to that niche to get folks interested in the card.

The inconsistency also benefits the banks because it's simply hard to keep track of what card has what benefit.  That causes folks to settle in on one card with good benefit and use it all the time (less maximization = better for the bank).  On the other end of the spectrum, it also means people make mistakes on what card to use and thus don't draw on the benefits as much as they statistically could if they had just settled on one simple, high benefit card.


slappy

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Re: Credit Card Benefits | Price Protection, Trip Cancellation, etc.
« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2017, 10:57:36 AM »
Waaaay too complicated IMO.

First I use the Citi double cash card for nearly everything. 2%. It does offer extended warranty and I used it this year to fix up my quadcopter that I crashed. They needed me to jump through hoops and get a repair estimate. I did, and it paid $350 to fix it.

If I happen upon a bonus deal I will open up a card for that as it's a lucrative way to go. I did this with the CSR card early this year. I use it to it's required min spend and then stop.

I pay recurring bills either on my citi card or write the check thru online bill pay for stuff like my water bill and mortgage.

When you do the check through online bill pay, does that get charged to the card as a purchase or a cash advance?

inline five

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Re: Credit Card Benefits | Price Protection, Trip Cancellation, etc.
« Reply #5 on: December 21, 2017, 11:27:20 AM »
Waaaay too complicated IMO.

First I use the Citi double cash card for nearly everything. 2%. It does offer extended warranty and I used it this year to fix up my quadcopter that I crashed. They needed me to jump through hoops and get a repair estimate. I did, and it paid $350 to fix it.

If I happen upon a bonus deal I will open up a card for that as it's a lucrative way to go. I did this with the CSR card early this year. I use it to it's required min spend and then stop.

I pay recurring bills either on my citi card or write the check thru online bill pay for stuff like my water bill and mortgage.

When you do the check through online bill pay, does that get charged to the card as a purchase or a cash advance?

I put anything that can be billed recurrently. Auto insurance, internet bill, SlingTV, etc on autopay. The other stuff I use online bill pay paid as a check. You can't pay everything with a card, example your mortgage.