You can’t take the insurance covers offered to credit cardholders at face value and need to be absolutely sure what you are to, says Jay Sampat In today’s day and age of guerilla credit card companies are going all out to ensnare customer by offering free as well as discounted insurance covers to customer signing up with them. One however can’t take all these offers at face value. You need to be extremely careful and be absolutely sure of what you are entitled to, lest you are caught unawares and have no insurance to fall back on in case of a crisis. Some of the factors that are critical to watch out for while claiming the insurance cover bundled along with credit cards are:
(a) High insurance covers, in the region of Rs. 10 lakhs- 20 lakhs, which are promised by all card companies in the case of accidental dead cover, are usually applicable only for air accidents; the limit getting drastically reduced to the tune of Rs.1-2 lakhs, when it comes to road accidents.
(b) When it comes to accident insurance, purchase protection and any of the travel insurance policies, remember, that in most cases, covers are only meant for the primary cardholder and are not available to additional cardholders. Hence, if you are depending solely on this insurance for the additional cardholders, you need to reconsider your insurance planning.
(c) The claims process in the case of Accident Insurance – The claims process is extremely tedious when one has to claim insurance linked to the credit card. To start with, a notice of death should be provided within 30 days of the credit cardholder’s death, giving a brief description of the accident. Subsequently, the claim must be filed within two months of the loss of life due to an accident and claim form has to be submitted along with a notarized version of death certificate, police report/panchnama, FIR, post-mortem report and examining medical officer’s report give such rigorous guidelines, if one is dependent on the solely on this insurance for ones dependants, it is critical that you brief your nominee about the policy as well as the claims procedure, as ignorance and delays could leave your nominee stranded.
(d) Purchase Protection Insurance – Many card companies offer a free purchase protection, under which, al the items bought using the card are insured against damage or loss due to fire or theft up to certain value for a 180-day period from he date of purchase. To claim this, you have to submit a notice of loss due to theft/fire to insurance company including brief description of the incident. Also, the claim must be filled along with the police report/FIR, original purchase voucher/ bill, and card statement featuring the transaction/ copy of the charge slip. Remember, that if any of the documents are missing, you will get nothing.
(e) Baggage Insurance – One needs to be on top of the paperwork in order to get the dues in case of baggage insurance. To begin with, a notice of the loss should be provided along with the following documents (a) property irregularity Report (PIR) from the concerned airline (b) certificate from the concerned airline clearly mentioning non-delivery of checked baggage and the amount of the compensation paid (c) List of articles in the unit of the baggage lost and proof of ownership in case the item is valued in excess of a certain amount (d) baggage receipt and (e) Ticket/boarding pass. as though this war is not enough, in most cases, the fine print also says that one is not covered for valuables defined as ‘ photographic audio, video, computer , telecommunication ,and electrical equipments , cell phones, tale scopes, binoculars, spectacles, sunglasses, contact lenses, antiques, watches ,jewellery, furs , articles, out of precious stones and metals, cash and travelers’ cheques”. So, essentially the cover just covers your clothes and the bag itself.
(f) Many foreign card companies offer enhanced travels insurance benefit to their gold cardholders namely for delay in checked baggage and loss of passport and documents. Also, many gold cardholders covered for emergency purchase of replacement items up to a pre-decided limit in the event that the checked baggage is delayed for more than six hours during domestic or international flights from the scheduled arrival time at the destination. In order to claim insurance in checked baggage, the cardholder has to submit a Property Irregularity Report (PIR) from the concerned airline, ticket/ boarding pass, letter/certification from the concerned airlines with the date and time of delivery. Then terms clearly state that the delay in checked baggage policy will not cover any claim where non-delivery certificate does not be obtained immediately from the airline. In such cases it is important to note that all the insurance benefits proclaimed by the card company are actually provided directly to cardholders by the PSU general insures such as National insurance, New India Assurance and so on; the card companies not begin liable for any of the terms, conditions and decisions of the insurance company.
The next time a credit card company offers you the bait of free insurance along with a credit card and you think that taking this insurance will save you the cost of the separate insurance policy, think again! On doing a proper evaluation, such policy may appear attractive only on paper. Moreover, when it comes to claiming the money, it could turn over to be a major nightmare given the amount of paper work involved and the timeframe to be followed in filing for the claims. In this game, understanding the rules is critical before signing on the dotted line.

THE NEXT TIME A CREDIT CARD COMPANY OFFERS YOU THE BAIT OF FREE INSURACE ALONG WITH THE CREDIT CARD AND YOU THINK THAT TAKING THIS INSURANCE WILL SAVE YOU THE COST OF ASEPERATE INSURANCE POLICY, THINK AGAIN!