PREMIUM CARD COMPARISON - THE FINE PRINT

Nobody likes reading the fine print, so we at Max Your Plastic have done that for you to determine which premium card, American Express Platinum, Chase Sapphire Reserve, or Capital One Venture X, has the best insurance and protection coverage.

Each card provides extensive coverage, not only in travel insurance, but also in purchase and return protection, as well as extended warranty.

The table below breaks down the coverage into key areas enough to give you a good idea of what you can expect, but we haven’t included every detail, so once you have chosen a card for a purchase, we recommend you read that particular section(s) of the fine print for greater detail, exceptions, requirements and process.

In general, the credit card must be used for a purchase for the insurance/protection to be valid, but in some cases the card only needs to be used for a portion of the purchase. This can come in handy when using points to book a fare, but using the card to pay for the taxes.

One important consideration in the coverage is whether it is Primary or Secondary. Primary coverage means you can go to the credit card bank first when you incur a loss. Secondary means that the credit card bank will cover your loss only after you have gone to your personal insurance and/or the carrier or service provider. This can be important in making a decision because when traveling, or when incurring a loss or injury, it can be a hassle trying to chase down coverage from several sources in succession, and gathering proof that you have done so. In the table below, we indicated where we knew coverage to be secondary.

Summary

The premium credit cards bring us many benefits, some of which we may not be aware. We generally focus on sign-up bonuses, earnings or cash-back rates, and the privileges that status brings. The additional benefits these cards bring can be significant, can save significant dollars, and in general can make our lives easier.

It should be noted that the next tier of travel cards (American Express Gold, Chase Sapphire Preferred, and Capital One Venture) also provide slightly lesser additional benefits than the premium card in the same family.

In our humble opinion, Chase Sapphire Reserve seems the best option when paying for travel due to extensive travel accident insurance and emergency evacuation and transport. However, another card might be better for a particular purchase.

Do you have any questions about this article? Is this article helpful to you? Is there anything else you want to know about credit cards? Be sure to give us some feedback on our Max Your Plastic facebook page.