Hi all,
I was looking for a free credit card which also has a travel insurance included. The only one I could find was the BankWest Platinum (possibly also Gold) credit card.
Unfortunately I was only offered the standard one, which does not have the insurance.
I currently have 3 credit cards with limits of $7000 / $2000 / $2000
Should I decrease the limits or cancel the not needed cards?
Any advise would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Frank
I have an ANZ Platinum card (used to be Gold but they "upgraded" it for some unknown reason). The annual charge for the card is about $80 but it includes genuine, full travel insurance. You are required to pay at least $250 towards your trip on the card to get the insurance but that's easy - I just pay a $250 deposit to the travel agent or the airline or book $250 worth of accommodation or car hire and pay the rest by bank transfer or Bpay. My wife and I go overseas ~ twice a year so it saves us ~ $1000/year.
You only need to pay the $250 once if you are paying for yourself & spouse (not sure about "partners"). We have made 2 - 3 claims over the years and have always been fully reimbursed.
Yes, need to be aware of the minimum spend to "activate" the insurance. For the Bankwest cards atleast 75% of the total value of the return overseas travel ticket needs to spent on the card.
28 degrees doesn't have free travel insurance but it doesnt charge any fees when using overseas atm's
and it doesn't have any other yearly fees like other cards
"28 Degrees MasterCard is the award winning1 Australian credit card that offers no annual fee, no currency conversion fees and no international transaction fees. "
http://www.28degreescard.com.au/
You can also pre-load the card with your own cash, using it as a debit card.
Thanks for your replies. I don't like to pay an annual fee for a credit card.
I already have the 28Degrees MasterCard and would like to keep it. I also have the ANZ Qantas Frequent Flyer Visa&Amex cards, as I got 10K QFF bonus points. The first year is fee free. I believe I have to keep it for a while, otherwise they might take the QFF points back…
Then I have a basic Visa HSBC credit card as this is my main bank and it's fee free for life.
The BankWest Platinum credit card is fee free for life too and includes a free travel insurance. Unfortunately I was refused.
Should I cancel the HSBC card and reduce the credit limit of the ANZ to the minimum in order to get approved for the BankWest?
Unlikely changed credit limits will get approval immediately. They are looking at other criteria as well.
Just buy a real travel insurance policy - cheap enough and essential, dont leave home without it and 28 degrees, but leave your AMEX and others at home.
www.TID.com.au (look out for a 10% off promo code online)
Gold/Platinum CC fees will cost as much or more. Fee free CC insurance - not worth the risk if Murphys Law strikes you OS.
TANSTAAFL. It's costing you some other way. Buy your own insurance.
I just calculated the cost of a 2 week travel insurance for me and my partner - $105!
I find Australian insurance prices ridiculous and a total rip off. I used to pay 5 Euro per year for a yearly travel insurance covering up to 6 weeks per trip back home.
I agree, I would not leave without medical insurance, but in my opinion the free credit card insurance would work as long as you read the small prints and "activate" the insurance. The excess might be higher, but I just want a cover for the worst case scenario.
As I said earlier the BankWest Platinum card is absolutely free. Only problem for me is to get approved for it…
Yeah but maybe your trips were within Europe and evacuation costs are lower. We are far from everywhere. What you were quoted is about par for 2 people. And it's only a small fraction of the total travel cost.
No, It was a worldwide insurance including USA. Only medical though, but I don't need a baggage insurance etc. anyway.
I also paid 50 EUR per year for my motorcycle insurance coverage in the whole of Europe. Here I pay $600 per year only third party injury…
Sorry, but I still think it's a rip off…
Probably because your medical costs are partly subsidised by the state health systems in Europe. That's a whole discussion in itself. That's just the way it is in another country, some things are more expensive here, e.g. groceries, some cheaper, e.g. petrol.
You are right, within the EU it is normally not even necessary to get extra medical cover as there is the free European Health Insurance Card, however I was talking about a worldwide medical travel insurance which even includes the US where health costs are the most expensive in our world.
Premiums for medical travel insurance ranges from 5 EUR to 10 EUR per year. What is a yearly insurance in Oz? $500?
So maybe that's the solution for you, to use your EU citizenship to buy cheap insurance. Or is that avenue closed to you now?
Unfortunately that does not work. The trip has to start in the country where the insurance is from and end there as well.
Same as with Oz insurance…
Do you have any home insurance? If your home insurance is with the banks, they usually will give you a gold or platinum card for free for the life of your home loan. My dad's got the ANZ platinum Visa card and we bought our plane tickets with it to go to China. All of the immediate family's travel insurance was covered, this included my mum, me, my husband and our 1 year old baby. We didn't claim anything though but it's good to have the peace of mind. Oh, and we did confirm all the details with the customer service person at the branch before we went, so I think the info above is definitely true. They don't tell you this sort of stuff if you don't ask, and all the brochures are very confusing, so we just went to the branch and asked.
Citibank offering Platinum card that has free travel insurance. There was a promo with first year no annual fees but im not sure if its still running:
http://citibank.com.au/CardsOnline/Platinum.htm?Code=P1C7C26…
Please read the terms and conditions very, very carefully. I have there are a lot of loopholes eg. some need 100% of all travel related expenses prepaid on the card. Some only $1000, some 50%.
Don't expect a claim to be easy (persistence pays off (had to cancel a trip as my son was sick))
One thing to check with Credit Card insurance is who is covered. Some only cover the cardholder, and no one else.
(Amex I'm looking at you!)
My friend has mentioned HSBC also offers credit card with free travel & content insurance.
ANZ platinum card has included genuine travel insurance and is no annual fee if you spend at least $20,000 p.a on it (which we do)
genuine? and the others aren't/don't?
Mixed reports from other providers: lots if caveats and low claim limits. Best to read the PDS
i work for anz and can confirm that all their platinum cards have free travel insurance as long as you spend $250+ on travel related expenses before you leave the country.
Both you and your partner are covered as well as kids under 21. Some platinum cards also have medical insurance. best to go to their website-personal-credit cards- compare cards and look at the different cards.
However most cards have annual fees which include their $55 rewards fee in them.
i would obviously recommend you call and ask the policy underwriters QBE for specific details to confirm if you are covered or not
Westpac have the Altitude Platinum card which I have had for some years. Watch out for terms and conditions on these cards though. For example, with the Westpac card you must pay directly with the card to be entitled to the free travel insurance. It is not valid if you pay via bpay using the credit card.
Since airlines started charging exorbitant fees for paying via credit card, I have found buying separate travel insurance is often cheaper than the credit card fee you will incur to be entitled to the 'free' insurance included with the card.