What does your credit card cover?

The insurance that accompanies your credit card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) is more like assistance contracts that assist you in case of incidents, for a short period of time without offering you very important health coverage and under no circumstances if you stay more than 3 consecutive months. They do not cover epidemics and therefore do not cover Covid-19-related medical expenses. Mondassur offers many travel insurance to supplement your credit card insurance and insure you abroad for the many situations where your credit card will not cover you. You can request a free quote for travel insurance and see details of the warranties online.

If you want to be well covered, we advise you to use them in addition to specific travel insurance. Without going into too much detail, we will give you the outline of the services offered.

The main benefits via your credit card

Warning: This analysis is not exhaustive and has no legal value. In addition, some guarantees may have been updated by banking agencies without being yet included in our presentation. We advise you to always check with your bank to find out in detail their proposed guarantees. The guarantees for a Visa, Mastercard or other credit card are very different depending on the bank that provides you with the card and the “level” of the card. Basic cards offer extremely limited warranties.

Here are the outlines of the coverage

Insured persons

These are usually the cardholder, his spouse or spouse, tax-dependent children under the age of 25 and ascendants and descendants. You should know that for Visa cards, the spouse and dependent children are covered even if they do not accompany the cardholder. Whereas for the Mastercard “standard” in particular, the family of the holder must accompany him to benefit from the benefit. So if you are travelling with friends or for business reasons and you have not purchased your ticket yourself, no warranty will apply.

Coverage time

Credit card guarantees take effect on the day of the subscription (under certain conditions) for the duration of the credit card until automatic termination or renewal of the holder’s share in the country of residence. If you are staying abroad, assistance guarantees are only applicable for the first 90 days. This condition may vary from card to card depending on the type of guarantee (assistance or insurance) if the stay is to last longer for specific reasons (death, disability due to an accident during the stay), for the Visa Premier, the guarantees insurance policies apply for the first 180 days of the stay.
Warning: if your stay exceeds 3 months your “standard” credit card will not cover you.

Territorial coverage range

For the “standard” and “first” Visa cards, you will be covered worldwide, without mileage allowance during your professional or private stays, in your country of residence (if you are a French resident: metropolitan France including Corsica, Monaco, Andorra, DOM TOM and COM) or outside your country of residence, for assistance guarantee. As far as insurance coverage is concerned, it applies to more than 100 km from the usual home or workplace. For Mastercard and American Express cards, assistance does not require a mileage allowance, except for the Amex “Gold” with which you will be covered only from 50 km from home for your vehicle assistance, medical assistance and repatriation costs, and from 100 km from your home worldwide for the vehicle rental warranty.

Terms of application of warranties

The assistance guarantee applies as soon as you sign up for the credit card for illness, injury, death, legal proceedings abroad and assistance in the continuation of the journey.

The insurance coverage applies once you have paid for your travel and other purchases related to it with your credit card, in case of travel incidents (aircraft delays, train, luggage) and travel accidents (death, disability). This can vary from map to card. Be careful if you haven’t paid for your trip yourself.

Amount of health care costs covered

The ceilings offered by credit cards are paltry compared to the medical costs that can be incurred in some foreign countries as in the USA, which is why it is strongly advised to take out additional insurance. Your health care costs will be reimbursed up to a maximum of 11,000 euros for Visa and Mastercard with an additional deductible of 50 euros for one and 75 for the other. The Visa Premier card has a higher ceiling (155,000 euros) with a deductible of 50 euros. Amex cards have a refund limit of 9200 euros. For example, with a deductible of 50 euros, if a doctor’s consultation costs you 60 euros, you will only be reimbursed between 0 and 10 euros with your credit card

Also be aware that for example, hospitalization for appendicitis (1 night) can cost you up to $40,000. See for yourself that the credit card ceilings are very low compared to Mondassur’s international insurance, with ceilings ranging from 500,000 to more than 1,000,000 euros.

Assistance

In general, the guarantees offered by the different credit cards cover almost the same services:

• The cost of transport and hotel for a relative in case of hospitalization of the insured of more than 10 days (“Visa Premier” 125 euros/day for 10 days up to 375 euros beyond, “Platinum Mastercard” 250 euros/day for 10 days up to 750 euros beyond).
• Repatriation and accompaniment to the home or place of hospitalization of children under the age of 15.
• Early return in case of hospitalization of more than 24 hours or death of a loved one (support of return tickets).
• Sending me the medicine.
• The repatriation of bodies in case of death during the stay.
• Legal assistance abroad.

Travel cancellation guarantee

The travel cancellation guarantee is generally not offered with “standard” cards. The Visa Premier card offers this guarantee capped at 5,000 euros with a refund of 200 euros per insured if the cancellation is made 30 days before departure. Cancellation fees are covered by the Amex Gold and Platinum cards up to 4,500 to 10,000 euros per insured per year. The “Platinum Mastercard” refunds up to a ceiling of 10,000 euros.

Aircraft delay or baggage warranty

“Standard” cards generally do not offer compensation to cover basic costs when your plane or baggage is delayed. The Premier Visa offers 250 euros from 4 hours late per trip. Amex cards compensate you between 150 euros (“personal bank card”) and 800 euros (platinium) for the delay of luggage, and between 100 and 200 euros for the delay of the planes. The late insurance for mastercards covers the costs between 250 (Gold) and 500 (Platinum).

Theft or deterioration of luggage

Standard cards don’t compensate you. The Visa Premier card covers you up to 800 euros per bag with a deductible of 70 euros. The Amex “Platinium” card guarantees personal belongings in case of theft, loss or deterioration up to 2000 euros per trip. For the “Platinum” Mastercard, the ceiling is 3200 euros per year.

Death or disability capital

The application of this guarantee is usually subject to the use of your card to purchase your ticket. The accident that caused the death or disability must have occurred during the trip, which must be a trip “guaranteed” by the insurer (check the terms and conditions for each card). This may be a trip by public transport or rental vehicles. The Mastercard pays up to 95,000 euros (public transport) and 46,000 euros (rental vehicle). Visa Premier and Gold Mastercard cards pay up to €310,000 per family per event in the event of death or disability. The Gold Amex and Platinum Mastercard cards cover up to €300,000 and €620,000 per family per claim, respectively.

Civil liability

You are not covered with standard bank cards. The Visa Premier and Platinum Mastercard card cover you to the tune of 1,525,000 euros per event for all property and bodily damage caused to third parties. The Amex Platinium card covers you up to 2,000,000 euros for property and bodily damage caused to others during a trip.
Don’t forget that if there is an accident, 1.5 million euros in some countries like the United States leave very quickly between medical expenses, legal costs … Etc.

Specific guarantees

To qualify for these guarantees, you usually need to take out additional insurance. In conclusion, your credit card’s coverage and insurance coverage varies depending on the type of card. If you do not have either a Visa Premier, Platinum Mastercard or Gold Mastercard card, we feel it is mandatory even for stays of less than 90 days purchase additional travel insurance primarily for high-cost countries such as the United States, Canada and many countries in Asia and Latin America.