Credit Card Insurance: How Much Is Too Much?
With
all of the different offers that credit card issuers make to
their cardholders, you would think they were holding stock
in some of the insurance companies, and perhaps they are.
Worse yet is the fact that if you decline one offer, a month
or so later they are sending you another offer quite similar
to the first. Not only that, even if you accept an offer,
you still receive a similar offer to one you already
accepted. It becomes annoying after awhile, and you begin to
wonder whether you have made the right choice and whether
you do need any of the additional insurance offers that are
bombarding your mailbox and email inbox.
How do you know when to stop? The credit card issuer assures
you that this is a great deal and that you just have to have
this insurance, but you already have insurance to cover what
they are offering. At least you thought you did until they
convinced you that you need more. The truth is, you have to
decide for yourself whether you need more insurance and how
much. Never let someone talk you into taking someone you are
not sure you’ll need or duplicating something you already
have. That may work for regular life insurance, but when it
comes to credit card insurance, you are not going to get
insurance that is going to pay you instead of the balance on
the bill or disability that will pay you in spite of the
fact that another company is already making the payments.
Remember, when you receive a phone call, the person on the
other end may not even be a staff member of the card issuer,
but is a telemarketer just looking to make a sale.
There are some cases where more insurance is good such as
with travel insurance when there is a set dollar amount on
coverage. The cardholder may have an option to increase that
coverage; however, with life and disability, there is no
option for increased coverage, so to purchase an additional
policy would be a waste of money. If you are unsure how much
coverage you will receive, take the insurance on a
thirty-day trial basis, which is often free, and use the
time to review the information that you receive and decide
if you want to keep it.
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