Recently, a coworker was complaining that a rather expensive garment his wife had given him at Christmas now had a tear in it because he had been careless with it. Not a manufacturing defect, just a normal tear from catching the garment in a hook somewhere. He was looking into getting it mended.
Wait a minute, said another coworker, did you pay for it with your credit card? Does it have extra insurance protection? 'Cause you could just claim it, they’ll replace the whole thing!
My first impression was that it’s not right to do this. I’m not sure how to formulate why. I guess it comes down to: you neglect it, you live with the consequences. These credit card protections should just cover manufacturing defects, not negligence, in effect extending the manufacturer’s regular warranty.
A few questions:
Is it true that this kind of protection (extra insurance for items purchased using a credit card) covers negligence?
If it is covered, am I the only one who feels it’s not right to claim this? That, despite the doubtful morality of credit card company practices, this still feels like cheating?
If it’s covered, it’s not cheating. If you pretend it was a defect because negligence isn’t covered, it is.
What if a car accident is your fault? Would you not claim it on insurance?
Or if your house burns down or is broken into from carelessness? How is that different?
I have a feeling that the number of hoops your co-worker will have to go through to obtain any reimbursement from the credit card company (or the insurance company that’s behind the guarantee) will be more than it’s worth.
And I agree that these sorts of protections are just extensions of the original warranty.
Yeah, that’s the opinion I eventually came to. If I broke my leg skiing, I’d still go to the hospital and expect the health care system to pay for it (or my insurance, if I were in the States).
It’s just my initial gut reaction that was very negative.
I’m not certain, but ISTR that some credit card commercials depicted customers accidentally damaging their own possessions, implying that the policy did indeed cover this. I expect it would vary from card to card, and one would need to consult the fine print of one’s own card to determine whether this sort of thing is covered.
Yes, you are. The rest of us buy insurance with the intent of filing a legitimate claim when it arises.