says Sandeep Bhalla, business manager, cards, Citibank India.
Keep an eye on exclusions and sub-limits
The features offered by various card protection plans may vary and you need to take a close look at the exclusions. For instance, HDFC Bank’s Zero Liability scheme for its debit cards does not extend the cover to ATM transactions and the liability is restricted to a maximum of Rs 1 lakh per card. In case of Tata-AIG’s covers, fraudulent transactions made more than 12 hours prior to first reporting the loss of the card and the ones conducted after reporting the loss are not covered.
In case of the service offered through CPP Assistance, you need to bear in mind that under the basic plan, the total cover pre-notification amounts to Rs 50,000 (Rs 1 lakh in case of the premium version), even if more than one card has been misused. Within the limit, the maximum pre-notification cover provided for each card under the two plans is between Rs 20,000 and Rs 40,000.
Another key limitation of this scheme is that the protection gets activated only after your card is lost, and not if the fraudulent transaction has taken place because your password or other security details are compromised. Besides, since the offering is in the nature of a group insurance policy, the reimbursement is subject to the insurance company being satisfied about the validity of the claim made. The bank and the protection service provider have no role to play during this investigation process.
The fact that process involves three entities — the card issuer, the service provider and the insurance company, with each having limited responsibilities, may be a source of discomfort for individuals wishing to avoid dealing with multiple