Citi Boosts Card Benefits - Increasing Warranty Coverage, Return Protection and Price Rewind Limits

Citi Boosts Card Benefits — Increasing Warranty Coverage, Return Protection and Price Rewind Limits

April 19, 2016 ccwatcher Citibank

Have a Citi credit card? Effective May 15, 2016, your card benefits will be getting a boost. Thanks to a change in benefits providers, Citi will soon be giving its cardmembers improved purchase protections, including increased warranty coverage, return protection and expanded Citi Price Rewind limits. Even better, these changes appear to apply to most Citi cards.

Read on for the details.

24 Months Extended Warranty Protection

While not everyone realizes it, one of the perks of making purchases with your credit card is that you can automatically extend a product’s warranty at no extra cost. This is a benefit that American Express, Discover, Visa and Mastercard all provide, though their requirements differ.

In Citi’s case, it previously offered an additional 12 months on top of the manufacturer’s warranty. Effective May 15, 2016, Citi will now extend the manufacturer’s warranty for an additional 24 months.

For instance, if you purchase a product with a 1 year warranty, Citi will add another 2 years onto it, covering it for a total of 3 years.

In addition, Citi will now include third party extended warranties in their coverage. So if you purchased an item with a 2 year manufactuer’s warranty and also purchased a 1 year extended warranty, Citi will still extend the warranty for another 2 years — for a total of 5 years.

There are, of course, restrictions. They include, but are not limited to:

You must purchase the item at least in part with your Citi card or ThankYou points. Reimbursement is limited to the amount charged to your Citi card and/or ThankYou points.
The following types of items are excluded: motorized vehicles, services, used items, items purchased for resale, land or buildings, plants and live animals, items that do not come with a manufacturer’s warranty

90 Day Return Protection

Another change that Citi has made is to increase your return protection coverage from 60 days up to 90 days.

Return protection covers the times that you attempt to return a purchase but the merchant won’t take it back. If you attempt your return within 90 days, Citi may refund you the purchase price up to $500 per item (or the amount charged to the Citi card) and $2,500 per year.

Increased Citi Price Rewind Limits

Citi Price Rewind is Citi’s unique price protection tool. It helps ensure you’re paying the lowest price on your purchases by searching hundreds of online merchants.

If the same item is found at a lower price within 60 days of your initial purchase date, you may receive reimbursement of the price difference. You can also let Citi know if you find a lower price to qualify for a reimbursement of the price difference.

As part of the benefits changes, Citi Price Rewind limits will be increasing from $300 per item an $1,200 per year up to $500 per item and $2,500 per year.

Travel Benefits Changes

Citi also changed many of the terms of its travel protection coverage, though these modifications may vary by card. Not all Citi cards are eligible for all of the following protections.

The following changes pertain to the Citi Prestige card:

Many travel benefits, such as trip cancellation and interruption protection, lost baggage protection and medical evacuation now require only partial payment with a Citi card in order to be eligible for the benefit. Previously, the entire charge needed to be paid with a Citi card or with ThankYou points in order to be eligible for these protections. This change is especially significant in the case of award tickets where paying the award flight taxes/fees on your card will mean getting additional protections on your trip. (Note, however, that for some of these protections, you may only be reimbursed up to the amount that you spent on your Citi card.)
Previously, travel benefits such as trip cancellation and interruption protection, travel/emergy assistance, trip delay, baggage delay and lost baggage protection were only available to the primary cardholder and authorized users, spouses/domestic partner, and dependents. Now, these benefits have been greatly expanded. Covered travelers for these benefits now include:

Covered Travelers which means, you, your Family Members, and Traveling Companion(s) traveling on the Trip.

Family Members means your children, spouse, fiancée, Domestic Partner and their children, including adopted children or step-children; legal guardians or wards; siblings or siblings-in-law; son-in-law or daughter-in-law; parents or parents-in-law; grandparents or grandchildren; aunts or uncles; nieces or nephews.

Traveling Companion means any individual(s) for whom you have paid to travel on your or your Family Member’s Trip.

Domestic Partner means a committed relationship between two unmarried adults, in which the partners, (1) are each other’s sole Domestic Partner, (2) maintain a common residence, (3) share financial obligations if both are employed, (4) are not married or joined in a civil union to anyone else or are not the Domestic Partner of anyone else, and (5) are not blood related.

Protection Benefits Guides

For full terms of all of your card’s benefits, including those mentioned above, see the documentation that Citi sent you. You may also be able to find them in the list below: