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Numerous credit cards offer cell phone insurance / coverage in 2021, which is a surprise. As many other credit card perks have gone the way of the Dodo in 2019 and 2020, this perk remains. In fact, it has expanded. More banks and credit card issuers are adding this perk. We’ll look at what cell phone protection is and which credit cards offer cell phone insurance at this point.
Updated with new options 12/12/21
Some Of These Offers May Have Ended Or Changed Since Publishing
Table of Contents
Cell phone protection covers damage, loss, theft, and other issues related to your cell phone. While things like warranty protection and purchase protection can help you in the days immediately after purchase, what happens if your phone breaks a year later? Numerous carriers offer insurance plans that you pay for monthly. Your phone’s manufacturer may also have a monthly payment plan. However, numerous credit cards offer cell phone protection built in. Just pay for the phone and/or the bill (different policies have different rules) with that card to get the protection.
Different plans have different amounts of coverage. Theft? Was it your fault by dropping it in the ocean? Are you on a phone payment plan, or did you buy it outright? These items will drastically affect your coverage under your carrier’s plan or things like Apple Care. With cell phone protection, you should be covered for most or all situations.
The one area to pay attention to for what’s not covered is cosmetic damage. Some cards will cover this, but others won’t. What is cosmetic damage? It’s things like scratches or a cracked screen that look bad but don’t make your phone stop working. Read the terms for whether a cracked screen or other cosmetic damage will be covered on your card.
The Chase Ink Business Preferred Card has a $95 annual fee and an incredible 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points welcome offer. It’s also one of the better-known on the list of which credit cards offer cell phone insurance. Here are the details on its cell phone protection:
Chase’s IHG Rewards Club Premier card has an annual fee of $89 and a welcome offer of 125,000 IHG Rewards points. It also offers cell phone protection. Here are the details:
The Chase Freedom Flex Credit Card has no annual fee and welcome offer of $200 in cash back after spending $500 within 90 days. This is a new product from Chase as of September 15, 2020. It is a World Elite Mastercard with the following phone protection benefits:
The U.S. Bank Visa Platinum Card has $0 annual fee and a lengthy (18 months) 0% APR when you open the card. Here are the details on its cell phone protection:
The U.S. Bank Altitude Connect card has $0 annual fee for the first year and is a new product for 2021. Here are the details on its cell phone protection:
The NFCU nRewards Secured Credit Card has no annual fee but requires a one-time $200 security deposit. That’s because it’s a secured card (ideal for those building credit). With this card, you’ll also receive quality cell phone protection. There’s a Visa and a Mastercard option for this card, and coverage varies.
The Wells Fargo Propel American Express Card has $0 annual fee and 12 months 0% introductory APR (including balance transfers) when you open the card. Here are the details on its cell phone protection:
The Wells Fargo Hotels.com Rewards Visa Card has no annual fee and is a newcomer that we first wrote about here. Here are the details on its secondary cell phone protection:
On April 1, 2021, American Express added cell phone protection to many of its cards. We covered the details and the cards included in this write-up. Here are the details on their cell phone protection:
World Elite Mastercards — such as the Citi Prestige, and Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard — all offer the same levels of coverage. You’ll need to register your card here to enroll in benefits. Here are the details on their cell phone protection:
It’s important to note that Citi Premier is not eligible for this coverage, even though it’s a World Elite Mastercard.
World Mastercards, such as the Bank of America Cash Rewards card, all offer the same levels of coverage. The coverage is similar to the above with World Elite Mastercards, but at reduced rates. Here are the details on their cell phone protection:
Policies couldn’t possibly be different. How to make a claim varies wildly. For the World Elite Mastercards, you need to enroll to have the benefit activated. For the others, it should be automatic. So what happens when your phone is lost, stolen or broken — when it’s time to use the benefit? Unless your credit card issuer gave you a benefits portal and specific information, there’s always one place to start. Call the number on the back of your card and ask how to start a claim.
It’s surprising to see that so many credit cards offer cell phone insurance still. After numerous losses and cutbacks in 2019, this is one benefit that seems to be growing. The popularity of this perk should make it easy to find a card in your wallet that offers cell phone protection. Cell phones have become a quasi-essential item at this point in our world. Dropping it, breaking it, losing it, or otherwise losing access to precious photos or important work emails can be brutal. At least now it won’t cost you so much to replace it.
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The IHG Select card no longer provides cell phone insurance/protection per the link provided in an earlier post. https://www.chase.com/personal/credit-cards/ihg/earn/select-protection
I have two Citi World Elite Mastercards (the Prestige and the AA Executive Card), and it looks like there’s no mention on Citi’s website when you log into your account and go to Card Benefits, of cell phone coverage. Is this benefit still intact or did it silently disappear (like so many other Citi benefits)?
DWT – in the World Elite MC section, there’s a link to register for these benefits – https://travel.mastercard.com/ They’re not automatic on most of the cards.
The Chase United Explorer card also provides cell phone insurance up to $600 per claim and $1,000 per year for theft or damage to the cell phone.
Colin – it does offer coverage, but it’s something different. It offers purchase protection. See our breakdown of that here https://milestomemories.com/which-credit-cards-offer-purchase-protection/
I don’t think the United Explorer card coverage is the same as purchase protection. That has a limited coverage after the date of purchase, whereas this coverage is unlimited provided you pay your cell phone monthly bill from the card. From Chase: “Additional Benefit Information
Can reimburse you to repair or replace your eligible cellular telephone in the event of theft or damage when you charge your monthly cellular service provider bill to your covered card” “Who’s Covered
Cardholder who pays for their monthly cellular service provider bill with their covered card” “What’s Covered
All eligible cellular phones listed on your cellular service provider’s monthly billing statement for the billing cycle in which the damage or theft occurred”
Colin – interesting. When I go to Chase’s site to the public info about the United Explorer Card, it’s not listing that under the benefits. https://creditcards.chase.com/travel-credit-cards/united/united-explorer
What info are you looking at?
I have this card. When I bring up Chase’s main web page and click on the three dots next to “Pay card” there’s an option for “Card Benefits”. Scroll all the way down and the penultimate section is “Cell Phone Protection”. Alternatively, just go to and check out “Appendicx Cellular Wireless Telephone Protection”,
I tried to post the URL to the “Appendix Cellular Wireless Telephone Protection” PDF but it was deleted. Please feel free to email me if you’d like the URL.
Colin – I believe that was grandfathered in, that’s why we are seeing something different. I can’t remember when, but Chase changed benefits on some of their non-premium cards, and doing away with things like cell phone insurance, purchase price protection, etc. was one of those changes. However, it looks like they grandfathered you in (which I wasn’t aware of until now, so that’s awesome!). But if you go to the public info for new applications, it doesn’t have this. Now it makes sense.
I picked up the Chase United Explorer card in December. Under card benefits, there are many listed including Purchase Protection and Extended Warranty Protection, but nothing for cell phone protection. So yeah, you seem to been grandfathered in for coverage, good for you.
I just logged into my Chase portal and rechecked my United Explorer benefits to reconfirm. Sure enough, it’s still there. The second-last item (between “Extended warranty protection” and “MasterCard concierge” is “Cell phone protection”
“Get up to $600 per claim and $1,000 per year in cell phone protection against covered theft or damage for phones listed on your monthly cell phone bill when you pay it with your eligible credit card. Maximum of 2 claims in a 12 month period with a $50 deductible per claim.”
I wasn’t aware until your article that this benefit had been withdrawn but is grandfathered in for my account – I don’t recall Chase ever telling me but it’s good to know. Thanks for the information.
Is there any card provide coverage without having to pay the monthly wireless charge ? I normally buy prepaid annual plan for my phone and I am not sure it is covered by any credit card
Jim-I’ve never seen any card that covers your phone simply by having the card / without using it for the bill.
Jim – none of the insurance policies I’ve read while researching this article would cover that situation. Instead, you should look at purchase protection. We covered that here – https://milestomemories.com/which-credit-cards-offer-purchase-protection/ Unfortunately, it usually has a short life, like 3-6 months of coverage in that situation.
You are missing the new hotels.com Wells Fargo credit card – and the reason I point it out is because of the awesom $25 deductible.
I used the benefit on my Ink Bus card earlier this year. They require a lot of documentation (estimates, copies of several months worth of bills, etc) and it took probably 5 -6 weeks but I did get the full amount minus the $100 deductible.
Thanks for letting me know what’s involved. I hope I never have to use it, but good to hear what’s involved.
Interesting that Chase covers cosmetic damage, but not Citi. So, it is a trade-off of lower coverage, but having cosmetic coverage. My phone died twice last year from the Apple slow-downs. Citi covered the phone both times and the process was painless. However, once I used up my coverage, I was happy to have the IHG card to cover my new phone for the balance of the year.
It’s confusing but are you sure every World Mastercard includes the cellphone insurance? It’s not in the T&C of the Amtrak World MasterCard, for example.
Eric–thanks for the question. Now that I’m looking into it, it seems like some of these silently disappeared, and I can’t figure out when. I’ve reached out to Mastercard for clarification.
Wells Fargo Cash Wise has the same thing as Propel So many cards and I don’t even own a single one of them.I just found this Ting $6 monthly service without any call mins, data or text, just saying if your not going to actual use the SIM it would be hard to find any insurance plan cheaper then $6 a month, is a great deal if in fact the credit card does honor a $6 monthly plan without any fine print?
https://ting.com/rates
So is there any card that offers protection withoht paying a monthly bill? I always just buy the phone outright because I swap SIM cards depending on where I am travelling. So I guess I am out of luck for cell phone protection
Dave I believe you just need just any “monthly cell phone bill”. Im not 100% sure if it would work but there are many super cheap $10-15 a month of basic limited mins call only service from off brands such as trackphone, mint mobile etc.. If you can find the cheapest monthly plan it may actually be cheaper option to just pay a cheap plan Vs paying for insurance coverage?
You need to be pretty careful with the terms and conditions. I’ve tried using the coverage from the Chase Ink Preferred card while using a Mint Mobile plan, but was denied due to Mint being a prepaid service. Apparently it was pretty deep in their terms and conditions.
Dave – you could also look at purchase protection as a different route. Buy the phone with a card that covers damage/theft/loss via purchase protection – https://milestomemories.com/which-credit-cards-offer-purchase-protection/
Coverage won’t last as long, obviously. The ongoing protections of cell phone coverage via monthly bill lasts longer, but you have other options and different ways to get to the end goal.
Thanks for all your replies. I don’t think I would sign up for a card specifically for this benefit but it certainly doesn’t hurt to try getting the insurance coverage if you already have the card. Btw I noticed one of the most useless cards I own (Lufthansa Miles&More World Elite by Barclaycard US) has cell phone protection. It’s seriously such a stupid credit card as it has almost zero perks, the customer service is absolutely horrible and it doesn’t even offer basics such as purchase protection.
Do any of these cards allow one to pay only a portion of the monthly amount, and still offer coverage?
VT – it comes down to how the terms get interpreted. The terms I saw when looking at the cards for this article always said things like “pay your bill and you’re covered”. What counts as ‘pay your bill’ is the question. You could try asking card issuers, but I’d give 2 caveats: 1-if they say ‘partial counts’, get it in writing. 2-remember that different phone reps might have different answers.
Nice roundup. Had some questions: 1. Does the $49 IHG card also offer cell phone insurance or it’s just the new one with the higher AF?
2. Do you know which of these cards (if any) will only pay you a depreciated rate for the phone. (For example you have a $800 phone that is one year old when it breaks, and the insurancy company will only give you $600 since they say that’s the current value of the phone).
3. The World Elite MC section is confusing. At the beginning you mention Citi Premier, but then at the end you say Citi Premier is not eligible.
4. Might want to mention the upcoming SoFi CC since that will be 2% cashback and World-Elite-level coverage
HoKo – the $49 card doesn’t offer this, since it has reduced benefits for the cheaper fee. I assume all insurance companies will look at depreciation, but the specifics I don’t know. If anyone else has filed claims through these, I hope they will jump in to share some experience. Premier is a World Elite card, so I changed the wording to make it clearer. Sorry about that.
The SoFi CC – we are waiting on confirmed details when they roll it out, but I’m hoping for good things!
HoKo – I stand corrected. A friend of mine just called Chase about the $49 old IHG card and was told it DOES offer cell phone protections/insurance. The benefits phone number is 800-627-8372.
Im not sure how things changed but looking at the IHG card benefits all offer a level of cell phone protection under added protection of the website
https://www.chase.com/personal/credit-cards/ihg/earn/select-protection. I see the Select & Premier (which I have both) offer up to $800 per claim & $1000 per 12 months. its a long shot but with 2 expensive phones on my cell phone account I wonder if I could do a split charge payment between both IHG cards to maximize the level of coverage to $800 per claim/per phone Vs. only having $1000 max coverage for both phones per year.
Mike – thanks for pointing out this changed. I updated the info. As to your question, it’s a gray area. To get the coverage, you are supposed to pay your bill with that card. I’d check the terms to see if there’s anything that says “your entire” or “all of the bill” etc. In theory, it does sound like it works, but this is also insurance, and insurance companies are notorious for trying to not pay out. Watch out for partial payments possibly not activating the coverage.
Wow great post I had no idea looks like ill start paying my phone bill with my IHG card. Although most phones are worth more then $800 these days if its lost or stolen that will still help cover a big chunk of the phone.
Anyone with experience out there with any experience using any of the insurance?
I got the IHG card for the sign up bonus but was thrilled to see the cell phone coverage. Overall as good as what I was paying ATT over $30 month for (4 IPhones on plan) so that alone easily covered my annual fee. Then you add the free annual night and other benefits (granted Platinum status on IHG isn’t that great but the Global Entry/Precheck credit definite has value) and I consider this card a no-brainer
