American Express added a new cell phone protection benefit on their premium cards which begins on April 1, 2021. If you’ve been using your card to pay your cell phone bill and your phone gets stolen or damaged (including screen damage), AmEx will reimburse the repair or replacement costs of up to $800 per claim. Limit two claims per 12-month period. $50 deductible on each claim.
Direct Link | Benefit Terms (pdf)Â
The following cards are eligible:
- AmEx Platinum cards consumer and business versions (including Schwab, Morgan Stanley, etc. versions)
- Platinum Delta SkyMiles cards consumer and business versions
- Delta Reserve cards consumer and business versions
- Centurion cards consumer and business versions
When comparing it to other cell phone credit card benefits, the $800 is higher than the standard $600 limit found on most cards, though lower than the $1,000 Citi Prestige benefit. See Credit Card Cell Phone Insurance Compared – Get $600 In Coverage For Free (hopefully William will add the AmEx benefit to that post soon).
This benefit works especially well on the Delta cards during 2021 since there are separate wireless credits of $15 or $20 on the Delta Platinum business and Delta Reserve business cards through December. Also works well on the business Platinum card which earns 5x on the wireless category through June 30, 2021.
Someone on my T-mobile family plan has a recently broken android phone (which was purchased new from T-Mobile) and wants to replace that with a new iPhone – will this coverage work or do you have to replace your damaged phone with the same or similar model?
I just had to show a copy of a receipt with my replacement phone. Nothing was mentioned about having to buy an identical one. Hope the helps.
Have called in on like 5 separate days and have always run out of time while waiting on hold to initially speak with someone. Will try again this week, what a bummer.
Called again today, currently on hold for 9 minutes so far. There is on-hold music playing most of the time and then every 38 seconds it plays a “thank you for holding, your call will …” message at a much louder volume. This makes it a pain to use on speaker or using headphones, super annoying.
OK the total call time was 51 minutes including hold time, not great but the conversation didn’t take terribly long. Rep was super helpful, note that you’ll need your card and your security pin handy to authenticate before you file the claim. Once you start the claim the rest is done over email, which is nice. Will post an update when the claim is finished.
hey Kevin, what was the outcome and how long did it take?
Kind of a nightmare so far. Had a very nice lady call me but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get a reasonably helpful payout unless I drive like 50 miles to an Apple Store. Going to see if I can send photos this week. Basically they want a third party to confirm how broken it is and also the price to repair / replace.
Note that this coverage is secondary to homeowners/renters/other insurance and claims require proof of claim to primary coverage, or declarations page if coverage is below deductible. Claims also require proof of purchase through a wireless carrier.
Wells Fargo’s coverage is a lower deductible ($25 vs $50) and just requires proof that the phone is on the wireless account. Although it says coverage is secondary, no explicit proof of primary insurance claim is required. Given 2% CB on Cash Wise I think I’ll stick with WF…even with the lower coverage amount ($600 vs $800).
I made my cell phone payment to my Platinum card in March. This morning my phone isn’t working properly. Works in Wifi, but not out of it. The local phone store says it’s the phone going bad. If this is true can I file a claim in the month of April or do I have to wait until May? Not really sure since this cell phone protection started today.
Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
Now my decision to close CSR have never been easier.
Does phone purchase thru Costco warehouse kiosk (at &t) count as purchase for the Amex insurance. Also phone purchased directly thru Apple count?
Or they want to cover only those new phones having 2 years of contract with cell phone providers.
It would be great to have link where readers can write their experiences getting/not getting coverage with various credit cards.
they need “Copy of the original Eligible Cellular Wireless Telephonepurchase receipt”
most of phone sale from carrier is on monthly installment plan, there is NO receipt at all
You forgot to paste the 2nd half of the sentence…
• Copy of the original Eligible Cellular Wireless Telephone purchase receipt OR other sufficient proof of the Eligible Cellular Wireless Telephone model currently linked to the Eligible Person’s Eligible Cellular Wireless Telephone account
2nd half is even harder to get
Depends on your carrier. When I had Sprint post-paid, in the online account, I know it said which model phone was tied to which phone number.
On the budget MVNO carriers… maybe they don’t list what phone is what?
On my Red Pocket acct… I don’t get a monthly statement, but it is billed monthly and lists the 15-digit device ID with the phone number in the online account. Would a screenshot of the online account showing the phone number & device ID, and a picture of the phone box with the same Device ID suffice? I’d like to think so. But, nobody is going to steal my phone…
BS. There is documentation with every installment contract—the contract. Do you seriously think a phone company would let you walk out of the store having put nothing but sales tax down on a phone and not have you sign a contract?????
contact is not a receipt
It looks like all the blogs got the same press release today that says that screen damage is covered. However the terms exclude “cosmetic damage” from coverage. The terms also define Cosmetic Damage to include any damage “that does not impact the Eligible Cellular Wireless Telephone’s ability to make or receive phone calls.” So if your phone has a cracked screen but can still make/receive calls, your screen wouldn’t be covered.
not exactly for contemporary phone, since most of time cracked screen means no touch screen, and you can NOT make or receive call without touch screen
Might as well smash your phone if you get a crack.
Why is the Delta “Plat” a “premium” card? Shouldn’t higher annual fee cards like the Hilton Aspire be considered first?
Probably Delta agreed to it over Hilton for now
This benefit on the Aspire would be overkill. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have it on that card, but the Aspire is stacked as far as benefits go (as long as you stay at hotels semi-regularly)
Seems this only covers cell phones purchased directly from the Cell service provider. Which means, full retail price or some form of promo pricing. That means unlocked replacement phones purchased outside that cell services store or website are ineligible. Garbaggio.