American Express are increasing both the return protection and purchase protection on the American Express Gold & American Express Premier Rewards Gold cards starting November 15th. Let’s take a look at the changes.
Purchase Protection
You can view the following change on your September statement, or on the purchase protection page on the American Express website:
Basically items purchased after November 15th will be covered up to $10,000 (up from $1,000) and it will also cover items that are lost (rather than just stolen or accidentally damaged).
Return Protection
Return protection will now include some additional islands in the pacific, although interestingly this hasn’t been added to the official return protection page and only shows up on your September statement.
Our Thoughts
The purchase protection the gold cards now offers is at the same level as the Platinum cards which is a good thing. Obviously you hope items you purchase aren’t lost, stolen or damaged but when they are this type of protection is invaluable. American Express are obviously hoping that this type of protection will help increase credit card spend and retention rates.
Why do you use “are” instead of the correct “is”? Are you British?
So can we now buy an iPhone from the Apple store for $550 and return it 90 days later to Amex for a full refund?
You should read over the terms and conditions that would apply to your card. For return protection on the PRG, you only get back $300 per claim. If it were lost, stolen, or accidentally damaged, you could file a claim under purchase protection. Bear in mind 1) be ethical, and 2) you’ll probably be required to file a police report for loss or theft, or you’ll need to return your damaged device to Amex.
You could just buy the iPhone, and use it. I’m sure you’ll be happy with it! 😉
I got some survey the other day for SPG card where it appears they were contemplating the same thing for purchase/return protection too.