Most Citi DoubleCash card benefits disappearing

[Sojourner]

I just happened to see this when logged into my Citi DoubleCash card account today:

Effective September 22, 2019, Worldwide Car Rental Insurance, Trip Cancellation & Interruption Protection, Worldwide Travel Accident Insurance, Citi® Price Rewind, 90 Day Return Protection, Damage & Theft Purchase Protection, and Extended Warranty will be discontinued and will no longer be provided for purchases made on or after that date.

Wow. That's almost every major benefit that the Citi DC card has, to my knowledge. The only ones remaining are free FICO score access and some sort of "identity theft protection". I'd give up both of those in a heartbeat if I could keep just the car rental insurance benefit.

Kind of shocking that Citi would drop so many benefits from this card all at once. I'll still continue to use it but definitely will be keeping an eye out for a better card.

 

[pb4uski]

Yup.... the extended warranty is the one I value the most... time to start shopping around I guess.

 

[RetiredAt55.5]

Yes, also very disappointed.

A lot of my other cards provide my FICO score.

A shame for me, since I would frequently buy things on amazon and use the Citi card (instead of my 5% amazon prime card), just to get the extended warranty protection.

I also made sure to charge my vacations on this card to get the travel protection.

First Vanguard drops the Advantage account, and now this.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I just happened to see this when logged into my Citi DoubleCash card account today:



Wow. That's almost every major benefit that the Citi DC card has, to my knowledge. The only ones remaining are free FICO score access and some sort of "identity theft protection". I'd give up both of those in a heartbeat if I could keep just the car rental insurance benefit.

Kind of shocking that Citi would drop so many benefits from this card all at once. I'll still continue to use it but definitely will be keeping an eye out for a better card.

We just booked a trip for late November using our Costco Citi card so still get the trip cancellation coverage, yay.

The benefits can't have cost much (i.e., we have never actually used any of them) but probably were a pain to administer. Maybe the car rental places are in cahoots with Citi to get that car rental insurance market back.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I thought that most *decent* cards offered extended warranty? At any rate, perhaps these are offerings that few people use. I personally cannot recall a time when I had to use any of the "extra" benefits. That isn't to say that they could be useful...I just haven't had a reason to use them.

USAA has a 2.5% card "Limitless Cash Back" that might still be available if you can qualify for membership.

 

[mountainsoft]

I just happened to see this when logged into my Citi DoubleCash card account today:

Yep, I saw that too. I've never used any of these extra benefits until recently. I sent them documentation to try and recover a $250 non-refundable hotel bill we had to cancel when my MIL had a heart attack. It has been over a month and haven't heard a thing from them, not even a "we received it" notice. It was a long shot anyway. At this point I doubt I'll ever get that money back.

 

[kaneohe]

We just booked a trip for late November using our Costco Citi card so still get the trip cancellation coverage, yay.

The benefits can't have cost much (i.e., we have never actually used any of them) but probably were a pain to administer. Maybe the car rental places are in cahoots with Citi to get that car rental insurance market back.

Note that the announcement for the Citi card applies to the DoubleCash card and some other Citi cards, but not necessarily , to the Costco Citi card which at least at the time of the announcement thankfully still had the car rental insurance, among other things. I panicked when the announcement was made since we were renting a car but it turned out the coverage was still there but check for yourself to be sure.

 

[bobandsherry]

Could be a way to entice people to move to another Citi card. The Citi Costco card, AFAIK, still offers the best extended warranty, 2 years on top of any manufacturers and extended warranty.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Note that the announcement for the Citi card applies to the DoubleCash card and some other Citi cards, but not necessarily , to the Costco Citi card which at least at the time of the announcement thankfully still had the car rental insurance, among other things. I panicked when the announcement was made since we were renting a car but it turned out the coverage was still there but check for yourself to be sure.

I did before I booked our trip and learned from the card website that trip cancellation benefit was being.... cancelled. But yay to car rental insurance not being cancelled. More info re Costco Citi benefits:

What changes are being made to my card benefits?
Effective September 22, 2019, Trip Cancellation & Interruption Protection and Citi® Price Rewind will be discontinued and will no longer be provided for purchases made on or after that date. Coverage for purchases made before that date will continue to be available, and you may continue to file for benefits in accordance with the current benefit terms.

What Protection Benefits will I still have on my card?
You will continue to have Worldwide Car Rental Insurance, Roadside Assistance Dispatch Service, Travel & Emergency Assistance, Damage & Theft Purchase Protection and Extended Warranty on this account. You can view Your Guide to Protection Benefits on this site under "Quick Links". It contains complete coverage details, including coverage limits, what’s covered and what’s not covered.

Coverage details for these remaining benefits are not being changed.
As a cardmember, you will also continue to receive a range of other card benefits including FICO® Credit Score, Citi® Identity Theft Solutions, and Citi Entertainment.

 

[Amethyst]

It looks like they will still go to bat for you in a dispute over merchandise charged but not received. I had to use that a couple of times with small-business hobby vendors. They can be squirrelly, and that stuff is not cheap.

 

[Chuckanut]

Even the Costco Citi Visa is losing those benefits. Not so good.

 

[kaneohe]

Even the Costco Citi Visa is losing those benefits. Not so good.

Might be useful to specific what "those benefits" are. Citi Costco is retaining many of them.

 

[jetpack]

Man, that's been my go to card for most purchases and travels. Anything else close to it, with a still a decent cash back?

 

[sengsational]

Don't the credit card companies usually contract out those benefits? Maybe they decided that they'd chop off that recurring expense for a temporary boost in profits. The Citi people here should reflect elasticity and dump them.

 

[pb4uski]

I'll probably keep them for a while and find another card with extended warranty benefits for major purchases.... that way I can bide my time... if I find somethig better then I'll dump Citi.

 

[kaneohe]

I'll probably keep them for a while and find another card with extended warranty benefits for major purchases.... that way I can bide my time... if I find somethig better then I'll dump Citi.

Don't you have a Costco card?

 

[pb4uski]

No, we were not Costco members until very recently so we don't have a Costco card.

 

[Chuckanut]

Might be useful to specific what "those benefits" are. Citi Costco is retaining many of them.

Effective September 22, 2019, Trip Cancellation & Interruption Protection and Citi® Price Rewind will be discontinued and will no longer be provided for purchases made on or after that date. Coverage for purchases made before that date will continue to be available, and you may continue to file for benefits in accordance with the current benefit terms.

We are making these changes so that we can continue providing the key benefits that our customers use and value most at no additional cost.

In my mind the Trip insurance is a key benefit.

 

[bobandsherry]

In my mind the Trip insurance is a key benefit.

Then you might check out Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve. In addition to travel, rental car coverage is as primary, so no need to file claim with your insurance company. Costs a few bucks a year, but sign up bonus more than covers and then the discount when using points for travel can also offset the annual fee.

 

[fritz]

We've been using the Citi Double Cash card as our main card for years. It offers a few benefits that we've come to value - Virtual Account Number downloadable and cell phone app software program for online purchases and for recurring charges (cell phone, streaming services, etc.), email and text alerts of purchases as they happen, along with 2% cash back on all purchases (1% on charge and 1% on payment). We've not used the benefits that are going away for awhile, but not happy with their removal.

We've also had the Capital One Quicksilver card (actually have had it longer than the Citi Double Cash card). It offers 1.5% cash back on all purchases, but didn't originally have virtual account numbers or text alerts (just email). They've since added text alerts and an online virtual account number software program for purchases (haven't used it, as Citi Double Cash Virtual Account Number program works well). AFAIK, believe it still covers things like foreign transaction fees (Citi Double Cash card never did), and rental cars, and retail purchases - https://www.capitalone.com/credit-cards/benefits/.

For us - looks like Quicksilver card will be seeing increased usage and become a more dominant companion card with the Citi Double Cash card benefits elimination.

FYI - Citi Double Cash card issues same account number for main and secondary user. Capital One Quicksilver issues a separate number for secondary user (purchases show up on main number account separately). Citi does kill all users cards in fraud issues, but I believe this isn't necessary with Capital One Quicksilver card. We didn't have fraud/theft, but did have an unscrupulous retailer issue that Citi resolved by cancelling our cards (Kudos to them for resolving that issue).

 

[Sojourner]

We've also had the Capital One Quicksilver card (actually have had it longer than the Citi Double Cash card). It offers 1.5% cash back on all purchases, but didn't originally have virtual account numbers or text alerts (just email). They've since added text alerts and an online virtual account number software program for purchases (haven't used it, as Citi Double Cash Virtual Account Number program works well). AFAIK, believe it still covers things like foreign transaction fees (Citi Double Cash card never did), and rental cars, and retail purchases - https://www.capitalone.com/credit-cards/benefits/.

For us - looks like Quicksilver card will be seeing increased usage and become a more dominant companion card with the Citi Double Cash card benefits elimination.

Interesting... I'm also strongly considering using my Quicksilver card more often. I had been using the Citi DC card almost exclusively in recent years, except when traveling internationally. Starting next month, the QS card will be better than the Citi card in every way that matters other than the amount of cash back, which for me will only amount to a "loss" of roughly $40 in bonus cash per year once I start using the QS card more.

 

[euro]

Yes, I have been using the Citi DC a lot also, but will need to find a different option now. Fallback is my Fidelity Visa

 

[camfused]

My PenFed Power Cash Rewards Signature Visa has 2% cash back on all purchases. I am not sure if it has all those benefits you are losing, but it is a Visa Signature card, so it has quite a few niceties to it.

I know it at least has no foreign transaction fees, works with Apple Pay, has CDW for rental cars, I get a txt message when it has been used, and it has RFID.

 

[meierlde]

It looks like they will still go to bat for you in a dispute over merchandise charged but not received. I had to use that a couple of times with small-business hobby vendors. They can be squirrelly, and that stuff is not cheap.

Recall that federal law provides the most they can get for a dispute is $50. (At least for fraud), so since a lot of bills are bigger this only makes sense Further a lot of cards eat the $50 because it is not worth it to do the exception billing.

 

[lemming]

What happened with Chase card in Canada. They stopped issuing cards a year ago and then wrote off all the balances in July. What the heck was that all about.?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...es-all-credit-card-debt-customers/1964419001/
My oldest card does not have any rewards anymore but it is so old I want to keep the account open. I joined PenFed but have not got a credit card from them. Not as great a program as some of you have. I must not be their preferred customer.