The Sweet Credit-Card Perk You Have But Don’t Know About
You know that your credit card offers rewards like cash back and airplane miles, but many cards also offer automatic travel insurance, which could prove valuable on your next trip.
Nearly 90 percent of reward credit cards offer accident insurance while you’re on vacation and 63 percent cover luggage if you use you card to pay for the trip, according to a new report by CardHub. On nearly a quarter of cards that offer travel accident insurance, coverage is more than $300,000.
Almost three-quarters of cards that cover luggage will pay you for lost bags, while nearly half cover delayed luggage.
Related: Credit Cards Can Be Your Best Friend—or Worst Enemy
The report found that the Chase Sapphire Preferred Rewards Card offered the best travel insurance, followed by Discover It, Wells Fargo Propel 365 and Citi Prestige.
Coverage amounts vary and restrictions apply, so check in with your issuer to get the details of what your card offers.
Travel insurance isn’t the only time credit cards come in handy for travel. Some cards also offer roadside assistance. If your car breaks down, runs out of gas, or you lock your keys inside most credit cards will send roadside assistance to help you out.
That perk, while convenient, isn’t free. The issuers usually charge you a discounted rate for the service and bill it directly to your credit card. Discover, for example, charges $70 per incidence but covers 24-hour towing, assistance and locksmith services.
Budget ‘Chaos’ Threatens Army Reset: Retired General
One thing is standing in the way of a major ongoing effort to reset the U.S. Army, writes Carter Ham, a retired four-star general who’s now president and CEO of the Association of the U.S. Army, at Defense One. “The problem is the Washington, D.C., budget quagmire.”
The issue is more than just a matter of funding levels. “What hurts more is the erratic, unreliable and downright harmful federal budget process,” which has forced the Army to plan based on stopgap “continuing resolutions” instead of approved budgets for nine straight fiscal years. “A slowdown in combat-related training, production delays in new weapons, and a postponement of increases in Army troop levels are among the immediate impacts of operating under this ill-named continuing resolution. It’s not continuous and it certainly doesn’t display resolve.”
Pentagon Pushes for Faster F-35 Cost Cuts
The Pentagon has taken over cost-cutting efforts for the F-35 program, which has been plagued by years of cost overruns, production delays and technical problems. The Defense Department rejected a cost-saving plan proposed by contractors including principal manufacturer Lockheed Martin as being too slow to produce substantial savings. Instead, it gave Lockheed a $60 million contract “to pursue further efficiency measures, with more oversight of how the money was spent,” The Wall Street Journal’s Doug Cameron reports. F-35 program leaders “say they want more of the cost-saving effort directed at smaller suppliers that haven’t been pressured enough.” The Pentagon plans to cut the price of the F-35A model used by the Air Force from a recent $94.6 million each to around $80 million by 2020. Overall, the price of developing the F-35 has climbed above $400 billion, with the total program cost now projected at $1.53 trillion. (Wall Street Journal, CNBC)
Chart of the Day - October 6, 2017
Financial performance for insurers in the individual Obamacare markets is improving, driven by higher premiums and slower growth in claims. This suggests that the market is stabilizing. (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Quote of the Day - October 5, 2017
"The train's left the station, and if you're a budget hawk, you were left at the station." -- Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C.