Cash Back Cards with Cell Phone Protection

[ptatohed]

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@cws-21 wrote:

Thank you to everyone who contributed this time around. I wish there were more/better options for cards with cellphone protection.

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For a no annual fee card, and for a perk that is going extinct fast, perhaps it should be appreciated there are still a few handfuls of cell phone protection cards available.  I know you wanted a 2% or better card with protection but how about getting the Freedom Flex since it is a darn good card anyway, using it to pay your cell phone bill for the protection, and enjoying the 5% rotating quarterly cats?  Then get a good, separate 2% card?  No annual fee(s), free cell phone potection, great cash back rewards.    

[Simmonowski]

I got a mailer the other day for the US Bank State Farm Visa and it said up to $600 in cellphone protection.

[Anonymous]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

Keep in mind a few important considerations:

1. Whether the benefit covers loss or just theft/damage

2. How much effort the claims process involves

3. In the case of lightly cracked screens, any language excluding coverage of "cosmetic damage"

4. Card rewards or credits

Personally, I use Amex Business Platinum...not that it's a viable option for most people or in the guidelines of the topic.

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Yes, all are important and 4) is probably easier to quantify.   Some cards, e.g. Cash+/Elan Max Cash, will give 5% on cell phone bills, up to a max of $2500 spend per quarter.  Most of the cards with cell phone protection give much less, e.g. Freedom Flex will give 1% (used as straight cashback, 1UR in other contexts).

The difference can be not much if the cellphone bill is small or quite a bit.   Now often this is much cheaper than a carrier plan, but the carrier plans are more inclusive (point 1 in @wasCB14 list in particular) and also WAY overpriced.    So you really need to consider how likely you are to damage your phone in a way that repair (rather than buying a new one say) is needed, and how much you are willing to give up in rewards to get some not-quite-top-rate insurance to cover it.

When briefly the Max Cash MC still had it, that was the best of both worlds, but....!