Types Of Warranty Offers By Credit Card Company (Part II)

Yesterday, we wrote about American Express’ great extended warranty policy and Discover’s lack of one. Today, we look at warranty offerings from two of the biggest players in the international credit card market - Mastercard and Visa.

Visa

Visa offers the Warranty Manager’s Service to all cardholders who own a Visa Signature card. This series of cards include the Chase Freedom Visa Signature, The Fidelity Signature Visa and the Capital One No Hassle Miles Visa. In case you own a non-Signature branded Visa card, make sure to inquire with your issuer as some credit cards not belonging to the series do have them as well.

The Visa Warranty Manager’s Service provides coverage of up to 1 additional year for all purchases made on the card, provided that the manufacturer warranty (along with any other warranty you buy) doesn’t exceed three years. Visa will double any existing manufacturer warranty and give a fixed one year coverage if the default warranty exceeds twelve months. If you find the coverage lacking, you can also buy additional warranty from Visa, at costs much less than buying your coverage from a store.

Visa is very strict with documentation so make sure you keep all receipts and warranty agreements from the original purchase to avail of the service without any hassle.

MasterCard

Mastercard’s Extended Warranty service is available on all Platinum, Gold and World credit cards. The program adds up to one year to the manufacturer’s warranty. Like Visa’s program, Mastercard will double any built-in warranty on the product for up to twelve months. However, if the manufacturer’s warranty already exceeds one full year, the extended warranty will not apply. Similarly, buying extended warranty from stores will void the Mastercard coverage.