| Accidental death insurance: common
as credit cards |
|
|
|
Discover
Discover offers its Platinum card members $500,000 in air travel
coverage for accidental death only (not dismemberment), and only
while flying on a scheduled air carrier. National Union Fire Insurance
Co., of Pittsburgh, Pa., underwrites coverage. Claims must be filed
within 90 days after the loss to: A&H Claims Department, P.O.
Box 15701, Wilmington, DE 19850-5072. Customer service is available
at (800) 551-0824.
Discover spokeswoman Jennifer Kangborn says the flight
coverage also covers disappearance. "If a plane goes down and
they cannot find the body within one year of the accident, then
it would fall under the accidental death insurance," she says.
MasterCard
In September 2005, MasterCard began offering its issuing banks and
financial institutions a choice of seven different benefit packages
from which to choose; some include accidental death and dismemberment
coverage, others do not. Where AD&D coverage is included, MasterCard
requires a minimum benefit amount of $100,000.
"Our financial institutions over the years have
asked us to provide different benefits so every card wasn't exactly
alike," says Droogan. "Some of our cardholders have extensive
travel benefits, and others have more of a retail program. The decisions
for that were made by the financial institutions. Every cardholder
isn't going to have the travel benefits."
Droogan says a Gold or Platinum card could carry anywhere
from $100,000 to $1 million in coverage depending on the issuing
institution. Check with your financial institution for information
about AD&D benefits on your card.
Toll-free claims assistance: (800) MC ASSIST (622-7747).
Visa
Visa offers travel accident insurance for card members, their spouse
and dependent children on its Signature card line. AD&D might
also be offered on other Visa card products, so check with your
card issuer first. Some issuers offer up to $1 million at no extra
cost. Visa cardholders may also be "covered while traveling
to and from the terminal by taxi, bus, train, airport limousine
or other common carriers (excluding air) if tickets are purchased
prior to leaving the terminal."
Toll-free claims assistance: (800) 662-8855. Underwriting
varies by card-issuing financial institution.
Sitting on a gold mine
That's right: Chances are, you're sitting on a six- or seven-figure
travel insurance policy without even knowing it.
Typically, you -- or your survivors -- have 90 days
in which to file a claim. You/they should contact both the number
listed above and the financial institution that issued your card.
You/they will then be asked to provide specific items to document
your loss. Droogan says that once all the supporting documentation
is in order, MasterCard processes claims within nine days, on average.
If you don't recall designating a beneficiary, that's
because you probably didn't. Instead, the underwriter typically
pays in this order: spouse, children, parents, siblings and finally
your estate. Contact your card issuer to find out the flow of benefits
for your policy or to fill out a beneficiary form if you wish to
change your default beneficiaries.
Even though this may be the first you've heard of
your travel insurance coverage, the professionals who might be called
upon to handle your affairs when you're gone are well aware that
it exists.
"What you're finding is estate planners and attorneys,
during probate, are much more savvy and now looking at the DOCs
(description of coverage) on their credit cards and looking for
other sources of insurance that would be payable," says Hamilton.
In some cases, the insurance company will find your
survivors.
"Every time there is a plane accident or a train
accident, you just wonder if any of our customers are involved,"
says Droogan. "I know that wherever possible our vendors have
been very proactive, even calling people to let them know they do
have coverage."
Hamilton says it gives him peace of mind as a business
traveler to know he has an accidental death policy in his wallet:
"It's additional money going to my surviving spouse and kids
to do whatever needs to be done."
Jay MacDonald is a contributing
editor based in Mississippi.
|
