Cellphone Protection and Rental Benefits? Sign me up!

We all own cellphones and knowing how we use them, they’re bound to get damaged in one way or another. Whether its water damage, or accidentally dropping it on the floor or having the misfortune of your cellphone being stolen, worry not – the Wells Fargo Cash Wise Visa Platinum has you covered.

How much do I have to pay to keep the card?

Guess what, there’s no annual fee! This means, you can add the card to your portfolio, earn the sign-up bonus and keep it as a sock-drawer card to add to your credit history.

Whats the earn rate on spend?

This card does have a low cash-back rate of 1.5% for all transactions, and for the first 12 months, you can earn 1.8% back if you use Android or Apple Pay linked to the card.

The Sign-Up bonus of $200 on a spend of $1000 in the first 90 days is neat though – effectively giving you a 20% return plus the 1.5/1.8% return on the spend.

So what’s all the fuss about then?

Cellphone protection – can reimburse the eligible card cardholder for damage to or theft of or involuntary and accidental parting of their cell phone. Reimbursement is limited to the repair or replacement of your original cell phone (with a $25 deductible) with a maximum benefit limit of $600 per claim and $1,200 per 12 month period.

Do keep in mind, if your cellphone is stolen, a police complaint has to be filed in order to meet requirements. Additionally, if you damaged your phone inside a house/apartment, the home-owner’s insurance or renter’s insurance will take over and not the one offered by the card. Same applies for damage inside a vehicle too or a pre-existing cellphone insurance. If there is no primary insurance, then you may avail the benefit.

Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver – reimburses you for damages caused by theft or collision — up to the Actual Cash Value of most rented cars. Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver covers no other type of loss. In the event of a collision involving your rented vehicle, damage to any other driver’s car or the injury of anyone or anything is not covered a.k.a liability.

If you do have personal automobile insurance or other insurance that covers theft or damage, this benefit reimburses you for the deductible portion of your car insurance or other insurance they you may have, along with any un-reimbursed portion of administrative and loss-of-use charges imposed by the car rental company, as well as reasonable towing charges while the car was your responsibility.

To ensure you can avail this benefit, decline the CDW/LDW provided by the rental company.

CDW: Collision Damage Waiver; LDW: Loss Damage Waiver.

This benefit does not apply to vans than can carry 10 members of over. (9 including the driver is covered)

We like the Auto Rental CDW offered by Wells Fargo as it does not set terms to the max value amount to which they cover unlike AMEX ($50,000) and Chase ($75,000) although no rental car is worth higher than $75,000.

So should I get the card and if so why/when ?

Admittedly, the earn rate of 1.5% is low, cards like the Citi Double cash automatically give you 2% but the sign-up bonus and cell phone protection more than make up for it. The rental CDW is also a neat thing to have. No annual fee makes this a keeper card that you can put your phone bill on. Do note, if you’re enrolled in a family plan, the coverage only applies to the card holder (phone owner) and not other member’s in the family.

The Benefit guide gets more into detail on Carrier Travel Accident Insurance that is worth a read – you can find it here. We recommend you read it if you decide to apply for the card.

The ideal time to get this card is if you’ve completed the Chase Trifecta and are above the Chase 5/24. It serves as a keeper card simply adding to your credit score as time progresses.

If you’re interested in applying, you may use the public link here.

However, we would recommend you get this after the Chase cards as they offer the same benefits and more except the Cell phone protection.