Credit card fraud is a constant worry for many people. Credit cards can often be lost or stolen, or their details can be copied. In these cases there will often be an attempt to use the credit card fraudulently. It is important for a credit card user to know what sort of insurance that they have when this happens.
The most important insurance policy that the card holder has is a zero liability guarantee. This is a guarantee by most credit card providers that offer either VISA or MasterCard to guarantee their cards so that any unauthorised transactions will not be paid for by the card holder.
There are a number of things that need to be done before taking advantage of a zero liability guarantee. The first thing is that the credit card provider needs to be told in good time that the card has been lost or stolen. If the credit card provider is told at a far later stage then they may not reimburse an unauthorised credit card transaction. This means that it is a good idea for a credit card user to check their credit card statements when they arrive every month.
Another thing that a zero liability guarantee on a credit card will not cover is the credit card user being partly responsible for the unauthorised transaction. This can cover a number of things, and this will include actions such as lending out a credit card to someone else even if this was intended to be used for a smaller transaction.
The zero liability guarantees will also cover mistakes that are made by shops, for example by double charging a credit card.
Credit cards used to extensively use a service called card guard for their credit card protection. This is not used as frequently today as most card users now are covered by the zero liability guarantees.
Credit cards will also often have purchase insurance on the credit card that can mean that a person who buys a good or a service in good faith can claim back if the good or service does not live up to what it says that it should do. This can also cover other things that can happen with a new purchase such as breakages and theft. A number of credit cards have free insurance that include policies such as travel insurance and foreign medical insurance.
