Posted by: Alina Comoreanu

Returns are a fact of retail life, especially after holidays and other major celebrations. For example, nearly 1 in 4 people plan to return a holiday gift this year, according to a recent WalletHub survey. But returning an item that you’ve purchased or received as a gift isn’t always so easy. A variety of factors have the potential to turn this minor inconvenience into a waste of your precious time. But retailers’ strict return policies are among the biggest impediments.

Stores have several reasons for being rigid with returns, including trying to prevent fraud: returning a used or stolen item, for instance. That impacts roughly 3.5% of all returns. But where does that leave honest people who, for one reason or another, can’t meet a particular store’s return requirements? The answer might already be in your wallet.

Most major credit cards offer a so-called “return protection” service, much like rental car insurance and extended warranties. Credit card return protection enables eligible cardholders to return items that a retailer won’t accept. The specifics vary by issuer and card, however. So before relying on this particular credit card benefit, it’s important to determine if you are covered, which items can be returned and how much you can get for them.

With that in mind, WalletHub compared all of the non-co-branded personal and business credit cards from the 10 largest issuers to see what types of protection they offer. You can check out our findings as well as the scoring criteria we used below. Offers are accurate as of January 2, 2018 and many are likely to have changed since.

1. Main Findings
2. The Coverage You Can Expect
3. Detailed Scoring
4. Methodology

Main Findings

Citi Prestige and ThankYou Premier are the best credit cards for return-protection benefits.

Rank	Cards	WalletHub Score
Personal Cards
T-1	Citi Prestige Card, Citi ThankYou Premier	92.50%
T-2	Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, J.P. Morgan Reserve Credit Cards	88.50%
T-2	Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercard, Barclaycard CashForward	88.50%
3	Other Citi Cards	83.00%
Business Cards
1	Chase Ink Business Preferred Card, Chase Ink Cash	88.50%
2	American Express Plum Card, Business Green Rewards Card, Business Gold Rewards Card, Business Platinum Card	78.00%

Credit card return protection has improved significantly in recent years, with the average WalletHub score rising by 21.7% since 2015.

 

*The following issuers are not represented in the chart, as they do not have any cards offering the benefit: Bank of America, Capital One, Discover and U.S. Bank. Only certain cards from Barclaycard, USAA, Chase and Wells Fargo are listed because the rest of their offers do not have the benefit.

 

Almost half (48%) of consumer credit cards have a return protection program.

 

*The following issuers are not represented in the chart, as they do not have any cards offering the benefit: Bank of America, Capital One, Discover and U.S. Bank. Only certain cards from Barclaycard, USAA, Chase and Wells Fargo are listed because the rest of their offers do not have the benefit..

 

Only two of the top 10 credit card issuers offer a return-protection benefit with their business cards: American Express and Chase.

*The following issuers are not represented in the chart, as they do not have any cards offering the benefit: Bank Of America, Capital One, U.S. Bank, USAA, Discover, Citibank, Barclaycard and Wells Fargo. Only certain cards from American Express are listed because the rest of their offers do not have the benefit.  

Nearly all (93%) credit cards with this benefit enable you to make returns for up to 90 days from the date of purchase.

 

Most cards cap refunds at $300 per returned item.

 

Few cards (7%) limit the number of claims you can make, but all cap the dollar amount you can claim each year.

 

50% of return-protection programs exclude jewelry and video game purchases from coverage.

*Percentages do not add up to 100% because a single card may have multiple exclusions.  

American Express, Wells Fargo and USAA are the most transparent issuers when it comes to return-protection policies.

 

The Coverage You Can Expect

	Example of a Standard Policy	Best Policy
Sign Up	No sign up or product registration required
Type Of Coverage	An item purchased with your credit card that is not eligible to be returned to the retailer which sold it may qualify for a refund through this program
Coverage & Exclusions	Jewelry is not covered	Cosmetics are not covered
Maximum Coverage Per Item	$250	$500
Annual Coverage Limit	Up to $1,000 per account	Up to $2,500 per account
Return Period	90 days from the date of purchase
Number Of Claims Per Year	No limit
Claims Process	Filing a claim requires:- Purchase receipt- Proof of the store’s return policy	Filing a claim requires:- Purchase receipt- Monthly credit card statement
Cards Offering This Type Of Policy	Chase Freedom	Citi Prestige

Back to Top

Detailed Scoring

	Sign Up	Coverage	Return Period	Claims	Transparency	Total Score
Maximum Points	10%	45%	20%	15%	10%	100%
Citi Prestige Card	10%	39%	20%	15%	9%	92.5%
Citi ThankYou Premier	10%	39%	20%	15%	9%	92.5%
Chase Sapphire Preferred	10%	35%	20%	15%	9%	88.5%
Chase Sapphire Reserve	10%	35%	20%	15%	9%	88.5%
J.P. Morgan Reserve Credit Card	10%	35%	20%	15%	9%	88.5%
Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercard	10%	35%	20%	15%	9%	88.5%
Barclaycard CashForward	10%	35%	20%	15%	9%	88.5%
Other Citi Cards	10%	29%	20%	15%	9%	88.5%
Chase Freedom Unlimited	10%	26%	20%	15%	9%	80%
Chase Freedom	10%	26%	20%	15%	9%	80%
All American Express Cards	10%	23%	20%	15%	10%	78%
Wells Fargo Propel 365	10%	23%	20%	15%	10%	78%
Wells Fargo Propel	10%	23%	20%	15%	10%	78%
U.S. Bank Cash 365	10%	23%	20%	15%	9%	76.5%
USAA Visa Platinum	10%	26%	15%	4%	10%	65%
American Express Business Cards	10%	23%	20%	15%	10%	78%
Chase Ink Business Preferred	10%	35%	20%	15%	9%	88.5%
Chase Ink Cash	10%	35%	20%	15%	9%	88.5%

 The following cards do not feature the return protection benefit:

All Bank of America Cards (personal and business)	All Capital One Cards (personal and business)	All U.S. Bank Cards (personal and business)
All Discover Cards	Chase Slate	USAA Visa Signature
USAA American Express	Wells Fargo Cash Wise	Wells Fargo Business Elite

Back to Top

Methodology

  In compiling this report, we explored publicly available information for product return protection regarding all non-co-branded personal and business credit cards from the 10 largest credit card issuers by purchase volume. Where policies were incomplete or unclear, we requested clarification. Accuracy of our data was confirmed or corrected (which was then incorporated into the final version of this report).

We scored and ranked each card based on the criteria listed below:

The card with the most accumulated points received the highest score. The maximum score is 100%. The scores for each category are based on our opinion of how each return protection program compares to an ideal policy. An ideal policy would be one based on common sense, where the average consumer would know what to expect without having to read the fine print.

from Wallet HubWallet Hub


via Finance Xpress