We’ve all heard about retailers offering price-match guarantees. But what most people don’t realize is that several major credit cards do the same thing, perhaps even better. So-called credit card price protection enables you to get a refund for the difference between what you pay for an item and a lower price advertised in the following 60-120 days. In other words, credit card price protection can eliminate your fear of missing out on a better deal, allowing you to both buy with confidence and save money.
To help you better understand what the most popular cards bring to the table, WalletHub’s editors compared the 10 largest credit card companies’ price protection policies from top to bottom.
You can find the results below. And if you’d like to learn more about the other secondary benefits that credit cards provide, check out our reports on extended product warranties, purchase protection, rental car insurance and more.
Some of the cards listed on this page originate from our partners, but that did not impact our conclusions. Offers information was collected on Nov. 10, 2022, and is likely to have changed since.
Best Credit Cards for Price Protection
Rank | Cards | WalletHub Score |
---|---|---|
T-1 | Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards | 75.00% |
4 | BankAmericard® credit card | 55.00% |
Other Key Findings
Only 6% of the credit cards from the 10 largest issuers continue to offer price protection, and only two issuers have even one card with price protection.
Capital One and Bank of America are the only major credit card companies offering price protection in 2022.
Issuer | % of Cards with Price Protection |
---|---|
Capital One | 27% |
Bank of America | 11% |
75% of the credit cards with price protection provide coverage for 120 days.
All of the credit cards that offer price protection limit claims to 4 per year.
The Coverage You Can Expect
Info | Example of a Standard Policy | Best Policy |
---|---|---|
Sign Up | No sign up or product registration required | No sign up or product registration required |
Coverage | Clothes and shoes Electronics and computers | Clothes and shoes Electronics and computers |
Exclusions | Perishables Jewelry and certain other purchases | Perishables Jewelry and certain other purchases |
Maximum Coverage per Item | $250 per eligible item | $250 per eligible item |
Maximum Coverage per Year | Up to $1000 annually per account | Up to $1000 annually per account |
Price Protection Period | 60 days from the date of purchase | 120 days from the date of purchase |
Number of Claims per Year | 4 | 4 |
Number of Claims Per Identical Item | No limit | No limit |
Cards Offering this Type of Policy | BankAmericard® credit card | Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards |
Detailed Scoring
Overall Rank | Card Name | Sign Up | Covered Items | Price Protection Period |
Claims | Transparency | Total Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Info | Maximum Points | 10% | 45% | 20% | 15% | 10% | 100% |
T - 1 | Capital One Quicksilver | 10.00% | 26.00% | 20.00% | 9.00% | 10.00% | 75.00% |
T - 1 | Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards | 10.00% | 26.00% | 20.00% | 9.00% | 10.00% | 75.00% |
T - 1 | Capital One Savor Cash Rewards | 10.00% | 26.00% | 20.00% | 9.00% | 10.00% | 75.00% |
4 | BankAmericard® credit card | 10.00% | 26.00% | 10.00% | 9.00% | 0.00% | 55.00% |
Ask The Experts
We took an even deeper look at the practice of price matching, turning to a panel of experts in the fields of retail and consumer studies for insights on issues ranging from the value of price matching for retailers to whether or not price monitoring is worthwhile to the consumer. You can check out the experts we consulted, the questions we asked them, and their responses below.
- To what extent is a price match guarantee an effective strategy for a retailer?
- Does leveraging a price protection policy (one that enables you to monitor and act on price changes after you buy) tend to be worth a consumer’s effort (e.g. price monitoring) when all is said and done?
- How do price match guarantees impact consumer habits?
Ask the Experts
Associate Professor of Marketing, State University of New York at Geneseo
Read More
Thomas A. Finch Jr. Professor in the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University
Read More
Full Professor of Practice in Marketing at the Wake Forest University School of Business
Read More
Methodology
This report is based on public disclosures regarding the price protection policies of the 10 largest issuers of consumer credit cards in the United States. Co-branded, student and business credit cards were not evaluated. Offers for which online applications were not available also were excluded. Offers information was collected on Nov. 10, 2022, and is likely to have changed since.
In situations where policies were incomplete or unclear, we requested verification and proceeded to update the report as needed. When people apply for some credit cards, there's a chance they could be approved for a different level of benefits than they expect. For example, some applicants may get approved for the traditional Visa version of the card, which has basic benefits, while others could get the Visa Signature version with better benefits. For consistency, we evaluated these cards based on the set of benefits posted for reference along with the card's online application. As a result, it is possible that this report might list a card as not offering the benefit when the perk could be available to people who are creditworthy enough.
Each individual card was scored according to the following criteria:
1. Sign Up – Worth 10% Total
- If there is no sign-up requirement = 10%
- If product registration is required but price reduction is tracked automatically by the company = 10%
- If there is a onetime sign-up requirement = 5%
- If there is an annual sign up requirement = 2%
- If each product needs to be registered and price reduction needs to be tracked manually by the consumer = 0%
2. Coverage – Worth 45% Total
A. Coverage & Exclusions – Worth 20%
- For each major category of items excluded from coverage (e.g. jewelry), we subtracted 6%
- For each minor category of items excluded from coverage (e.g. toys), we subtracted 2%
- Issuers are deducted a maximum of 20% points, even if their exclusions add up to more issuers only lose 20% points
B. Coverage Limit Per Item – Worth 15%
- $500+ = 15%
- $400 - $499 = 12%
- $300 - $399 = 9%
- $200 - $299 = 6%
- $100 - $199 = 3%
- Less than $100 = 0%
C. Annual Coverage Limit – Worth 10%
- $2,000+ = 10%
- $1,500 - $1,999 = 8%
- $1,000- $1,499 = 6%
- Less than $1,000 = 0%
3. Price Protection Period – Worth 20% Total
- 120+ days = 20%
- 90 – 119 days = 15%
- 60 - 89 days = 10%
- 30 - 59 days = 5%
- Less than 30 days = 0%
4. Claims – Worth 15% Total
A. Annual Claims Limit – Worth 5%
- 5+ claims = 5%
- 4 claims = 4%
- 3 claims = 3%
- 2 claims = 2%
- 1 claim = 0%
B. Claims – Worth 5%
- If filing a claim requires only 1) a product receipt, 2) a credit card statement and 3) either a dated ad OR a statement from a store documenting the details of the lower price = 5%
- If filing a claim requires a 1) product receipt, 2) a credit card statement, 3) a dated ad and 4) a statement from the store documenting the details of the lower price = 2.5%
- If filing a claim requires a 1) product receipt, 2) a credit card statement, 3) a dated ad, 4) a statement from the store documenting the details of the lower price, and 5) any additional documentation = 0%
C. Claims Limit On Items Purchased As A Set – Worth 5%
- 5+ items = 5%
- 4 items = 4%
- 3 items = 3%
- 2 items = 2%
- 1 item = 0%
5. Transparency Score – Worth 10%
A. How easily can one find the info? – Worth 3%
- Information is prominent on issuer website = 3%
- Information is not prominent on issuer website; or it is prominent, but users need to log in to see the full disclosure = 1.5%
- Information cannot be easily found on website = 0%
B. How easy it is to read the info? – Worth 1%
- Information is presented in normal-size font = 1%
- Information is in small-size font = 0%
C. How complete are the policies provided? – Worth 4%
- Full policy provided = 4%
- A couple of key points missing from policy = 3%
- Part of policy provided = 2%
- Benefits briefly described = 0.5%
- No key details provided = 0%
D. How open and transparent are card issuers about the policies? – Worth 2%
- Transparent about policies = 2%
- Not transparent about policies = 0%
Scores were determined based on our opinion of how each price protection policy compares to a theoretical ideal policy. An ideal policy is one based on common sense for which a consumer knows all of the most important information without having to delve into the fine print.