If you buy electronics, sooner or later something will break. I recently had some bad luck myself: my laptop suddenly stopped charging. Fortunately, I had purchased it with the AMEX Blue Cash Everyday card, and the issue happened just one week before the two-year anniversary of the purchase. In other words, it was still within the AMEX extended warranty period. So began a long claims process. Here’s a detailed walkthrough of how my claim went.

What the Coverage Includes

One thing to note is that even among AMEX credit cards/charge cards, the terms of the extended warranty benefit can vary slightly, not to mention Visa, Mastercard, and Discover. Generally speaking, AMEX provides:

  • one additional year of extended warranty coverage (if the original manufacturer warranty is at least one year);
  • an extended warranty period equal to the length of the original manufacturer warranty (if the original warranty is less than one year)

My laptop came with a one-year manufacturer warranty, so AMEX provided warranty coverage during the second year after purchase. The computer cost about $1,500, so even if it had been beyond economical repair, it still would not have exceeded the claim limit ($10,000 per claim). So coverage should not have been an issue.

Filing the Claim Online

AMEX requires you to notify AMEX and start a claim within 30 days after the Loss (that is, when the damage or malfunction occurs). Of course, that is how the terms define it. Sometimes it can be hard to determine exactly when the problem started—for example, if you have not used a device in a long time and only later discover that it is broken. In that case, it is best to notify AMEX immediately to avoid any issues.
I chose to submit the claim form online to start the process. On the AMEX Online Claims Center website, I registered and logged in using my AMEX card account, then clicked the button on the right to start a claim.
AMEX Assurance Company, the insurer underwriting AMEX extended warranty coverage, asks a lot of questions about the claim. Just answer truthfully.

After completing the form, the website generated a Claims Number, and AMEX also sent an email notification. I recommend writing down this number in case you need it later when calling AMEX.

Documents Required for the Claim

Generally speaking, some time after submission, AMEX Assurance Company will send instructions requesting supporting documents. In my case, I received an email the next day asking for the receipt for the computer purchase. In addition, because the computer was relatively expensive, AMEX also required a repair estimate, which had to be issued by an authorized repair center (MFG). If the item is inexpensive, this estimate may be skipped because the repair cost may not be worth it. AMEX may also request other information, such as warranty details, especially for less common products where AMEX may not be able to find the relevant information online and will ask you to provide it.

Note that according to AMEX’s requirements, you must provide the requested materials within 30 days after the request is sent (60 days for North Dakota residents), or the claim may be denied. I tend to procrastinate, so I did not submit mine until three months later. In the end, it was still not denied, but that does not mean everyone will be so lucky.

So I looked up a nearby authorized repair shop on the official website and took my laptop there. I got the estimate within one day. If you live in a small or mid-sized city, you may need to ship it to a repair center instead.

After gathering all the required documents, I also prepared a Cover Letter with my Claim Number, name, and other important personal information. There were two ways to submit the documents: regular mail or fax. I chose fax because it was faster. Of course, I do not own a fax machine, so I used the online fax service HelloFax. This site offered new users 5 free fax pages, and you could increase the free allowance to 20 pages by linking various social media accounts, which was more than enough for multiple uses. After that, the pricing was a bit expensive: $0.99 per fax (up to 10 pages). If you want to save money, you could just keep opening new accounts.

I printed all the documents first and wrote my Claim Number and name on every page, since otherwise the recipient might not know whose documents they belonged to when the fax came in. Then I scanned everything into a PDF and uploaded it to HelloFax. The specific settings are shown below. Important: you must uncheck the box next to "Send high resolution & color version of fax." If you leave it checked, the fax will include a link to the PDF file, which is not allowed. Finally, click "Send," and after a little while the fax will be sent automatically.

If you choose to mail the documents instead, just put everything together with the Cover Letter into an envelope, add postage, and send it out.

Waiting for the Claim Decision

After receiving the documents, AMEX sent an email notification. Then it was just a matter of waiting for them to review everything. Generally, you should receive a decision within two weeks. Once the decision was made, AMEX sent me another email with a PDF explaining that the claim had been approved and stating the reimbursement amount.

I successfully got back a little over $500, so the laptop repair was covered! The reimbursement was issued as a Statement Credit to the card. If the credit is never used, they will mail a check instead, so you can still pay for the repair with another credit card to meet a welcome bonus requirement or earn points.

Summary

Overall, the AMEX extended warranty claims process was fairly convenient. The most troublesome part was probably getting the repair estimate, although for cheaper items that may not be necessary. AMEX tends to be fairly straightforward with smaller claims. With AMEX extended warranty coverage, you can give your electronics extra protection while avoiding the cost of buying the manufacturer’s own extended warranty plan, which often costs dozens of dollars per year, and can easily run over $100 for a laptop.

At the time this was written, my computer was already being repaired, and once fixed, it should have plenty of life left in it.

Of course, we also know that some people abuse credit card insurance benefits. A reminder here: insurance fraud is a more serious offense than ordinary fraud. Insurance fraud includes not only making false statements during a claim or providing fake documents, but also intentionally omitting important facts that could affect the outcome of the claim. Be very careful when submitting a claim form, and do not break the law. Insurance companies, including the actual insurers underwriting credit card benefits, do monitor frequent claims and investigate suspicious ones. This article originally appeared on rewarded.life and has been updated based on the current situation.