Check your credit card limits abroad

Your credit card covers you and your spouse or common-law spouse as well as your children. It can also cover dependent children under the age of 25 and relatives declared for tax purposes.

Coverage provided by credit cards has a limited duration. Usually, it will only be effective for 90 days (three months). After that, you will no longer benefit from any healthcare and assistance coverage abroad unless you've taken out international healthcare insurance on your own.

Your credit card will cover healthcare expenses up to a certain limit, but  aggregate limits can be rapidly reached and exceeded - especially if you're using a standard card. Remember, just one day of hospitalization in the USA can cost several thousands of euros. 

- Visa cards and MasterCards: €11,000
- Premier and Gold cards: €155,000

If you hold a standard Mastercard or Visa card, you will not benefit from lost or damaged luggage insurance either and a Visa Premier card or Mastercard Gold card will only cover up to €800 per claim. 

Whatever type of credit card you have, a deductible of €50-70 will be charged for each claim whether it's for insurance or assistance benefits.

Check the details of your credit card’s benefits and exclusions on the following websites:
- www.mastercard.com
- www.visa.com/globalgateway/
- www.americanexpress.com

Remember: insurance benefits provided by your credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express) allow you to face certain emergency situations such as an unforeseen illness* or an accident*, on condition that the claim does not entail major consequences. However, aggregate reimbursement limits may be far too low to cover your healthcare expenses in countries where medical costs are very high (e.g.: USA, Canada, China, etc.). 

*Unforeseen illness: a sudden and unforeseeable deterioration of an insured member’s health, as certified by a medical practitioner, for which surgery or treatment are required and cannot be delayed until return or repatriation to the country of residence.

*Accident: any unintentional personal injury suffered by an insured member and arising exclusively from the sudden unexpected effects of an external cause (such as sprains, fractures, etc.).

If you're going abroad for more than three months and want to be covered in the same way as in your home country, we recommend you take out international healthcare insurance.

You should also consider taking out insurance coverage for assistance/repatriation, death & disability, legal protection and/or third-party liability. These benefits are not included in a standard MasterCard or Visa credit card cover but are very important when you're living abroad.

At MSH, we design international health insurance solutions according to your specific needs (your age, family situation, country of expatriation etc.) and we offer large aggregate limits that allow you to go abroad with confidence and total peace of mind.
Explore our solutions to find the best international health insurance package for you.