As a holder of the Cumulus Mastercard, I haven’t yet received official communication on the topic so I guess you would have received a Cumulus card from Cembra, and we’ll see how Migros handles the transition from there.
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When Coop changed from Swisscard to Topcard CC issuer, they had a schism. As a former Coop CC owner, I automatically received from Swisscard their then new (now old) Cashback cards and an application form for a new Coop CC from Coop. I guess it will be the same.
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It’s simple: The credit card issuer makes money when you use their card to pay (and if you carry balances). Giving you insurance which you would otherwise have to pay for encourages you to pay by credit card instead of cash/debit card.
Because the card issuer has a lot of card users (which spreads the risk), they can negotiate very low insurance premiums which only cost them a fraction of the profit they make off transactions. The insurance company earns premiums with very little risk.
So it’s a win/win situation for the card issuer and the insurance company. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a huge win for consumers as a whole, because ultimately they pay for these perks through markups on price tags because of merchant fees. But for you as one of the smart few who take advantage of these perks, it can save a lot of money.
For example, the Ikea credit card gives you 50K of search and rescue, and medical evacuation insurance. That is the same amount you get from many paid travel insurance offers.
Two insurances from credit cards which I personally have saved a lot of money with are:
- Travel insurance (trip cancellation/interruption cover, compensation for unexpected expenses during trip delays/cancellations, etc.) because I would otherwise pay for this
- Collision damage waiver insurance for rental cars, because I would otherwise pay for this.
In years when we travelled a lot, I saved up to 500 francs thanks to these two insurance perks alone.
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Was it with Ikea card or some other one?
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No. I got those from the Libertycard Plus which I used for a time, but cancelled when Covid started as the travel perks no longer helped me much then so it wasn’t worth paying the card fee.
The Ikea credit card only includes search and rescue, ambulance and repatriation, and compensation for extra expenses resulting from common carrier delays and cancellations. But the card has no annual fee, so other than the obligation to pay for travel with the card, you aren’t paying anything for these insurances.
You can find a detailed review of the Ikea credit card here:
Ok, I see. I wanted to check, but my point is that insurance coverage provided by free credit cards is insufficient and should be ignored. Then again there is a question, if you pay for a credit card with an insurance or you pay for an insurance.
I agree that the most important thing to consider is what insurance cover you actually need. How to go about getting it would be the next step. I agree that an annual travel insurance gives you more flexibility (e.g. you can’t book a trip by car with a credit card). It’s largely a matter of whether or not you already use credit cards for purchases, in which case you may as well use one which includes complimentary benefits. Interestingly, the insurances you got with the Libertycard credit cards were not contingent on using the credit card to pay. I’ve never seen that on any other credit cards.
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I would question and double-check if these are really “worth it”, for the international purposes.
The “value” of the insurance premium you get “for free” on said credit card could easily be consumed and exceeded by the prohibivite forex transaction fees the CC company would charge going from CHF->X, when paying for stuff abroad.
I believe it’s over 2% for e.g. a UBS Mastercard - not sure how it is with the ones you are mentioning?
So I think I would rather pay 50 or so chf/year for a travel cancellation (or other forms you are mentioning above) insurance separately.
Depends of course where break even is.
I received a new cumulus mastercard from cembra today, valid until 2025…
Has anyone ever cancelled a credit card, maybe even a Cembra one? What was the procedure like?
Because if Cembra doesn’t offer the cumulus points anymore, I might consider changing. Especially since they don’t even offer eBill…
Or should I just keep it for emergencies somewhere since it’s free?
Can you expand on this? 
shitty page name and hard to find page:
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Thank you! I ordered those Poinzi cards and got a rather low limit. Was also wondering if I have too many credit cards already.
On the other hand, it is Swisscard, so they see how many cards I already have with them. And I already had all together over 11k card limit with them.
The new contract will start in July, so contractually today Cembra is their partner. it’s quite likely that Migros will send new cards to all their customer base before the end of the year.
Btw, Cembra is very aggressive with the late fees (I know the card is free 
). I got a 30.- bill because I was two days late.
Complain about it and ask them nicely to drop the fee. I did this a few years back, it worked. Should work for you too, if it‘s the first time.
Good, Cembra sucks so much. I never got a Migros card because I do everything I can to not have to deal with Cembra.
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Ya but they still offer LSV (which I use).
I guess it is just lazyness to pay of upgrading their system to ebill.
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To people who use a Viseca card : can we export transactions into .csv files ? thanks
Welcome offer Cumulus Migros Bank: 2x more cumulus points at Migros during the first year
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I was thinking the same. Unfortunately, they don’t mention which conversion rate they are using.
Almost tempted to call them to find out
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