Free credit card, identity theft protection for Virgin Velocity members

Virgin Australia frequent flyers will get free credit card and identity theft protection as part of the airline's new Velocity frequent flyer program.

Velovity gold and platinum members will now receive free year-long membership to Secure Sentinel, a service offered by many banks for a monthly or annual fee which provides cancellation and replacement of all credit and EFTPOS cards in case of the loss of a wallet.

The SecurePlus service (normally $59 per year) is available free of charge to Velocity Gold members, while Platinums get the upgraded SecureIdentity cover (usually $89 per year) which provides a free copy of their credit report, along with one proactive alert if any applications for credit are made under their name.

Features of both services include:

• IdentityGuard: up to $10,000 cover per year for identity theft.
• Financial card registration: Secure Sentinel will cancel lost or stolen credit, debit and ATM cards and assist in arranging for replacements to be reissued.
• Mobile phone: If your mobile phone is lost or stolen Secure Sentinel will block outgoing calls on it until you recover it.
• Key retrieval: You get coded key tags so that if someone finds your keys they can just be dropped into a mailbox and posted back to Secure Sentinel, which then alerts you.
• Passport: If your Australian passport is lost, Secure Sentinel arranges cancellation and assists with its reissue. It also reminds you when any passport you hold is due for renewal.
• Emergency cash advance: an emergency cash advance of up to AU$1,000 via Western Union
• Important documents and possession register: You can list your important documents and possessions with Secure Sentinel so you can easily get the details if left high and dry overseas without documentation to hand and need to make an insurance claim.
• Luggage retrieval: Similar to the key tags, coded luggage tags allow lost luggage to be linked back to you via Secure Sentinel.
• Fraud deterrent labels: labels alerting would-be thieves that an item has been registered with Secure Sentinel are provided.
• Online vault: You can upload and store copies of important documents with Secure Sentinel, such as certificates and wills.
• Change of Address: Secure Sentinel can inform multiple service providers.
• Global Assistance: Secure Sentinel is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and has an Australian-based call centre.

To sign up for the free protection plans, Velocity Rewards Gold and Platinum members need to log in to their Velocity account online, go to the "benefits" column and opt-in for their Secure Sentinel cover.

danwarne