Travel Insurance Advice
Travel insurance policies are all over
the map in terms of cost and coverage.
If you travel regularly, are in good
health and have no relatives that are in
failing health (where you might have to
cancel a trip on short notice for a
funeral, for example), you should
consider passing on travel insurance.
Why? Because in the long run, consumers
pay more in such insurance premiums than
they will recover. The net goes to cover
insurance company costs and profits.
But there are a number of situations
where you should consider such
insurance:
-
You can't afford to lose the cost of
your trip if you have to cancel on
short notice or return suddenly
while on your trip.
-
You have a health condition that
might warrant treatment on short
notice, requiring you to cancel or
cut your trip short.
-
You have a close relative in failing
health.
When getting a policy, there are all
kinds of policies and they insure
different risks. Start by determining
what coverage you currently have under
your homeowners or renters insurance,
your medical insurance and your credit
card insurance (for the card you used to
pay for the trip). Examples: Your
medical insurance might cover you
overseas or it might not. Medical
evacuation coverage might be provided by
your medical insurance or by your credit
card, especially if you used one of the
high-end (e.g., platinum) cards.
Determine the type of trip you are
taking. If most of the expenses will be
hotel bills, you can probably escape
with minimal damage (such as one night’s
deposit) if you have to cancel. In such
a case it would not be cost effective to
get insurance. Even if you have plane
tickets, they can usually be rescheduled
for another time within a year by paying
a change fee of $100-$150. However, if
you have to cancel a cruise or a charter
flight within 10-15 days of your travel
date, you will likely lose your entire
cost.
If you still believe you need insurance,
check out the insurance that your travel
carrier makes available. It should be
from a third party, since it likely
won't pay off if it is issued by your
(for example) cruise line and the cruise
is canceled because the cruise line goes
into bankruptcy!
Most companies have several types of
policies. Check out the fine print. Some
companies no longer insure against the
bankruptcy of your travel provider.
Others won't pay for selected type of
activities on your trip which the
insurer deems to be dangerous. This can
sometimes include such seemingly simple
activities as bike riding!
And check out the medical exclusions.
Some companies will not cover
preexisting medical conditions. That
sometimes means a medical condition is
excluded because you visited the doctor
because you didn't feel well within X
weeks of your trip, even though the
heart condition or cancer that arises
wasn't detected in that visit.
Most insurers have numerous exclusions
that kick in if you don't buy the
insurance at about the same time you
book your trip. (Check the fine print!)
Three reputable companies are:
To do a comparison of various policies
or to find out, in plain English, what
coverage is offered by various types of
travel policies, visit
http://insuremytrip.com/
Good travel insurance doesn’t come
cheap. A worthwhile policy for a couple
in their early 50s for a $5,000 trip is
likely to cost $200 to $400.
And check the fine print for exclusions!
(Did I already say that?) Ombudsman
columns in various travel publications
often discuss this topic because people
buy insurance, expect it will cover
everything and then are very much
disappointed when seemingly unrelated
events exclude reimbursement.
Timeshare Insurance
VacationGuard offers protection
against loss of timeshare use for
eligible reasons. The cost for
annual
- not individual trip - coverage starts
at $79 and includes reimbursement of
maintenance fees and (if applicable)
exchange fees up to the limits of the
policy. Policies also include some
trip delay, baggage, medical and other
coverage.
Compare the coverage for this policy
with coverage from the major policy
sources discussed above, as the coverage
for major expense items varies
significantly.
This article is a copy
of the live TUGBBS online forum sticky
located here:
Link to thread
