Travel Insurance COB question

Hello fellow cruisers,

First time cruiser here, so please go easy on me if this has been answered before. I am looking for travel insurance for our planned cruise on NCL in spring. Almost all the insurance companies (with the exception of Travelex) have coordination of benefits clause, which states, "Except as provided in the Coordination of Benefits Section of this form, if there is other valid and collectible insurance in effect covering a loss insured under this policy, this policy will share proportionately with such other insurance."

Which basically means they will try to go after the airline, cruise company, your credit card company, your medical insurance, your home insurance company, etc. before they pony up any money. Well, this is fine in the case of trip related issues like flight/cruise miss/cancel, weather, or medical, etc. The only thing this would *not* be fine would be personal property. Means lost or stolen luggage/valuables. They would go after your home (or renters) insurance company first in that case (and try to pay just the deductible).

Does anyone know of any other company that does not have co-ordination clause besides Travelex? I refuse to believe that is the only one. But unfortunately, all my searches have yielded nothing else.

Thanks

Hello fellow cruisers,

 

First time cruiser here, so please go easy on me if this has been answered before. I am looking for travel insurance for our planned cruise on NCL in spring. Almost all the insurance companies (with the exception of Travelex) have coordination of benefits clause, which states, "Except as provided in the Coordination of Benefits Section of this form, if there is other valid and collectible insurance in effect covering a loss insured under this policy, this policy will share proportionately with such other insurance."

 

Which basically means they will try to go after the airline, cruise company, your credit card company, your medical insurance, your home insurance company, etc. before they pony up any money. Well, this is fine in the case of trip related issues like flight/cruise miss/cancel, weather, or medical, etc. The only thing this would *not* be fine would be personal property. Means lost or stolen luggage/valuables. They would go after your home (or renters) insurance company first in that case (and try to pay just the deductible).

 

Does anyone know of any other company that does not have co-ordination clause besides Travelex? I refuse to believe that is the only one. But unfortunately, all my searches have yielded nothing else.

 

Thanks

I have not seen this question posed before, and I am sorry I can't answer it either.

You might try re-posting the question on the Travel Insurance board. I think there are one or two insurance people who respond to questions, as well as other cruisers of course.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=635

Another idea is to call the folks at insuremytrip dot com.

edit: I am aware that some insurance carriers market their policies as "primary" vs. "secondary". I think that is what you are asking?

I think it was twice that we had medical expenses while on a cruise. If each case, we paid the charges for the ship's medical center. When we returned home, we submitted the bills to our regular medical insurance. They paid part of the bills. We then submitted a copy of the bills and the Explanation of Benefits to the travel insurance company. They paid the remaining amount so it did not cost us anything.

The purpose of COB is to prevent someone from receiving more than the expenses that were incurred.

I'm not sure I understand when you write "They would go after,,,,"

"They" don't go after anyone. "They" just deny your claim until you have been denied by any other primary insurer.

Also note that the vauables you mention such as jewelery,,, Most policies are limited to a maximum of $500. If you need more coverage than that, then you should probably have your own private coverage anyway.

"Primary/Secondary" seems to have more than one meaning in the Insurance lingo. Here are the two examples:

a) "Primary" on insuremytrip only means that you will submit all your bills to the insuring company vs "Secondary" where first you'd to submit to some other company like Airline/Cruise/home Insurance/Medical Insurance, etc.

b) "Primary" in Insurance industry also means that they will process your claims without taking into account *any* other insurance that you might have that could *potentially* cover the loss.

Unfortunately, http://www.insuremytrip.com does not indicate that in their quotes. When the mention Secondary, they only mean example a) above.

Hello klfrodo, you are right about: "They" just deny your claim until you have been denied by any other primary insurer" That is what I am saying too, its just different choice of words.

In essence, I am looking for a Travel Insurance company that would cover b) above and not a). The only one I have found is "Travelex".

My sister got her luggage stolen in LA at the airport. She had travel insurance. The Airline said, it had nothing to do with them. The Travel insurance company asked for home insurance details and came back saying she needs to file a claim to them first. The Travel insurance will only pay the deductible (which was $300 in her case).

So while I agree with you that personal property should be handled separately, but all her bags were stolen during transit and she lost atleast $2000 worth of stuff (clothes, bags, cameras, etc.). And in the end got nothing from the travel insurance unless she was ready to file a personal property theft claim with her home insurance.