Florida Cracks down on Illegal Insurance vendors

[HarryB1964]

In case you missed the story, the State of Florida has begun (finally) a huge crackdown on travel agents who sold unwary consumers illegal travel insurance for the last six or seven years. In the last two days, six Florida agencies have been notified of the State's intent to issue Cease and Desist Orders against them for selling products from Trip Assured, Vacation Protection Services and Prime Travel Protection, and selling the products without an insurance agent's license. The State of Florida considers this to be a 3rd Degree Felony. One large Agency, Palm Coast Travel, was Notified of this action two weeks ago, and a couple of other LARGE agencies will probably be served within the next couple of weeks.

You have the freedom to do business with companies that you can trust, but before you book your next cruise, you might want to check the blogs written by Chris Elliott, a respected travel write, who is being sued by the owner of Palm Coast Travel, along with a Customer of the same agency, for telling the truth about this company.

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Assuming Palm Coast Travels criminal action would come way before a civil trial, a guilty verdect could be used againt them in their civil action. However most civil actions never see the courtroom, I bet they drop their suit.

[Shifra]

Now I am confused. I remember this happening last year and I thought everything was settled. Is this happening again or is this just old news?

[HarryB1964]

Now I am confused. I remember this happening last year and I thought everything was settled. Is this happening again or is this just old news?

 

I don't believe much was settled. Last year, Cease and Desist orders were issued against three large Florida Travel Companies, including Palm Coast Travel, but the action was kind of late, because the vendors of the illegal products were out of business by then. However, some more disturbing allegations have surfaced recently, including the possibility that Palm Coast Travel took money from customers to pay for Access America insurance, and then used the money to switch the customer to Prime Travel Protection, one of the illegal travel products. It's interesting to observe that as soon as this allegation became public, PCT stopped advertising that they sold Access America, a real, and respected travel insurance product.

Stay tuned for further developments, and choose your travel insurance product carefully.