most inclusive insurance

[Kagehitokiri]

any lawyers or anyone with a lot of insurance experience, especially for expensive trips?

 

trying to figure out how to secure coverage that is as inclusive as possible, in terms of minimizing (eliminating?) risk of loss.

 

im certainly not going to pay $1K for insurance to then have it not cover a $20K nonrefundable trip.

[klfrodo]

Might want to post your nationality as all countries have differing consumer protection laws.

What might work for a Canadian might be worthless for someone from the UK, Australia, or United States.

[Kagehitokiri]

US here

[sirwired]

Purchase a policy with a "Cancel for Any Reason" rider. The policies offered by cruise lines directly will reimburse more of your cruise fare (75-100%, depending on cruise line), but generally do not cover airfare (except with certain cruise/air packages) and they only provide refunds in cruise credit. 3rd-party policies cover everything, and provide refunds in cash, but only offer 50-75% reimbursement.

[Kagehitokiri]

another question - has anyone else had to talk to a broker, or asked their lawyer for help?

 

sirwired,

 

you have to cancel 2 days out, which is worthless to me. (trip delay is also worthless.)

 

btw your statements are not entirely accurate, based on insuremytrip.com (squaremouth.com is another)

[CruisinGerman]

Dear friend:

 

If you'd be more specific as to what "potential loss" you're trying to cover, we could try to point you in the right direction.

 

Are you looking to get your money back just in case you decide on a whim that you don't want to go at the last minute?

 

Are you only looking to get your money back in case of a covered event making you cancel (death, illness, losing your job, getting called to jury duty, your house and contents being robbed, etc.)?

 

Are you looking for protection against supplier default?

 

Are you looking for medical protection, trip interruption, delay and assistance in case you do get to go?

 

What coverage is important to you and we will try to advise.

 

Kind regards,

 

Gunther and Uta

[Kagehitokiri]

my whole point is lack of specificity.

 

if you can cancel for any reason 2 days out, why is there not umbrella coverage? seems everything is limited and exclusive of anything not specified. recent example - the events in the middle east.

 

trip delay does not cover the trip when you do not arrive in time for trip. lets say "event" even though it doesnt apply to me. there is no "late" to an event. if the event costs tens of thousands of dollars, the whole point of coverage is if missed.

 

does it really require completely custom underwriting? this just doesnt make sense to me considering how good some of the standard options seem to be. (100% refund for any reason 2 days out, extremely high medical/injury/death limits, etc)

 

supplier default is potentially trickier. i guess that is also necessary. thank you for raising this point, as it may actually be an even clearer "impossibility" for me to deal with.

[cruiseco]

my whole point is lack of specificity.

 

if you can cancel for any reason 2 days out, why is there not umbrella coverage? seems everything is limited and exclusive of anything not specified. recent example - the events in the middle east.

 

trip delay does not cover the trip when you do not arrive in time for trip. lets say "event" even though it doesnt apply to me. there is no "late" to an event. if the event costs tens of thousands of dollars, the whole point of coverage is if missed.

 

does it really require completely custom underwriting? this just doesnt make sense to me considering how good some of the standard seem to be. (100% refund for any reason 2 days out, extremely high medical/injury/death limits, etc)

 

supplier default is potentially trickier. i guess that is also necessary. thank you for raising this point, as it may actually be an even clearer "impossibility" for me to deal with.

 

Any plan offered in the US has to go through a long approval process in each of the 50 states plus DC. An insurer can invest tens of thousands of dollars in lawyer fees bringing a plan to market. Then there's the cost of training people, printing marketing materials, building a web site, etc. To make this investment worthwhile the plan has to be broad enough in its coverages that there is a good chance that this investment will be recovered.

 

The plan coverages you are apparently looking for (it's still not clear exactly what you want -- 100% reimbursement for cancellations for any reason with no 2 day exclusion??) would be so expensive as to be almost unsellable to the general public.

 

Your only hope would be to approach some underwriters directly and see what they'll do for you.

[Kagehitokiri]

100% refund 2 days out is offered by a number of insuremytrip.com plans. my entire point is that things like that are offered basically standard. im familiar with the "standard" offerings.

 

seems relatively simple in comparison to say "if you dont arrive, youre covered" but i havent seen anything like that.

[cruiseco]

100% refund 2 days out is offered by a number of insuremytrip.com plans..

 

I think you're mistaken. What you're seeing is "up to 100%". When you look further, for example in the case of a cruise, is that if the cruise line penalty is up to 25% of the total amount insured the coverage is 100% of the penalty amount. Unfortunately, no cruise line only charges 25% penalty that close to departure. In reality, no third-party plan will cover 100% of your penalty amount if you cancel your cruise two days before departure.

 

For example, this is from TravelSafe:

 

If Cancellation Penalty Amount Is:

 

 

Percentage of Penalty ................. Amount Payable Is:

 

Up to 25% of Trip Cost: ................. 100 % of Penalty Amount

 

26% to 50% of Trip Cost: .................. 85% of Penalty Amount

 

Over 50% of Trip Cost: .................. 75% of Penalty Amount

[CruisinGerman]

Dear friends:

 

While the OP still isn't telling us what specific cover he is most interested in, he does have a point on several matters.

 

While the U.S. is competitive and a world leader in many areas, insurance (especially travel insurance) is not one of them.

 

The same insurance you folks buy at 3% - 10% of your cruise fare costs us pennies on the dollar (or should I say cents on the euro) here in the European Union. And curiously enough, when you dig down deep to find who the underwriters are, they all turn out to be the same underwriters. So I do think you folks in the U.S. are being taken for a ride in this respect.

 

Just compare U.S. Travel Guard to a policy sold here in many European countries (website is insurancebookers dot es), if you click English and read the coverage for the Annual, multi-trip, Platinum policy (which costs about 230 euros per year for two people), you will see what I mean. The policy to which I am referring is the same company as TravelGuard.

 

And when we Europeans buy either travel or expat comprehensive health insurance policies, the premium increases from 50% to 100% if we want to include coverage in the United States. While U.S. medical care is obviously better than care in Kenya, it is arguable whether it is better than care in the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, etc. -- yet it costs twice as much to cover.

 

We purchase everything in the U.S. when feasible -- it is so much less expensive than here in Europe. However, it makes you wonder why in a country such as the United States where nearly everything is always so inexpensive and cost-competitive for Europeans, anything to do with insurance and healthcare is completely the opposite and is only purchased at skyrocketing high prices.

 

Kind regards,

 

Gunther and Uta

[sirwired]

To the OP:

 

You want to eliminate any chance of any loss for any reason, and a 48-hour restriction makes the plan "useless"? The policy you are looking for simply does not exist.

 

I think you're mistaken. What you're seeing is "up to 100%". When you look further, for example in the case of a cruise, is that if the cruise line penalty is up to 25% of the total amount insured the coverage is 100% of the penalty amount. Unfortunately, no cruise line only charges 25% penalty that close to departure. In reality, no third-party plan will cover 100% of your penalty amount if you cancel your cruise two days before departure.

 

Thank you, cruiseco, I was just about to point that out.

[Kagehitokiri]

http://www.insuremytrip.com/plans/compare/package.html?stateSelector=5074

 

cancel 2 days out (worthless to me, but talk about huge liability)

- 90% of nonfundable trip cost - global alert preferred plus

- 90-100% of nonrefundable trip cost - travel safe premier

 

ah, two plans do have cancel for delay (what i want) for "defined hazards"

* 100% of nonrefundable trip cost - travelex travel max

* 100% of insured nonrefundable trip cost - travelex travel select

this may have been added to the site as i dont recall seeing it before

 

of course "defined hazards" could be limited...

 

supplier default also has a category i see.

[sirwired]

trip delay does not cover the trip when you do not arrive in time for trip. lets say "event" even though it doesnt apply to me. there is no "late" to an event. if the event costs tens of thousands of dollars, the whole point of coverage is if missed.

 

That's because it's covered under Trip Interruption or Cancellation (even if the Cancellation/Interruption is due to a delay.) "Trip Delay" coverage refers to in-transit delay costs. (Note: Missing, say, a pre-booked tour, booked by your travel agent, is covered under trip insurance. A concert you booked yourself generally would not be. Missing a cruise is of course covered.) However, all the providers want you to try to catch up to the tour/cruise to minimize your/their loss.

 

http://www.insuremytrip.com/plans/compare/package.html?stateSelector=5074

 

cancel 2 days out (worthless to me, but talk about huge liability)

- 90% of nonfundable trip cost - global alert preferred plus

- 90-100% of nonrefundable trip cost - travel safe premier

 

 

TravelSafe Premier is capped at 90% when you are in the 100% penalty period. But yes, I'll agree that 90% is pretty generous... I wasn't aware that some providers had raised it. (Note, the cost of the insurance itself isn't covered; in the case of expensive policies with such generous Any Reason riders, that could be quite significant.)

 

ah, two plans do have cancel for delay (what i want) for "defined hazards"

* 100% of nonrefundable trip cost - travelex travel max

* 100% of insured nonrefundable trip cost - travelex travel select

this may have been added to the site as i dont recall seeing it before

 

of course "defined hazards" could be limited...

 

Cancellation because of delay (for various reasons) is a fairly standard (if not universal) policy provision; again, that's covered under Trip Interruption/Cancellation.

 

supplier default also has a category i see.

 

Also a bog-standard policy provision, although the quality of those varies widely. Some providers limit you to certain travel providers, some will cover all providers except for ones on an exclusion list, some won't cover any direct bookings, etc.