Travel Insurance COB question

[canbonbon]

Hello 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 had first posted this question in "First time cruisers board". http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=41583818&posted=1#post41583818

But based on suggestions in the thread, I think this is a more appropriate place for it. I don't know how to move the thread, so posting again.

[cruiseco]

The following is from an update TravelSafe sent to agents a couple of weeks ago:

 

 

"Effective immediately, the Coordination of Benefits (COB) provision will no longer be enforced on any of our Group or Individual TravelSafe Insurance Plans.

 

 

What is COB in “layman’s terms”? A process in which the insuring company uses to determine if the insured/claimant has one or more policies covering the same risk.

 

 

All of our TravelSafe Plans include Primary Medical Coverage to protect the traveler during their actual trip. However, our Insuring Company was requiring our claim adjusters to verify if the claimant had any additional insurance policies in force that would cover the same loss. They would then use the COB provision to recoup some of the money paid out to your customers and our insureds.

 

 

You didn’t like it, Your customers didn’t like it and We did not like it. – So we said “NO” to our Insuring Company and they agreed that we no longer need to request the COB information on all pending or future claims. NOW “Primary is truly Primary coverage and we pay regardless of any other coverage being in place!”

 

 

With this change we have added even more value to our plans without having to increase premiums…Many thanks for your continued support and should you have any questions, please call one of our TravelSafe Team Members.

 

 

Team TravelSafe

1-800-523-8020"

[canbonbon]

This is very good information. Thanks a lot. I will compare Travel Safe with Travelex and see whose benefits suit us most. It would be great if you could provide any other company that does the same.

 

NOTE: I am very surprised that although almost everyone here on this board buys insurance, no one ever talks about this. But if Travel Safe is changing, I feel others will start doing this soon as well. Or at least offer that as an option. I my opinion they should charge way less if they are secondary.

 

Regards

Edited February 7, 2014 by canbonbon
Added Note

[canbonbon]

The following is from an update TravelSafe sent to agents a couple of weeks ago:

 

 

"Effective immediately, the Coordination of Benefits (COB) provision will no longer be enforced on any of our Group or Individual TravelSafe Insurance Plans.

 

 

What is COB in “layman’s terms”? A process in which the insuring company uses to determine if the insured/claimant has one or more policies covering the same risk.

 

 

All of our TravelSafe Plans include Primary Medical Coverage to protect the traveler during their actual trip. However, our Insuring Company was requiring our claim adjusters to verify if the claimant had any additional insurance policies in force that would cover the same loss. They would then use the COB provision to recoup some of the money paid out to your customers and our insureds.

 

 

You didn’t like it, Your customers didn’t like it and We did not like it. – So we said “NO” to our Insuring Company and they agreed that we no longer need to request the COB information on all pending or future claims. NOW “Primary is truly Primary coverage and we pay regardless of any other coverage being in place!”

 

 

With this change we have added even more value to our plans without having to increase premiums…Many thanks for your continued support and should you have any questions, please call one of our TravelSafe Team Members.

 

 

Team TravelSafe

1-800-523-8020"

 

Hello Cruiseco,

 

I called the Travelsafe company at the number given above. They say that *only* their Medical is now Primary. All the rest is *secondary*. On probing further she excused herself mentioning that she is not aware of how their *claims* department handle the claims. Nice. Extremely helpful answer.

 

So I guess I am back to Travelex :(

 

Regards,

[Algebralovr]

Coordination of benefits is kind of a fact of life.

 

Unless something major happens, often there is no benefit to coordinate with.