Travel Insurance Question

[rgmacm]

I just purchased our travel insurance (no, this is NOT a question of whether we should purchase this....)

However, as I was making that payment, the thought crossed my mind....WHY would I buy cancellation insurance when final payment date is more than a year away....I can cancel up until that point with no consequence. (fyi, it was a refundable deposit) As far as the medical portion, we want it to cover pre-existing conditions so obviously needed to buy THAT part this week....but wondered if we could have bought that portion but post-poned the cancellation part until the week before final payment.... I asked the lady I was purchasing from and she said 'no'. My only options were either 'medical only' or both together. But I've become a skeptic of late and wondered if I was being told the truth.....

No better place than CC to get an answer to that, right? ;)

 

So.....has anyone out there purchased a policy of "cancellation only" a week or so before final payment (asking because we are probably going to book another cruise very soon and this info would be useful for THAT insurance purchase....can't do anything about the purchase I've already made.) ;)

Edited September 26, 2018 by rgmacm

[fishywood]

My understanding is that unless required by law in your particular state of residence, cancellation only-portions are not sold separately from the remainder of the policy. For example, if you read the Princess Vacation Protection policy the CFAR portion is considered a "bonus" to those purchasing the medical and trip interruption main clauses, thus has no separate value. I am assuming you are purchasing a different policy as pushed...erm, recommended by your TA, but the principle is the same.

[dfields1814]

I have the same issue. We are on a 49 day cruise and Princess insurance is pretty expensive for a cruise that long. I was going wait to buy closer to the final payment date. But I bought it anyway way in advance because I know I was eventually going to purchase it and I wanted to get that aspect over and done with. And I used the Princess credit card and got lots of points which can go to the expense of this cruise.

[Coral]

The main reason people buy insurance early is to cover for pre-existing conditions. While you may or may not have some now, if for some reason you buy it today and tomorrow you come down with a disease, you are covered if you need to cancel.

 

If you wait until final payment, your pre-existing conditions may not be covered. Remember, you may not have any today but you may next week be diagnosed with something (heart disease) and you want that coverage on your trip.

 

My TA has a policy that covers pre-existing conditions at final payment so I don't buy it until then. This is pretty rare though. Most want you to buy it within 14 days of deposit.

[GeezerCouple]

The main reason people buy insurance early is to cover for pre-existing conditions. While you may or may not have some now, if for some reason you buy it today and tomorrow you come down with a disease, you are covered if you need to cancel.

 

If you wait until final payment, your pre-existing conditions may not be covered. Remember, you may not have any today but you may next week be diagnosed with something (heart disease) and you want that coverage on your trip.

 

My TA has a policy that covers pre-existing conditions at final payment so I don't buy it until then. This is pretty rare though. Most want you to buy it within 14 days of deposit.

 

This isn't rare.

 

Unless it is prohibited by some states, there is a policy easily available in the USA that covers pre-existing conditions as long as it is purchased within 24 hours of final payment.

 

The problem (for us, anyway) is that the specifics of the coverage are not as "good" as what we purchase within the 20 day (for us) window after initial payment/deposit.

But it's there IF we miss that window, and we did, once. (We really didn't think we'd take the trip, but we wanted a specific suite. And then... we decided to take the trip :) So we got the insurance at final payment.)

 

It's helpful to use an insurance broker such as www.TripInsuranceStore.com so they can let you know about many different types of policies, from several different insurers, available in your state, not just those sold by a travel agent.

 

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[poss]

My impression is that Tripinsurancestore deals with a limited number of companies, certainly not all. I may not be correct about that.

[GeezerCouple]

My impression is that Tripinsurancestore deals with a limited number of companies, certainly not all. I may not be correct about that.

 

They have "vetted" a number of companies that don't tend to have "problems" with actually paying claims.

 

As for the types of /coverages/policies, there are a wide variety available using the insurers TIS uses (with more than one type per insurer, or at least with most of them).

 

And they'll run interference with the insurer if there are any questions.

(When we were overseas, and I landed in hospital in what we then considered an unusual situation, we emailed TIS to ask if/how the situation would be covered. No surprise, it turned out the situation wasn't all that rare, even though it wasn't something we had thought about previously. In any event, within 24 hours, we had an email back from TIS that they had contacted our insurer, Travel Insured, and yes, the situation was covered per <section of policy> and not to worry, etc. That was *so* reassuring in the moment.)

 

Obviously, IF there is some insurance need that can't be met from the policies/insurers TIS uses, then looking elsewhere for what you need would make sense.

 

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