Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) questions

[SempreMare]

On May 8, I put down a deposit on a Norway 2020 cruise. 

 

2 questions related to this: 

 

1) How many days after this initial booking do "most" policies require I book trip insurance after this deposit? 

From reading I believe the answer =  I have 14 days or till May 22. 

 

2) If I do decide to cancel, I will not recover the price of the policy, right? 

i.e, if the CFAR policy is $1000,  the policy will pay my costs of cancellation, but  I'll still be out the $1000 cost of the policy, right? 

 

[Walfam]

We always buy our insurance within 14 days in order to get the pre-existing medical conditions waiver.

[LDVinNC]

Yes, that is correct.  You will not be reimbursed the cost of the policy if you cancel.

[GeezerCouple]

Our policy has purchase within 20 days to get the CFAR and to cover pre-existing conditions.

 

But it is both policy/insurer and state dependent.

 

GC

[Jersey42]

You might want to look at this for more insights on some insurance company plans. Some give you 21 days.

https://tripinsurancestore.com/cancel-for-any-reason-travel-insurance-plans/

 

If you buy cruise line insurance, the terms will be different.  For example, you might get a higher percentage back, but it will only include things purchased through the cruise line. Most likely it will be a credit towards a future cruise that expires, rather than cash back.

 

Before you purchase anything, I suggest you call trip insurance store or one of the other brokers frequently mentioned on these boards. That way you will know exactly how things work for your situation.

 

As LDVinNC said, you will not get your premium back on any policy I have ever seen.

 

[GeezerCouple]

Some policies can be TRANSFERRED to a different trip.

 

Actually, our policies DO ALLOW for a "sort of refund" of the insurance premium.  

That is, we can TRANSFER the policy once to another trip, within some time restrictions (involving the date insurance was first purchased and/or the original trip's departure date).

 

So IF we cancel a trip (the initial trip must have had NO losses), we could then transfer the premium to another trip.
We have in fact done this, so I feel a bit silly not mentioning it above.

 

We just call Steve at TripInsuranceStore and he's had the policy re-issued for the replacement trip.

 

GC

 

 

 

[SempreMare]

51 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

we can TRANSFER the policy once to another trip, within some time restrictions (involving the date insurance was first purchased and/or the original trip's departure date).

So IF we cancel a trip (the initial trip must have had NO losses), we could then transfer the premium to another trip.
We have in fact done this

 

WOW that is a great tip ! 

[GeezerCouple]

14 minutes ago, SempreMare said:

 

WOW that is a great tip ! 

 

Call TripInsuranceStore to get names of policies that allow this (we almost always only use one, so don't know about others), and also find out the specifics required for transfers.  They are slightly restrictive, but it's surely better than never being allowed to transfer!

 

GC

[SempreMare]

I will investigate.  

 

That will be VERY handy to know for those $1 deposit specials that I book on whim but might not really want to commit to until a later point in time

 

That "later point in time" could be months after the 14 day time limit on "no pre-existing conditions" for medical insurance.

[GeezerCouple]

 

3 hours ago, SempreMare said:

I will investigate.  

 

That will be VERY handy to know for those $1 deposit specials that I book on whim but might not really want to commit to until a later point in time

 

That "later point in time" could be months after the 14 day time limit on "no pre-existing conditions" for medical insurance.

 

That would work if you insure that first $1 deposit (might as well go the full $500 initial minimum chunk, at least for our policies), x 2 if there are two of you, within the time limit.

 

But you'd still have to make the switch, IF that's what you decide, such that a new trip is insured within that <whatever time frame> for pre-existing and/or CFAR coverage.

 

Just wanted to be sure that was clear...

 

GC

[6rugrats]

Logically, why would you get your premium reimbursed when you are using the policy by filing a claim?  Yes, many policies allow you the option to transfer the policy to a new trip.  But, you can't do this if you file a claim because then you are using the benefits of the policy.

I have never had a CFAR that reimbursed more than 50% of a covered loss.

[GeezerCouple]

30 minutes ago, 6rugrats said:

Logically, why would you get your premium reimbursed when you are using the policy by filing a claim?  Yes, many policies allow you the option to transfer the policy to a new trip.  But, you can't do this if you file a claim because then you are using the benefits of the policy.

I have never had a CFAR that reimbursed more than 50% of a covered loss.

 

Travel Insured has 75% coverage (cash back) for CFAR.

We have never used the CFAR, but given TI's straightforward way of paying claims, we don't doubt it is as written.

 

GC

[6rugrats]

That's pretty good.

 

[Walfam]

5 hours ago, 6rugrats said:

 

Edited May 16, 2019 by Walfam