Has anyone chosen not to buy insurance?

[cards09]

If so, why not?

 

We've heard a lot of reasons to buy travel insurance. Just want to hear some reasons from those who have chosen not to buy it. Like to hear both sides of the debate!

[yogi2929]

We don't buy insurance when we are doing the 3/4 day cruises from LA. Ensenada is less than a 3 hour car ride from home.

[Moeve]

If you are looking for people to tell you go ahead don't buy it - well I am not one of them. Life can throw you too many sling shots for that to be a good idea. Just do a search of this particular section and you should come up with at least 2 cases since the begining of the year where that has gone terribly wrong!!!!!

 

In all reality if you cannot afford the insurance you shouldn't be planning a trip out of the country because this is where it can get VERY HUGELY expensive.

 

By the way I am assuming we are talking insurance incl. medical and evac. If you are only debating not getting cancellation you have to be able to part with your funds even if you don't go for some reason incl. all sorts of delays etc.

[flormija]

Just realize, that when you book your cruise and you do purchase insurance, many times, the insurance only covers certain reasons for cancellation, unless you happen to remember to purchase 'any reason' cancellation. So, if you have certain circumstances which would lean towards insurance, ensure your potential problems are actually covered by the insurance.

[markarian]

The decision whether to take out insurance, any insurance, is always a matter of solving the equation: risk x cost x probability of event happening. Thus, it would be silly to insure against being injured when the ship runs aground unless the cost is very low - low probability, huge risk, low cost. If the cost is high, the equation does not work - low probability, huge risk, high premium. Medical insurance is, I think, a no-brainer - huge risk, medium-low probability, lowish cost. Insuring against not being able to cruise depends entirely on the cost of the insurance. The probability is variable and the risk is not inordinate (unless you have booked the Presidential Suite or something!).

[uppitycats]

I've always bought insurance because I have a pre-existing health condition, we have too book way in advance because we need a handicap-accessible room, we have to travel by air to get to any port cruising anywhere, and so we always book longer cruises (worth the $$ when we have to travel that far already).

 

I think if I lived near a port -- within 3-5 hours drive...and did the short weekend sort of cruises, or last-minute cruises, I probably wouldn't always buy the trip insurance.

[Peelboy]

I used to purchase various types of insurance until I learned from an insurance professor that we should not purchase insurance unless we cannot afford the loss.

 

His theory is do not buy extended warranty, travel insurance (except medical), and whole life insurance, because the risk is too low and premiun too high. If we lose, it won't ruin our life.

 

He said however eveyone should purchase term life insurance, long term disability, and mortgage insurance because if we die our family will be in financial jeopardy.

[ovccruiser]

whether you take out any form of insurance or not is down to risk. If the risk goes wrong, you may wish you had insurance. I went many years with no home isurance, over the period I saved quite a few hundred pounds, however, had I been burgled, had a fire etc etc I would have been out of pocket considerably more. The choice is down to the individual.

[Moeve]

Ok maybe I should put that differently..... Just how many sob stories have we heard here over the years where people have saved for their cruises and because it was tooo expensive they skipped the insurance! Then out of the blue life lobs them a broad side and they cannot go on their trip. How many time have we heard it "i cannot afford to loose this money...." " We are going to loose the vacation we have spent years saving for..."

[BroncosFan2010]

We rarely do, mostly because we book our own air, and fly in PLENTY of time early and only sail for a week.... I know it is taking a HUGE risk, and we will most likely add it for our B2B because we are spending about 3X's the normal amount.

[silentbob007]

For long, expensive trips I tend to. For shorter ones, I tend not to. Purchasing insurance (or not) is a gamble.

[BonnieVA]

I'm not a gambler but I do not buy travel insurance. We've weighed the pros/cons & dh & I have decided that, at this time in our lives, we won't pay for it & we'll take our chances.

[John Bull]

It's obvious from the thread that for many of you, esp ex-US, insurance is an option.

But for a lot of cruises you'll not be allowed to travel unless you have insurance, so it's well worth checking the cruise-line's small-print.

 

Most UK travel insurance comes in packages, if you want health/re-patriation cover (really dumb if you don't when leaving the EU), then the rest - much of it not worthwhile - comes with it.

 

John Bull

[kelmac]

If so, why not?

 

We've heard a lot of reasons to buy travel insurance. Just want to hear some reasons from those who have chosen not to buy it. Like to hear both sides of the debate!

 

Well, I been traveling eight to ten weeks out of the year since 1984 and I never by insurance. If you are in good health, have extra time on either side of your trip, it really doesn't make sense to buy insurance. My wife and I have done 36 cruises; so that's eight to ten thousand dollars of money not spent on insurance; we could have cancelled a cruise or two cheaper than the insurance. So, you can say we are "self-insured".

Having said that, many people with health issues, older individuals, people on a tight work schedule, and those that are just plain accident prone, might want to look at getting insurance. For some, it's just peace of mind.

The insurance companies make "BIG Bucks" selling this stuff because of two reasons:

1) most of the time, for most of the people, there are no costly problems. Many claims are break even with the up front cost of the insurance.

 

2) many people buy insurance, but that dosen't mean the insurance company will pay out in all claims. There is so much small print associated with these policies that many people get very little in return on their investment.

 

A little footnote: We are flying to NYC next December to board the Queen Mary 2 for 15 days. This past winter with all of the travel problems has me looking at the cost of insurance for this trip only. This year I turned 60 and "never say never"!:rolleyes::)

[MrsPete]

I can put forth an argument against travel insurance -- I think that's what you're looking for: We did a four-day cruise once, and we didn't get insurance for that. We chose not to do it for several reasons:

 

1. We were driving to the port (a day ahead of time), and we knew that our chances of missing our sailing were essentially zero. Likewise, we handled our own luggage (all carry-on), so we had no concerns about lost stuff.

2. We checked with our health insurance and found out that we were adequately covered out of the country. If we had run up a bill, we would've had to pay it up front, but we would've been reimbursed for the majority of the bill.

3. We are all young and healthy, and we had no plans to do anything risky (i.e., dangerous shore excursions) on the trip.

4. The cost of that short cruise wasn't all that much (I want to say it was around $1500 for the four of us), and -- in a worse case scenerio -- we could've afforded to lose that money without undue hardship.

 

Based upon those factors, we made an educated decision NOT to get the travel insurance. We were aware that we were leaving ourselves open to one potentially expensive issue: the possible need for an air rescue back to a US hospital. While I do understand that an accident can happen to anyone, anywhere, the possibility of something so bad that we'd need special transport back home is quite remote and unlikely to happen in those four days.

 

Since then we've only done one-week cruises, which have ended up costing much more; thus, we've been unwilling to risk our financial investment. So now we get insurance from a non-cruise-line site, and we get JUST what we need, which is really just enough to cover the cost of the cruise and possible air evacuation. We don't go with the cruise line's insurance because it's more expensive.

 

We did once have to cancel a cruise -- one of our children became very ill -- and having the travel insurance DID prevent a bad situation from being unbearable. We hate-hate-hated that we had to cancel that cruise (we were already packed, it was only days before when we cancelled), and if we'd lost our financial investment as well as our vacation . . . well, I'd probably still be crying. We got back every penny (except the insurance premium), and dealing with the paperwork was quick and easy.

 

Also, I'll throw in two obvious points:

 

1. If you choose NOT to get the insurance, you have no right to whine later if you suffer a financial loss. Making an educated decision based upon your own risk-to-benefit ratio is one thing -- but if you choose wrong, remember that it's your own problem.

 

2. If you say, "I'm not getting insurance because I can't afford it" . . . then you're the person who needs it most. If you can't afford the premuim, then you certainly couldn't afford to lose the cost of the cruise or to pay for medical needs outside the country.

 

So . . . I'm not really arguing in favor or against travel insurance. I'm arguing in favor of knowing your own circumstances and making the best choice for your situation. I would err on the side of caution, but I wouldn't say that travel insurance is ALWAYS the right choice.

[MrsPete]

I used to purchase various types of insurance until I learned from an insurance professor that we should not purchase insurance unless we cannot afford the loss.

 

His theory is do not buy extended warranty, travel insurance (except medical), and whole life insurance, because the risk is too low and premiun too high. If we lose, it won't ruin our life.

 

He said however eveyone should purchase term life insurance, long term disability, and mortgage insurance because if we die our family will be in financial jeopardy.

I agree with that in theory. It makes little sense to buy insurance (an extended warranty) on your refrigerator. It's not likely to break, and if it does, you can probably afford another without much trouble. The risk of something happening to your refrigerator is low, and you're very unlikely to collect any benefit from that insurance -- it's better to keep the premium money.

 

Continuing that train of thought, we have relatively high deductibles on our home owner's insurance and cars. Why? Because it lowers our premiums by almost half. I've owned a home for 20 years and have never filed a claim. I've been driving for 28 years and have never filed a claim. If tomorrow something awful happens and I need to use those insurance policies, I'll have to pay a high deductible . . . but it'll be worthwhile because I've saved a ton in premium payments over all those years. Also, I have the resources with which to pay a higher deductible; someone younger, just starting out might not be able to do that -- and it's important to consider that when making these choices.

[greatam]

MEDICAL, MEDICAL, MEDICAL

 

EVAC, EVAC, EVAC

 

 

I travel the world in pursuit of my business (international logistics). I am in some pretty weird places and need great evac insurance. But even on a cruise, my BC/BS will NOT cover internationally UNLESS the company covers all 63 employees for international. Since only a few leave the USA on a regular basis, it saves a lot of money to buy a yearly medical policy and medical evac policy for those that need it AND I still buy a trip insurance policy with high medical/high evac. I ONLY buy a policy which provides primary insurance. With a primary insurance policy, the company WILL get you into a hospital with NO upfront deposit, WILL make arrangements for evac and will help with all the logistics. The GOOD travel insurance policies have 24/7 support, with collect phone calls accepted worldwide.

[RetireeWannabee]

I've never bought trip insurance. I tend to be a very lucky person. One day I'm sure my luck will run out.

[cruiserbryce]

we've never bought it. We are fortunate enough to have jobs that we can put the time off long in advance and not have to worry about it changing. Fortunatly the weather in San Diego doesnt really get bad to the point where we cant fly out and the cruises that leave from the region dont get cancelled.

[BIG_Steve]

This doesn't really answer your question, but I'll chime in. We drove to Miami (3 hours) for our first 2 cruise, a 3, and a 4 day cruise. I wasn't concerned with missed flights and canceled cruises. So I bought inexpensive policies just to have some medical coverage while out of the country.

[CALMOM]

I absolutely hate paying for insurance, especially travel insurance but one incident will convince you, fortunately, mine was not that bad, but I learned me lesson.

 

We had decided for our Eastern Caribbean Cruise, there was 6 of us, to not purchase travel insurance, as our budget was tight. When we arrived on our ship, we realized that we were missing 3 suitcases, one with all of my husbands clothes, one with my clothes and one with my daughters clothes. Needless to say, it was a bad way to start a vacation we were so looking forward to. The cruise line was gracious enough to provide formal attire free of charge, but we had no daily clothes, underwear or bathing suits. Our first port was the Bahamas and they must of knew we were coming because we ended up having to put out over $1,100 for just a couple of outfits, underwear & bathing suit. My husband is a big man, so trying to find his size was no easy task. It took us the entire port stay to buy clothes, no fun. Of course, lets not forget the value of the clothes that were lost, most were new for our vacation. The travel insurance would of cost us $690 for all 6 of us.

 

I learned 2 lessons from that incident, always buy insurance and pack a little bit of everyone's clothes in different suitcases in you lose a suitcase or two, at least you have some clothes.

 

We have an upcoming Alaska cruise and there is 6 of us again. It cost us $990 for insurance to protect our $24K trip. Is that a good investment, I say yes.

[GTO-Girl]

I don't care if I'm cruising for 2 days or 2 weeks......if my feet are leaving US soil I am going to make darn sure I have insurance.

 

It always bothers me to read people stating they are healthy so they don't need insurance.. I wonder how many "healthy" people have ever slipped and fallen or have gotten a virus or worse yet gotten a call that a family member back home has taken ill? Heck I have known "healthy" people in our community who have had a heart attack in their 40's.

 

If something happens I want to get the best care I can and if it's serious enough I want to be able to get back "home" as quickly as possible.

[kelmac]

I don't care if I'm cruising for 2 days or 2 weeks......if my feet are leaving US soil I am going to make darn sure I have insurance.

 

It always bothers me to read people stating they are healthy so they don't need insurance.. I wonder how many "healthy" people have ever slipped and fallen or have gotten a virus or worse yet gotten a call that a family member back home has taken ill? Heck I have known "healthy" people in our community who have had a heart attack in their 40's.

 

If something happens I want to get the best care I can and if it's serious enough I want to be able to get back "home" as quickly as possible.

 

Don't you think you can get good health care in the counties you visit and at a very reasonable price compared to the US?

[cruiseco]

Don't you think you can get good health care in the counties you visit and at a very reasonable price compared to the US?

 

Price, when all is said and done, may very well be reasonable compared to US hospitals once the treatment has been administered. However, to protect themselves many overseas hospitals will ask for a substantial sum upfront before providing any treatment. If you're not prepared to cough up this amount you may be turned away. See this thread:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1121463

 

If you can't provide a credit card that will handle an immediate $5,000 to $10,000 hit a travel insurance plan that will guarantee admittance to a hospital becomes nore appealing.

[pris993]

We have been traveling since the early l980s, have well over 30+ cruises all over the world, have never bought insurance. We generally buy our own air, book our own hotels and travel with extra time before and after a cruise. We are healthy and felt we could cancel in advance if we needed to so for years it really did not seem to make sense to buy insurance.

 

We are getting older so looked into buying insurance independently. Found for my husband's age over 75 yrs it really is impossible to do so. Especially medivac which is really the only insurance we would be interested in getting as we get older.

 

And if you have a pre existing condition and you have any change in medication within 3 months of a trip the insurance is not valid. With Medicare, medications are sometimes change based on cost containment which has nothing to do with health issues.

 

We have 3 trips booked at the moment thru 2011. Still no insurance.

 

Since my husband is getting older probably will start getting insurance thru the cruise line in the future. I will turn 65 in 2 years, then we will both be under Medicare. Then it makes more since for us to book with insurance. What we want is health and medivac given our age. Don't really care about trip cancellation insurance.