Insurance - who do you think is best?

[i'llbesea-ingyou]

I've been pouring thru articles upon articles regarding trip insurance. What do you think is the absolute best insurance and best bang for your buck out there? What have been your experiences and what can you recommend? Thanks so much!:)

[sirwired]

There is no one "best" policy. Unlike, say, auto or homeowners insurance, there are no standard policy, and each of them has a different mix of benefits, exclusions, and premiums.

 

Personally, I have been happy with TravelGuard Gold and have not had any major problems getting them to pay claims or render assistance when needed.

 

Really, any of the major providers should do fine; most of the complaints about travel insurance providers not paying claims stem from a policyholder wanting payment for something that is excluded by the policy. So this doesn't become you, make sure you read and understand your policy as soon as you get it (or before you get it.)

 

SirWired

[cherylandtk]

I agree with sirwired. All of the major companies offer a range of similarly priced policies, but the differences in your personal needs could make one of the policies much more desirable than another. First read and understand what trip insurance is and is not, then determine if you have any specific needs to be covered, then pick a policy that meets your needs.

 

Typical issues, and things to understand:

List of covered events

Pre-existing conditions and exclusions

Trip interruption vs. cancellation

Primary or secondary medical

Family coverage, travelling and non

Trip delay limits and maximums

 

For some good background go here:

http://tripinsurancestore.com/faqs.shtml

and

http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=274

[grandmato4]

It would be so much easier if we could give a one travel insurance policy answer as to what was best but all of our needs and priorities can be so different. We've had cruises where being sure we had pre-exisitng coverage was at the top of our list and other trips where this was not a concern. So far we've had no interest in purchasing cancel of any reason policies but that's not to say we won't find that an important feature sometime in the future. We aren't insuring children traveling with us so we have no interest in policies that allow children to be included with no additional cost but for some that is an important feature. Our own medical coverage will cover us out of county, although will be considered as out of plan with higher deductibles so the actual medical coverage doesn't have a high priority but evacuation coverage does as that is not covered by our own health insurance. We do have to fly to our port city so we are interested in the time frames and circumstances needed to be covered for delayed flights and they do vary greatly with different plans.

 

For our last few cruises we have purchased from Travelex as they have had the policy and pricing that has best fit our needs for the cruise we were insuring. We've purchased from Travel Guard in the past and liked their policy but it hasn't been the insurance, or at the price we've wanted to purchased recently. We also purchased from CSA when we had waited to purchased until paying final payment and wanted to be covered for pre-exisiting conditions. For us different companies have best fit our needs for different cruises.

 

Most of the complaints I've read here in cc in the past few years about any insurance have been due to travelers not understanding their policies before they purchased them and upon needing to file a claim found out they were not covered for what they "assumed" they would be covered for if needing to file a claim. Or were not covered to the extent they thought they would be. All companies only pay upon good documentation and yes, that can be a PITA but it is the way it is with all insurance.

 

You have to first decide what are your priorites for your insurance covereage and always always remember not to purchase any insurance plan until you understand exactly what you are and are not purchasing. Good Luck!:)

[seasy going]

I've been pouring thru articles upon articles regarding trip insurance. What do you think is the absolute best insurance and best bang for your buck out there? What have been your experiences and what can you recommend? Thanks so much!:)

 

Hello,

 

The other folks that have responded to your question have summed it up very well. It's hard to recommend a certain travel insurance because of various needs of individuals and the options offered by the various insurance companies.

 

I can offer you an example of my wife and me and who we chose and why. We are "seniors" on Medicare. Medicare doesn't cover any medical problems outside the US. Therefore, primary rather than secondary insurance is what we need. Additionally, even if we had other health care coverage, I think we would still choose primary for less of a hassle in filing a claim. Next, we wanted to be sure that the medical coverage was such that if one of us had a heart attack for example, the costs would be covered. Along with that we also wanted to make sure we had enough coverage to cover the cost of getting us from the ship to land or even back home in case of a serious health problem. Finally, because we have a situation in our lives that could cause us to have to cancel our cruise, we felt that cancel for any reason was also important.

 

So, the company we chose was Travel Insured's Worldwide Trip Protector. It only covered 75% of the cost of our cruise if we cancel, but thought it was an acceptable trade-off. That insurance also met our other major concerns. The second reason we chose them, was because we had to file a claim for some medical problems my wife had on a previous cruise and they reimbursed us fairly quickly. Thirdly, the cost was good compared to others.

 

The other options offered by this plan either wasn't important to us as much or we did not need them. For example, being retired, we don't need any work related coverage. Not flying so we didn't need any flight related coverage etc.

 

As you can see by our example, everyone has different needs. So, my suggestion to you is to decide what are the major items that are important to you. Next, go to a site that lets you compare travel insurance companies and the options they offer and narrow your selection down that way. I like squaremouth dot com.

 

Good luck on your search.

 

Steve

[i'llbesea-ingyou]

Thanks to all who responded here. I didn't realize my post had been moved and just found it! I appreciate all of the very useful information. :)