I can't find a single insurance company with good reviews!

[bhpeters]

Are they all terrible? I see the occasional 5 star happy review, but mostly on review sites I see 1 star and furious people who aren't getting their money back after filing legitimate claims. I'm actually thinking of not booking a cruise for fear I'll get dinked by the insurance company and be out the money! This applies to every insurance company listed on insurmytrip.com and a few others. I just can't find a good one! It sounds like the claims process is horrible, appeal after appeal must be filed... hardly sounds worth it!

 

Help! Give me happy and comforting thoughts on this, I want to cruise and be relaxed, not stressed!

[patseacruiser]

I can only speak from experience and only 1 experience at that. I had to file for my parents from Travel Guard and after submitting all the paperwork which had to be complete we got a check pretty quickly - 4 weeks or less I would say.

[sirwired]

The vast majority of denied claims have to do with the policy not covering something that the policyholder wishes was covered. Even for "reasonable" claims, if something is excluded from the policy, the claim will not be paid, even if the circumstances of the claim were outside of the policyholder's control.

 

For instance, if your trip delay coverage requires a six-hour delay before coverage kicks in, you only allowed three hours of cushion before sailing, and weather delays mean you show up just after the ship left, your claim will be denied. If you didn't have strike coverage (or purchased a policy after the strike was announced), and you were supposed to be on Spirit airlines this week... unfortunate, but the claim would be denied nonetheless.

 

Before purchasing your policy, make sure you read and understand the whole thing; there is no "standard" policy, and each one has different conditions and exclusions.

 

Personally, I've filed three claims with TravelGuard over the years, and have not been denied once. Nor have I had to file additional documentation beyond what I submitted with the initial claim.

 

If you have to file a claim, try to answer the questions of the claims evaluator before they think to ask them; if there is anything unusual about your claim, include notes to explain what happened. My last claim was a complex trip delay claim; along with the required documentation listed by the insurance company, I submitted three pages worth of explanation. It included a timeline, and information about every one of the included receipts. (The total claim came to thirty-some pages...)

 

The routine denial of proper claims would quickly result in the companies being shut down by the respective state insurance commissions; these companies have been around for years... if it was routine practice to deny the relatively straightforward claims usually filed for travel insurance, they would not exist for long. (Unlike health or disability insurance, travel insurance claims usually do not involve much ambiguity; the hammer of the law would come down quickly if claims were not paid, as there is little wiggle room for either party in the policies.)

[klfrodo]

As stated earlier, I would bet that in 95% of the cases where the insured feel as though they got ripped off, they either

A) Feel they should covered on something that was exempt from coverage, or

B) Had unrealistic expectations.

 

Examples of this would be to show up at the airport this weekend with Spirit Airlines tickets in hand.

Example A) Purchased insurance on May 12,2010. Union announced the vote to strike on 5/11/2010. Some insurance companies clearly explain that strikes are not covered after announcement.

Example B) would be you show up at the airport and expect the insurance company to outright purchase new airline tickets for you. Reality is that YOU would have to buy the tickets and then file a claim for reimbursement.

[grandmato4]

Please understand that people that have complaints have much greater odds of writing reviews than those that had no problem with their insurance. Yes, its true that all insurance companies require much documentation before they will consider paying a claim. They don't just take your word for it. I'm not aware of any insurance in my everyday life that doesn't require documention so I wouldn't expect travel insurance to be any different.

 

If one's claim is denied there is an appeals process which does tend to take time and often will not change the original decision which of coarse leaves those that do not have the decision reversed frustrated and angry.

 

Most often the real problem is that the person that purchased the insurance did not take the time to investigate exactly what they were and were not purchasing and under what conditions they would or would not be reimbursed but rather assumed that if something went wrong they would simply be covered. In their minds they did file a legitimate claim but unfortunately it wasn't something that was covered under their circumstance under the plan that they purchased. Remember there is no such policy that will cover ALL circumstances just because you purchased insurance.

 

I'm sure there are some legitimate complaints among those complaining and some insurance companies that are harder to work with than others. No Travel insurance company is going to be without some legitimate complaints and problems.

 

Before you purchase insurance take the time to understand what you are and are not purchasing. Ask lots of questions of the insurance company you are considering purchasing insurance from so you feel confident that you do understand the policy you are purchasing. If you feel as if they dont want to answer your questions or are trying to rush you into purchasing insurance from them do NOT purchase from that company. If you read through the board here you will find several insurance companies that people here feel good about purchasing from.

 

Good Luck and do your homework upfront so you can relax and enjoy your cruise. IMHO purchasing insurance is very important as one never knows what the future has to hold but also remember that most often all goes well and you won't need to file any claims.:)

[sirwired]

Grandmato4,

 

Actually, there are policies that will cover everything; they have something aptly called the "Cancel for Any Reason" rider. With cruise-line provided policies, this supplies a 75-100% cruise credit. With 3rd-party policies, you get 50-75% cash payout. (There are restrictions on the timing of the purchase of such policies, but no restrictions on claims.)

 

SirWired

[grandmato4]

Grandmato4,

 

Actually, there are policies that will cover everything; they have something aptly called the "Cancel for Any Reason" rider. With cruise-line provided policies, this supplies a 75-100% cruise credit. With 3rd-party policies, you get 50-75% cash payout. (There are restrictions on the timing of the purchase of such policies, but no restrictions on claims.)

 

SirWired

 

Cancel for any reason only applied to cancelling before your scheduled departure and while policies will differ they do require you to cancel within a certain time frame. As an example our Travelex policy requires that cancellation to be two(2) days or more before our scheduled departure. So if something were to happen the day before our departure or even on the day of our departure that we would wish to use to file a claim under cancel for any reason we would not be covered. That simply being an example of what I meant by no policy will cover everything even if you have cancel for any reason.

 

It still is all about having to be inside the covered guidelines in order to file a claim that will be approved and not denied. All policies have exclusions and all have very specific circumstances underwhich claims can be filed. The more research one does before purchasing insurance the better chance they have of purchasing insurance to fit their needs that will more likely cover them at covered amounts should something go wrong before or during their trip.

[RJake1]

I think some policies will entertain an extension of coverage which would cover those 2 days before actual departure date. The policy terms and limitations that take effect after the departure date would apply so that the 'cancel for any reason' would not be available.

[traderwds]

More than a year of denials and delays - these people and their associates are a bunch of crooks happy to tkae your hefty premium but will fight you when it comes time to pay-

 

Injury fall a week before the trip was deemed preexisitng - if you are old beware!!