Yet another reason to actually read the policy

[sirwired]

http://www.elliott.org/blog/this-seems-more-like-fraud-to-me/

 

This is YET ANOTHER tale of a travel insurance purchaser that did not bother to read even the basics of his policy, and was caught by perfectly ordinary policy exclusions. (As in, the exclusions he was bit by are almost universal amongst insurance providers.) If the OP knew about this board, he would surely be complaining here too.

 

The OP bought fares on Cruise West and (DANGER!) paid in full well before sailing, mostly in cash. (NEVER PAY IN CASH, and NEVER PIF way ahead of time just to get a discount! It's almost always a sign that the cruise line is headed down the toilet!

 

He didn't buy the policy within two weeks, which killed his default coverage. Also, Cruise West had been pulled from Access America's covered provider list two months before.

 

The parts of the policy he failed to read were not difficult to find, and he got bit.

 

It is NOT fraud for an insurance company to deny a claim excluded by the policy text. It doesn't matter if the claim is "reasonable" or not the fault of the claimant. It's in the policy, or it isn't.

 

Lesson: ALWAYS, ALWAYS read your insurance policy IN FULL before purchasing, or at least before the money-back-guarantee for the policy expires.

 

Another Lesson: It didn't apply to this OP, but for those that purchase cruises directly from the line: many policies (like Access America) exclude claims against the place from which you purchased the policy or the travel. The real point of this exclusion is to exclude claims for travel agent fraud, but the exclusion also catches direct purchasers. (TravelGuard used to have this restriction, but recently changed it to only refer to 3rd-parties, like Travel Agents.)

 

SirWired

[amindu]

Wow thats scary...so i did read the policy i think i have all my answers except one, im going with MH Ross Advantage Asset with cancel for any reason25K med 50k Evac and baggage delay etc, a very basic coverage but i think its good enough for us, 7 day cruise eastern carribean...my only concern is we are not covered for financial default of the cruise line...i know anything is possible but what are the chances Princess (Subsidiary of Carnival) will go out of business :D by the time our trip is dec 12...this protection is on the next level up but i dont see the benefit in paying 60 more for something like that, any thoughts?

[sirwired]

I agree that CCL is rather unlikely to go under in the next couple of months. I personally would not pay $60 just to get default coverage. I would pay that amount for Joe Random Tour Operator, but not a CCL-owned line.

 

SirWired