Serious question: Why does anyone buy trip insurance unless old or tight budget?

[smeyer418]

Back in our early days of cruising, we used to take the cruise-lines offered coverage with no thought. And the price was very reasonable. I don't think I was ever offered a copy of the insurance contract outlining exactly what is and is not covered, with coverage limitations stated. On similar threads, I have seen others comment that they have gotten this, but it required some calls and was a bit of a hassle.

 

For the past few years, we have purchased our own insurance and for a few dollars additional are able to customize the coverage we want. A base policy may offer a $10,000 limit on evac for instance. For $3 or $4 more, you can up this to $100,000. They will send me a quote listing every item covered, coverage $$ limits, all terms and exclusions pre purchase so I can make an informed decision. Of course this coverage is probably more expensive than that offered by the cruise line.

 

With the cruise line, you just pay your money and get no info it seems. I wonder if it is even adequate coverage. Sometimes you get what you pay for.

 

the policy is on line here for an example is NCL's

 

http://www.ncl.com/freestyle-cruise/booksafe

 

all the cruise lines do the same.

 

the amount of health insurance is on the light side. for people with world wide coverage it probably is ok but for others a serious illness may exhaust the limits(it will be ok 95% of the time)

Edited July 23, 2014 by smeyer418

[cruznbelle]

WOW - I'm 56 so not there yet - but I had NO idea - very good to know as I was pushing my parents to come with us on one... Thanks for the info!

[gemsm]

I buy it faithfully now. The one time I didn't purchase it because I thought it was a waste of money, we had an aft suite on the Jewel. A blizzard was forecast the day we were supposed to leave so all flights were cancelled 3 days prior. We had to purchase a flight North to then fly south to Florida and take 3 extra vacation days. Thank god I had a free place to stay in FLA but I did have to take a couple hundred dollar bus ride from west coast to east coast.

 

The cost of all of that was way pricier then the trip insurance which would have covered everything

[sdmike]

The OP right out of the gate says they don't want to be condescending ("wasting money"), but then they are. So much for good intentions.

 

Keep in mind that almost all insurance companies are profit driven. This includes car, home, travel, life, etc. The whole idea of underwriting is that the charge is aligned somewhat with the risk of loss and value of the benefits. To cite those as reasonable insurance items versus a cruise/vacation isn't really fair. The costs are much higher, the benefits are higher, and the risks are low just like vacation insurance.

 

I think on my last cruise I got quoted $70 or to for trip insurance. I didn't do it. I was traveling in AK in the inside passage, and my regular medical plan covers me for most things that I would face traveling in the US and CAN. I also can afford to lose my cruise "investment" if something happened. It would hurt for sure, but it wouldn't break me. We were also flying just up the coast to Seattle a day early, so airline delays were unlikely to mess with my plans.

 

However, I"m not going to say it's a waste of money for others. They might pay thousands for airfare, thousands for a cruise, and they are traveling outside the area covered by their insurance. In that case, $70 for a piece of mind and to mitigate potential huge financial losses might make all the sense in the world. Are they likely to use it? No...just like any other kind of insurance, but ensuring you're not going to get hit with a $50k medical bill while on vacation may be worth it.

Edited July 23, 2014 by sdmike

[graphicguy]

That's the thing about insurance. It's a bad deal if you don't need it. It's wonderful to have if you do.

 

Case in point, broke my foot in Nassau awhile back. Had yo have it set and put in a cast in Nassau. The bill was $5,000+. Insurance ifrom my work had a fineprint exclusion that any injury that occured in a foreign country, when travelling to duch country wasn't official company business, was not covered.

 

Although I didn't miss the ship, if I had, getting back to the ship, or home, would have been covered, as well as the cost of the cruise.

 

In short, insurance is not worth it, until you need it. And, you'll never know when you'll need it.

[Ilovesailing]

Not trying to be condescending here, but trip insurance is one of the worst value things one can purchase. It's pretty much throwing money away unless you have a high chance of using it.

 

I can only think of three scenarios where it makes sense to purchase trip insurance:

 

1) You are living on a tight budget, and the money you lose by not being able to go would be so financially devastating that you couldn't travel again for a long time.

 

2) You are old or in poor health, and there is a fair chance that something will change for the worse between now and your trip.

 

3) You have a family member who is old or in poor health, and there is a fair chance you will have to attend their funeral or final details, and have to cancel the trip.

 

Otherwise, it's a complete waste of money, yet I see many upper-middle class families waste their money on this garbage.

 

Someone please explain to me why they bother.

 

Somehow I think you has missed some very important lessons/education in your life.

Did you not know that average woman to have a stroke is 32.

 

And because I had your attidude some 35 years ago while on business out of country I had a hard attack at the age of 38 SO DO YOU CALL THAT OLD. Further more I had NO insurance I spent 10 days in US hosipital when I got home my bill was 50K USD converted to 63K Can$ D

 

You obviously don't travel much to have your luggage lost forever or been delayed 2/3/4 days in your trip, well I have. Have you ever had an airline forkife drive one of it's arms through your hard sided luggage, well I have, my friend this happens daily so jusy bite the bullet and butbecause if you do chance are you and your family WONT need it but if you do then you have it. Simple as that.

Furthermore if a person's/family is on a tight budget perhaps they shouldn't be vacationing.

One of the good thing about cruising for elders is that there are medics and facilities on board to stabilize folks that will give them the piece of mind that its ok to travel. You see people not even elders in wheelchairs, scooters, some on oxygen. Some of these folks are even helped on to tender boats so they can go ashore.

[Warm Breezes]

Not trying to be condescending here, but trip insurance is one of the worst value things one can purchase. It's pretty much throwing money away unless you have a high chance of using it.

 

I can only think of three scenarios where it makes sense to purchase trip insurance:

 

1) You are living on a tight budget, and the money you lose by not being able to go would be so financially devastating that you couldn't travel again for a long time.

 

2) You are old or in poor health, and there is a fair chance that something will change for the worse between now and your trip.

 

3) You have a family member who is old or in poor health, and there is a fair chance you will have to attend their funeral or final details, and have to cancel the trip.

 

Otherwise, it's a complete waste of money, yet I see many upper-middle class families waste their money on this garbage.

 

Someone please explain to me why they bother.

 

We did not get insurance for our first 3 cruises. When we started cruising we were in our mid 30's with 2 young children. We are now in our late 40's with a 17 and 20 year old.

 

On cruise #2 we had a direct fllight from Michigan to Orlando. We ended up making an emergency landing for mechanical issues in Tennessee and sitting on the ground for 5+ hours. Luckily we had flown in the day before our cruise. If it had been the day of we would have missed the ship and insurance would have come in handy.

 

On cruise #3 we drove down to Florida with extended family in 2 vehicles. The plan was to visit DGM for a couple days and then cruise. At one of our stops on the way DM discovered she couldn't get her trunk open which held my stepdads wheel chair, his insulin, and their luggage. We ended making a stop at a VW dealership in Atlanta for 4 hours to get this issue fixed. It was a good thing we were visiting DGM for a few days ahead of time. Then when we were on our way to the terminal in Tampa a cooler flew out of the truck in front of us. It flew over our minivan and smashed DM's front windshield on the drivers side. Luckily we were close enough to the port that DH took over driving slowly to the terminal. If it had been any farther away we would have been in big trouble. The employees in the parking garage helped DM find someone to replace the windshield while we were gone. Finally upon our return we were informed that my DF who was in the hospital recovering when we left had gotten a staff infection and he ended up passing away 3 days after our return and DGM ended up going in the hospital for her heart the day after we returned.

 

This trip was filled with near misses of every kind. We decided we would be wise to purchase insurance after that....and it was a good thing we did because a couple cruises after that we ended up cancelling a cruise when DGM passed away the day before a cruise. We were glad we had insurance. It wasn't a waste of money for us.

 

Our friends, same age as us with 2 kids same ages, who were with us on the cruise with emergency landing in Tennessee, saw what we had experienced and so they decided to start purchasing insurance too. On their next cruise they were to fly to San Juan. When they got to Detroit they discovered the pilots of their airline had gone on strike. Luckily they learned previously to fly in the day before so they had time and were able to make arrangements through other lines with their insurance to get there the next day. Then a couple of years ago they were at the airport waiting to go on another cruise when they got the phone call that his DM was having problems and they needed to get to the hospital. On their way to the hospital 6 hours away she passed away unexpectedly. They were glad they had insurance too. It wasn't a waste of money for them either.

 

My point is even if you are you are young and healthy, there are many things on vacations that insurance can cover you for...In our case and in the case of our friends it has been worth the small price. I pay between $90 - $115 for the 4 us per trip. So far they have paid me $1700 in a reimbursed cruise that we ended up rebooking and taking the following year. We have had so many close calls and one direct hit.

 

I wouldn't dream of sailing with out it. But its up to you to get insurance or not....but one of my pet peeves is when people come on here and want the cruise line to bail them out because they decided to decline getting insurance and something happened to them. If you take the risk, take the reponsibility for YOUR decision....don't expect someone else to bail you out and cry foul when they don't.

[Rhea98]

I usually do purchase insurance if the investment merits it (IMHO). Regarding a cruise on NCL, has anyone compared insurance cost/coverage between what one can get from NCL vs another company? If so, what's the verdict? I believe there is at least one benefit buying from NCL (they assist if needed). Thanks in advance.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Edited July 23, 2014 by Rhea98

[pokerpro5]

Wow.

 

Just read nearly 6 pages of vacation horror stories where people bought trip insurance for a few hundred and ended up getting paid thousands (or in some cases tens of thousands) because of one of many unfortunate situations preventing their travel or striking down their health. I haven't seen a single post where people report buying trip insurance for years, spending thousands over time, and never using it.

 

Conclusion: Apparently it's typical for just about everyone to get big value out of trip insurance.

 

The trip insurance companies must be losing a fortune.

 

Glad I'm not in that business!

 

From what I'm reading, nearly everyone who bought trip insurance here got a great benefit out of it, and we even have a few who didn't buy it and were later sorry.

 

Hopefully the trip insurance companies aren't reading this thread, because it will cause them to evaluate the fact that they are bleeding money and will need to sharply raise the rates to keep in business!

 

Thanks for the enlightenment, folks!

Edited July 23, 2014 by pokerpro5

[CrossBluePerchance]

My husband and I always purchase medical insurance, (for our times spent outside Canada), but have only purchased trip cancellation insurance once - for an expensive vacation in Botswana.

 

We are budget travellers - choose inside guarantee cabins, less expensive studio apartments, or a room in an apartment with kitchen privileges where we can prepare our own meals, and we don't waste money on what we consider to be unnecessary\unwanted frills.

 

We feel that if something happens that is serious (catastrophic?) enough to make us miss the trip, the lost money will be the least of our worries.

[pokerpro5]

But seriously, here is the reality of the situation.

 

If you're the type who is going to be hung up on losing a few thousand because of an unusual event causing the non-refundable cancellation of your trip, go ahead and get the trip insurance. As some have said, the peace of mind is probably worth it if you can't just shrug your shoulders and say, "Well, it sucks to lose this money, but I can afford it and I still did the right thing by not insuring a relatively small purchase."

 

If you're the type who is not good at figuring out how to get many of the same benefits cheaper/free (for example, the Amex card provides a lot of this stuff for free), again, buy the trip insurance.

 

If you honestly couldn't afford the financial hit from your trip being canceled (and therefore couldn't replace the trip in the near future), buy the trip insurance.

 

If you're scared of high medical bills in foreign countries or high med-evac costs, buy the insurance (but only get the health/evac coverage).

 

If there is something in your life making a cancellation fairly likely (you being in poor health, a relative being in poor health, etc), then buy the insurance.

 

But the bottom line is that trip insurance is an industry with a HUGE profit margin. The way they make that profit is by overcharging people like you who are convinced you're getting value because it's "just $500" or whatever.

 

I can totally understand if you are trying to insure against 5-figure losses (such as the medical bills abroad), but you can buy separate insurance for that for cheaper.

 

Too many people just automatically grab the trip insurance because they think it's a financially prudent thing to do, when in reality they are getting fleeced a little bit at a time.

 

I saw a thread recently here where PCCs were sneaking trip insurance onto people's cruise purchases without permission, and in fact one case where the PCC said to just "deduct it if you don't want it", so he still would get credit for the sale. These PCCs do it because they score big bonuses for selling this stuff to overly cautious suckers.

 

If you really do want to buy this insurance, that's your prerogative, but at least be wise enough to shop around and go with a company that isn't building the huge commissions and gigantic profit margins into their rates.

[PuterMonkey]

I will give you an excellent example of why one should consider trip insurance.

 

On our recent cruise, the second port day, we came back early and noticed a young couple around our own age hanging around the pool. We noticed them because the guy had obviously been hurt, had his leg all wrapped up, and couldn't walk or put it in the water. The girl was sitting sympathetically with him.

 

As the week went on, we noticed this guy several times getting around the ship in a wheelchair, and the girl looking progressively more unhappy about the situation.

 

On the last night of our cruise, we were talking with some other couples and found out the story of this poor chap. It turned out that on the very first port day (Bermuda), he fell off some rocks and broke his leg. Turns out, Bermuda didn't have the facilities to properly treat his break, his only option was to be treated back at home. But because of having to pay for not only the flights home but losing the cruise, they opted to stay. They soft set his leg which meant when he got home he was going to have to have his leg re-broken and set properly.

 

Oh, and it turns out, they were on their honeymoon.

 

Some trip insurance would have been mighty nice, eh?

[GeezerCouple]

Wow.

 

Just read nearly 6 pages of vacation horror stories where people bought trip insurance for a few hundred and ended up getting paid thousands (or in some cases tens of thousands) because of one of many unfortunate situations preventing their travel or striking down their health. I haven't seen a single post where people report buying trip insurance for years, spending thousands over time, and never using it.

 

Conclusion: Apparently it's typical for just about everyone to get big value out of trip insurance.

 

The trip insurance companies must be losing a fortune.

 

Glad I'm not in that business!

 

From what I'm reading, nearly everyone who bought trip insurance here got a great benefit out of it, and we even have a few who didn't buy it and were later sorry.

 

Hopefully the trip insurance companies aren't reading this thread, because it will cause them to evaluate the fact that they are bleeding money and will need to sharply raise the rates to keep in business!

 

Thanks for the enlightenment, folks!

 

This is a joke, right?

 

You want to also discuss/mock the people who pay homeowner's insurance for years and years and are "unlucky enough" (per your approach!) NOT to have a house burn down, etc.?

 

Or those who buy more than the minimum auto liability insurance (yes, there are people like that, but obviously you wouldn't be one), but are also "unlucky enough" (again, per your outlook) NOT to hit someone?

 

I assume you do not have collision insurance for your car(s), or un/under-insured driver protection for the car itself? Obviously, if your car gets sideswiped badly and there is no evidence who did it, you can "just buy another car". Easy.

 

But again, it's the unexpected MEDICAL coverage in places where the traveler's medical insurance would NOT apply... THAT is the real value for most of us.

If we happen to collect "cancelled trip costs"/etc., that's just an unexpected perk.

And some people arrange insurance covering ONLY for the medical, of course, if they can find the right policy.

 

As with most insurance, it's a "sleep well at night" decision.

 

You are obviously a gambler.

Your decisions reflect that.

You don't need any insurance, because it is ALL a low-probability event, even if potentially catastrophic cost without the coverage.

 

The others of us... not so much...

 

GeezerCouple

[cruzsnooze]

Not trying to be condescending here, but trip insurance is one of the worst value things one can purchase. It's pretty much throwing money away unless you have a high chance of using it.

 

I can only think of three scenarios where it makes sense to purchase trip insurance:

 

1) You are living on a tight budget, and the money you lose by not being able to go would be so financially devastating that you couldn't travel again for a long time.

 

2) You are old or in poor health, and there is a fair chance that something will change for the worse between now and your trip.

 

3) You have a family member who is old or in poor health, and there is a fair chance you will have to attend their funeral or final details, and have to cancel the trip.

 

Otherwise, it's a complete waste of money, yet I see many upper-middle class families waste their money on this garbage.

 

Someone please explain to me why they bother.

I seldom buy trip insurance. If the trip exceeds $20,000 I will insurance otherwise I can afford to loose the fare. When it's a very expensive trip it means it's extended and over seas in a exotic place with no medical services (think the middle of the Amazon River) I have 7 cruises this year and did not buy insurance once.

I accept that not everyone has my high thresh hold for risk. The money I've saved could easily pay for most issues where i might loose out on some travel related issue.

Edited July 23, 2014 by cruzsnooze

[rochelle_s]

But seriously, here is the reality of the situation.

 

...

 

 

Too many people just automatically grab the trip insurance because they think it's a financially prudent thing to do, when in reality they are getting fleeced a little bit at a time.

 

I saw a thread recently here where PCCs were sneaking trip insurance onto people's cruise purchases without permission, and in fact one case where the PCC said to just "deduct it if you don't want it", so he still would get credit for the sale. These PCCs do it because they score big bonuses for selling this stuff to overly cautious suckers.

 

If you really do want to buy this insurance, that's your prerogative, but at least be wise enough to shop around and go with a company that isn't building the huge commissions and gigantic profit margins into their rates.

 

To paraphrase you, "Seriously here is the reality of this thread"...

 

You have had over a hundred people post here about the benefits of purchasing insurance but still you continue on with your self righteous condescending attitude. You are assuming that you know exactly what type of coverage everyone gets, who they purchase it from and the 'worth' of the dollar amount they pay for their insurance.

 

Why not just man up and admit you did not think the whole topic through before you initially posted. Perhaps even admit that you learned something.

 

I image this thread does more for promoting the purchase of insurance, whatever level of coverage that may be, than it does to enlighten all of us 'suckers' from 'foolishly' throwing our money away.

 

Yes continue on with your condescending posts, they do a world of good for getting you point across.

 

 

Rochelle

[carib1]

I assume you do not have collision insurance for your car(s), or un/under-insured driver protection for the car itself? Obviously, if your car gets sideswiped badly and there is no evidence who did it, you can "just buy another car". Easy.

FYI--Under/Uninsured coverages does not cover your car, it only covers your bodily injury. Some states will have under/uninsured coverage with property damage and thru the property damage it will cover the car but only up to $15,000 and it cannot be a hit and runf or this coverage to apply. You have to have collision coverage on your car for a hit and run to be covered.:)

Edited July 23, 2014 by carib1

[smeyer418]

I assume you do not have collision insurance for your car(s), or un/under-insured driver protection for the car itself? Obviously, if your car gets sideswiped badly and there is no evidence who did it, you can "just buy another car". Easy.

FYI--Under/Uninsured coverages does not cover your car, it only covers your bodily injury. Some states will have under/uninsured coverage with property damage and thru the property damage it will cover the car but only up to $15,000 and it cannot be a hit and runf or this coverage to apply. You have to have collision coverage on your car for a hit and run to be covered.:)

sometimes its covered under the comprehensive coverage(generally a lower deductible). A collision with a deer is covered under comprehensive and not collison(don't ask me why I just report these things)

[emcelh]

To paraphrase you, "Seriously here is the reality of this thread"...

 

You have had over a hundred people post here about the benefits of purchasing insurance but still you continue on with your self righteous condescending attitude. You are assuming that you know exactly what type of coverage everyone gets, who they purchase it from and the 'worth' of the dollar amount they pay for their insurance.

 

Why not just man up and admit you did not think the whole topic through before you initially posted. Perhaps even admit that you learned something.

 

I image this thread does more for promoting the purchase of insurance, whatever level of coverage that may be, than it does to enlighten all of us 'suckers' from 'foolishly' throwing our money away.

 

Yes continue on with your condescending posts, they do a world of good for getting you point across.

 

 

Rochelle

 

I agree, except that Pokerpro has no point. This is just someone with too much time trying to create a heated debate. Pretty lame.

[Barb Nahoumi]

There are so many "What Ifs," which could side-track a cruise. What if I get sick before a sailing, What if my husband or kids get sick, what if there is a death in the family, or what if weather cancels a flight. These things can happen, and we would want to be compensated if anything impeded our cruise. To have our "What Ifs," covered, we buy insurance.

 

It's a relatively small amount, which we budget for, to protect a larger amount for "Just-in-case.

[dalgirl]

European cruises are a great example of having trip insurance. You never know when something will happen (such as the volcanic eruptions in Iceland grounding flights all over Europe) to disrupt your cruise. And although we don't get car rental insurance in the US (our regular insurance covers anything we drive) we always get it in Europe - that way no matter what happens to the car (accident, theft, etc) we have no liability.

[The Mister]

Insurance companies are in the business of making profit -- usually a big profit.

As a person who works in the insurance industry, I can tell you that your "usually" is highly exaggerated. I do concede that there are *some* lines of business that are quite profitable - warranties and credit insurance in particular.

 

For travel insurance, it might be *slightly* rich (I don't have specific knowledge of typical loss ratios for the industry), but for the med-evac and remains-evac situations, I am fine with it.

 

Incidentally, my family and I have only been on one cruise. We bought insurance, and it paid for itself. We were stupid newbies and left a backpack that contained some of our valuables with the porters in Miami, thinking, "Hey, less to carry, no big deal." When we got the bag, my iPod (plus accessories) and our smaller camera (plus accessories) were missing (almost certainly pick-pocketed out of the backpack). Insurance reimbursed us for the replacement cost of the items.

 

This particular issue won't ever occur again with us because we learned our lesson, but the potential high-cost possibilities are still important to us.

[The Mister]

As a person who works in the insurance industry, I can tell you that your "usually" is highly exaggerated. I do concede that there are *some* lines of business that are quite profitable - warranties and credit insurance in particular.

Excuse me for quoting myself, but I suppose I should also concede that the travel insurance offered through the cruise line seems to be noticeably "richer" (costs more for lower / fewer benefits) than independently available coverage (e.g., TravelGuard or Allianz), but that is unsurprising. Doing a price comparison is simply a smart thing to do.

[smeyer418]

Excuse me for quoting myself, but I suppose I should also concede that the travel insurance offered through the cruise line seems to be noticeably "richer" (costs more for lower / fewer benefits) than independently available coverage (e.g., TravelGuard or Allianz), but that is unsurprising. Doing a price comparison is simply a smart thing to do.

while that is true at your age, its becomes less true as you age. but doing a price comparison is a good idea. see for example http://www.insuremytrip.com

 

also travel insurance is among the most profitable of all insurance and I have always thought it should be mandatory...which would bring the price down significantly.

[carib1]

sometimes its covered under the comprehensive coverage(generally a lower deductible). A collision with a deer is covered under comprehensive and not collison(don't ask me why I just report these things)

 

 

But he wasn't talking about hitting a deer, he was talking about getting sideswiped by another vehicle then them leaving the scene. And a collison with a deer can only be a collision with a deer, you cannot hit anything besides the deer for it to be covered under comprehensive coverage. So if you hit the deer then lose control and hit a ditch or a guardrail--it is now a collision claim. As far as deductilbles that entirely depends on what deductible you pick, some people have higher deductibles on comprehensive coverage but lower on collision.:)

[The Mister]

also travel insurance is among the most profitable of all insurance and I have always thought it should be mandatory...which would bring the price down significantly.

Ha! Having it be mandatory (in and of itself) would not bring the price down at all (and would likely drive it up, as demand would be artificially inflated). On the other hand, making it mandatory *and* having and enforcing *reasonable* pricing regulations via the various State Depts of Insurance would lower the cost. Actually, just the second one would do the job, but having both would be an obvious trade-off.

Edited July 23, 2014 by The Mister