"Pay as you go" trip Insurance

[LDVinNC]

I want to thank the posters who have mentioned that you can start the insurance just covering the deposit and then add on coverage as payments are made.

 

I never would have thought of this, and in the past have avoided buying insurance up front for trips planned long in advance. So often plans change and while the insurance can usually be transferred, we have lost out in the past. But now we want to make sure pre-existing conditions are covered.

 

Just booked a long trip for October 2017 and called tripinsurancestore to double check that this approach is permitted, and it is! So, we got the insurance going for only about 10% of what the eventual cost will be. We'll be happy to pay the rest later on.

[Babr]

Good for you! Now you can rest easy and enjoy planning your trip. Enjoy.

[Hlitner]

This sounds fine, although we would have some concerns about the pre-existing condition clause in such a policy. That being said, we have not read the fine print of any of these policies...but would urge anyone using this approach to ask about the issue (and also read the policy).

 

Many cruisers (especially younger less experienced travelers) tend to focus on Trip Cancellation provisions and pay little attention to the medical part. Keep in mind that the most you can lose with cancellation is what you paid for the trip (plus any extra costs to get home). But with a major medical problem your liability could quickly run into the 10s of thousands or even more! Your medical liability is essentially unlimited...and yet many travelers will take trips with no coverage or only $10,000 of coverage. Personally, we would survive eating the cost of a trip (we were going to pay it anyway) but it is the unlimited medical liability that gets our attention.

 

Hank

[notjaded]

This sounds fine, although we would have some concerns about the pre-existing condition clause in such a policy.

 

I've used the strategy with Allianz, and they say that as long as you keep on adding to the insurance within 14 days of the (next) payment, one is covered for pre-existing conditions.

[LDVinNC]

That is essentially what Deanna at tripinsurance store told us. As non-refundable payments are made, as long as we add to the policy within 10 days we are good. We are much more concerned about medical and evacuation benefits - we are of medicare age, and although generally healthy, you never know what an insurance company would consider pre-existing.

As others have said, the trip cancellation is not the most important part. In fact, for USA river cruises we don't even purchase insurance. Our credit card covers us for part of those expenses and the rest we are willing to self-insure for.

[GeezerCouple]

Our policies, all through TripInsuranceStore and with more than one insurer, all work this way, and all offer the waiver of that exclusion for pre-existing conditions - as long as all deadlines are met, from the start and for all additional non-refundable payments as they are made.

 

It's not surprising, because the insurance is for "non-refundable costs", and if there aren't yet payments for those non-refundable future charges (or hotels, airfare, excursions, etc.), then there really isn't anything that *requires* insurance coverage/payments.

 

[The only exception is for the FIRST payment, after which one much start the insurance within the required deadline: 21 days in our case, sometimes shorter for other policies. That deposit might be refundable, but the policies that offer waivers of the pre-existing condition exclusion usually need to be started within the specified time of "first payment", not "first non-refundable payment".]

 

Our policies require payment for additional payments for non-refundable charges within the same deadline (21 days for most of our policies, but could be 10 or 14 days for other policies/insurers).

 

But as usual, it is IMPERATIVE to read ALL the terms of whichever policy YOU get!

(The fine print does matter.)