Travelrguard and Insurance

[CarolandNate]

We are doing a Panama Canal Cruise in December.  We used Travelguard on a previous cruise and I am using it again.  Price is right and because we are doing other things while we are away, it makes sense.  TG covers the entire trip from the time I leave my house until I return, whether Princess related or not.  I must inform them of any additional bookings that would result in loss of money through cancellation fee that would come before I left the house.  Anything booked after is does not have to be reported.  I need to do this within 20 days of booking to maintain a pre-existing conditions clause.  I could have done an any reason (bad hair day), but that would add $200 or so to the premium.  Given that these excursions are free cancellation as long as they are done five days or more prior to the excursion, it does not look like I would have to report them.  But that said, the increase in premium does not jump by too much when you start hitting the thousands.  I don't want to risk blowing the whole pre existing conditions clause over having to spend an additional $25-50 in premium.  Has anyone dealt with this before?

[GeezerCouple]

15 minutes ago, CarolandNate said:

We are doing a Panama Canal Cruise in December.  We used Travelguard on a previous cruise and I am using it again.  Price is right and because we are doing other things while we are away, it makes sense.  TG covers the entire trip from the time I leave my house until I return, whether Princess related or not.  I must inform them of any additional bookings that would result in loss of money through cancellation fee that would come before I left the house.  Anything booked after is does not have to be reported.  I need to do this within 20 days of booking to maintain a pre-existing conditions clause.  I could have done an any reason (bad hair day), but that would add $200 or so to the premium.  Given that these excursions are free cancellation as long as they are done five days or more prior to the excursion, it does not look like I would have to report them.  But that said, the increase in premium does not jump by too much when you start hitting the thousands.  I don't want to risk blowing the whole pre existing conditions clause over having to spend an additional $25-50 in premium.  Has anyone dealt with this before?

 

I would strongly suggest you ask the insurer or the broker you purchased the insurance from.

What we say here won't matter if you have a claim and the insurer feels you should have included those costs.

 

GC

[klfrodo]

Travel guard does require you to insure ALL non refundable expenses to maintain the Pre Exsisting clause.

Id hate to make a mistake and leave something out, just to save $50 on premiums, only to give them an excuse to invalidate my coverage.

[SG65CB]

On 2/23/2019 at 2:03 PM, CarolandNate said:

the increase in premium does not jump by too much when you start hitting the thousands.  I don't want to risk blowing the whole pre existing conditions clause over having to spend an additional $25-50 in premium.  Has anyone dealt with this before?

 

Travel insurance is priced in "bands", for example the Travel Guard Gold policy has the same premium for any insured amount from $7001 to $8000, then it has the same premium for $8001 to $9000, etc. 

 

To be safe and ensure that you don't accidentally under-state your non-refundable trip cost you could just insure the top of your band. If your trip cost is $7300 you would insure $8000, it is the same price.

 

Here is the list of bands for Travel Guard Gold:

https://tripinsurancestore.com/travel-guard-gold-plan-prices-to-100000-pp-trip-cost-for-44-states/

 

[CarolandNate]

5 hours ago, SG65CB said:

 

Travel insurance is priced in "bands", for example the Travel Guard Gold policy has the same premium for any insured amount from $7001 to $8000, then it has the same premium for $8001 to $9000, etc. 

 

To be safe and ensure that you don't accidentally under-state your non-refundable trip cost you could just insure the top of your band. If your trip cost is $7300 you would insure $8000, it is the same price.

 

Here is the list of bands for Travel Guard Gold:

https://tripinsurancestore.com/travel-guard-gold-plan-prices-to-100000-pp-trip-cost-for-44-states/

 

This is great.  I had been told that as you got higher in the total of the trip, the brackets, which I now know are called bands have lower jumps in premium.  The chart in tripinsurancestore.com makes that quite clear.  The link you sent was gold and we have silver, but I found another site travelinsurance.com that had silver as well as gold (and platinum).  The gold price on that was same as tripinsurance store, so I feel I can trust that the silver price is the real deal on Travelguard.

 

To get a top price, I added the excursions that I plan to prebook to the price from my agent (cruise plus return flight).  It took me to the top of a band giving me a cushion of just $50, but unless I prepay for something else that is truly nonrefundable, I won't go into the next band.  I played around with it and even if I dropped several things, it would not get me to a lower band.  The only way I would get to the next lower band would be to not prebook any excursions and then all I would save by going to that is $50.  Not worth possibly not getting the excursion I want.  There is no harm in "overinsuring" it appears. 

 

On our flight out to LA, we will be booking with airline miles and I am assuming I don't have to "report" flights booked with miles, because I won't have lost any money.  With American there is no penalty if you don't actually cancel the flight and have the points returned to the account.  You just have to use them within a year from booking date as long as you go to the original destination.  Southwest is pretty much the same.  They call it Unused Travel Funds. You might lose the $6 govt fee, but I'm not sure of that.  They don't require the original destination though.

 

This actually means I should take my total anticipated price to the limit of the band even before I book the excursions.  I have been told that the quoted premiums will go up as we get closer to the trip.

 

Thanks, this was really helpful

[Alrana Eris]

I swear by  Travel Guard, I have been loyal customer for about 20 years. Not once had to file a claim but it is always good to have.

[CarolandNate]

On 2/26/2019 at 2:22 AM, CarolandNate said:

This is great.  I had been told that as you got higher in the total of the trip, the brackets, which I now know are called bands have lower jumps in premium.  The chart in tripinsurancestore.com makes that quite clear.  The link you sent was gold and we have silver, but I found another site travelinsurance.com that had silver as well as gold (and platinum).  The gold price on that was same as tripinsurance store, so I feel I can trust that the silver price is the real deal on Travelguard.

 

To get a top price, I added the excursions that I plan to prebook to the price from my agent (cruise plus return flight).  It took me to the top of a band giving me a cushion of just $50, but unless I prepay for something else that is truly nonrefundable, I won't go into the next band.  I played around with it and even if I dropped several things, it would not get me to a lower band.  The only way I would get to the next lower band would be to not prebook any excursions and then all I would save by going to that is $50.  Not worth possibly not getting the excursion I want.  There is no harm in "overinsuring" it appears. 

 

On our flight out to LA, we will be booking with airline miles and I am assuming I don't have to "report" flights booked with miles, because I won't have lost any money.  With American there is no penalty if you don't actually cancel the flight and have the points returned to the account.  You just have to use them within a year from booking date as long as you go to the original destination.  Southwest is pretty much the same.  They call it Unused Travel Funds. You might lose the $6 govt fee, but I'm not sure of that.  They don't require the original destination though.

 

This actually means I should take my total anticipated price to the limit of the band even before I book the excursions.  I have been told that the quoted premiums will go up as we get closer to the trip.

 

Thanks, this was really helpful

The band information you gave me was so helpful.  I went to TG and had some specific questions to ask with ragrd to how that all fit in.  There is a difference between booking directly with TG and using my big box store's agency.  TG has a partnership with the latter that have different tiers of insurance.  Instead of the Basic, Silver, Gold and Platinum, they have a special one that is a combo of the top two.  Price is also lower.  Also the reps at TG aren't going to upsell.  In terms of using OBCs to pay, they said you can't.  Because OBCs are really just credits from the cruiseline, they have no cash value.  If you don't "pay" for something, you can't insure it.  If you can't insure an excursion that was on OBCs for example, you are out of luck if you don't make it because you got sick that day or something.  If you pay for it, you're good.  The only downside, is that you are laying out the money well in advance and they will charge you credit card.  Still can cancel on that five day window, though.  But being insured you cover the sudden sick part.  In the end it won't matter.  Pay for it now or pay for it later.  Works the same way for using airline miles.  They have no cash value.  If you want to insure the flight, you need to pay for it.  Save the points for something else.

 

The bands part you mentioned.  The bands are big enough that if you are in the lower end of one, then you can account for a value near the top which gives you a lot of room.  Even if you go into the next band, the premium difference is maybe $50-75.  In my case, I am going to prebook four excursions.  My OBCs will cover, at most, two.  I would have to charge the other two anyway.  Adding two puts me in the low end of band and two more does not put me into another.

 

Thanks again for the advice

[CarolandNate]

9 hours ago, Alrana Eris said:

I swear by  Travel Guard, I have been loyal customer for about 20 years. Not once had to file a claim but it is always good to have.

20 years, wow.  Some of the reps can be testy.  They keep repeating the mantra of "if it's non refundable, you need to account for it"  I got a good one yesterday and she went over and above to explain things.  The biggest takeaway was the explanation as to why I would not want to book excursions by OBCs, but rather that I should pay by CC.  Bottom line is that OBC pre-booked items are not insurable.  Will I have to pay by CC some nine months in advance, yes.  Going to have to pay for it eventually.  And now I have more OBCs to use OB.  In the end, something is going to go onto our credit card. 

 

I also piggyback trips like this with family visits, so the TG door to door is better.  I am guessing that it is what you like.