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Insurance to cover cruise bankruptcy


gubby
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We have an expensive Australian cruise booked for 2024. I am a little concerned about financial outlook and want to cover our financial outlay. We have excellent travel, cancellation, medical and interruption insurance, but wonder about how to protect against something like HAL going bankrupt. We would have over 50K invested by final payment. We can buy cruiseline insurance to cover CFAR to cover 90% of expense up to 2 hours before embarkation. Not great, but better than a complete loss. I hope someone has an idea about  bankruptcy. Hopefully, I am over reacting, but that represents years of saving, and I want to feel protected.

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IF you have booked and paid on your credit card be aware of the number of days limit that your card provides to challenge charges.  Often as much as 540 days.  

 

What does that mean....if you have paid by credit card within the specified period, and the goods or services contracted have not been purchased...then you can challenge the charge and obtain a reversal from your credit card issuer.

 

Whatever you do....1. understand your credit card agreement in this regard  2.  Never, every pay by cash or equiv.  (cheque or debit).

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This is a really good question and something those of us cruising should be looking into. The current operating scenario for these lines is not sustainable. I was told by someone in the industry whose knowledge I trust that they are losing more money running the ships than they were when they were shut down. The market for cruising has shrunk and it’ll be interesting to see which cruise lines survive. 

Edited by sunviking90
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12 minutes ago, david,Mississauga said:

If you booked through a TICO-registered  travel agency in Ontario you there is compensation available.

 

https://tico.ca/consumers/overview

 

The problem is that claims under TICO are limited to $5,000 per person. It doesn’t go very far if the 50K discussed by the OP is for 2 people only. 

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Some really good suggestions. I knew that I would be happy posting this question here. I am trying to contact TD about how my CC can protect me  concerning how long I have for a chargeback. Like so many companies now, there is a long wait. My TA is on vacation until August. I will continue to be patient.

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1 hour ago, gnome12 said:

The problem is that claims under TICO are limited to $5,000 per person. It doesn’t go very far if the 50K discussed by the OP is for 2 people only. 

There are a lot of people in Ontario who do not understand this very low limit.  And there are a lot of TA's who do not mention this to their clients.

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19 minutes ago, gubby said:

Some really good suggestions. I knew that I would be happy posting this question here. I am trying to contact TD about how my CC can protect me  concerning how long I have for a chargeback. Like so many companies now, there is a long wait. My TA is on vacation until August. I will continue to be patient.

You might be better to read your our credit card user agreement.  On line, or hard copy if you have one on file.  Then call to get clarification on anything that you are unsure of. 

 

 

 

Edited by iancal
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55 minutes ago, iancal said:

You might be better to read your our credit card user agreement.  On line, or hard copy if you have one on file.  Then call to get clarification on anything that you are unsure of. 

 

 

 

I quoted @iancal because this advice is crucial. Not all credit cards companies are the same with getting money back for non performance. There are different protection period limitations and different aggressiveness in getting their customers' made whole. We had 'lost' a deposit with a U.S. airline which had gone bankrupt, luckily we had used Amex and they they we like a dawg with a bone and fully recovered our deposit and pretty quickly too. Another time, a similar thing happened but we had used a bank credit card the they were like cute little puppy's dealing with the bankruptcy trustees and it took forever to get our deposit back. 

Edited by DirtyDawg
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4 hours ago, DirtyDawg said:

I quoted @iancal because this advice is crucial. Not all credit cards companies are the same with getting money back for non performance. There are different protection period limitations and different aggressiveness in getting their customers' made whole. We had 'lost' a deposit with a U.S. airline which had gone bankrupt, luckily we had used Amex and they they we like a dawg with a bone and fully recovered our deposit and pretty quickly too. Another time, a similar thing happened but we had used a bank credit card the they were like cute little puppy's dealing with the bankruptcy trustees and it took forever to get our deposit back. 

Nor would I bet the farm on what a CSR tells you. 

 

I would want to read the document for myself.    

 

It will be on line and reasonably easy to access.   

Edited by iancal
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5 minutes ago, iancal said:

Nor would I bet the farm on what a CSR tells you. 

 

I would want to read the document for myself.    

 

It will be on line and reasonably easy to access.   

and if you have a friend who is a lawyer who happens to love the expensive red wine you have in your wine cellar .... 😉

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I dug out my copy of our CC agreement. While I was surprised to read about medical and travel and cancellation insurance, ( only for 4 days for those over 65), there was really nothing in it about how long one had to make a chargeback. There was reference to 30 days, but it was not too clear, and I know no more than I did before reading it. I guess making an appointment with someone at the branch is the next step. Nothing seems to show up with my online enquiries. We had made 4 monthly payments, but decided not to make any more until we can figure this out. Having our TA on vacations is just making things harder to understand. When I get any answer, I will certainly post so others will have some idea as well.

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On 7/15/2022 at 6:30 PM, iancal said:

If we were charging a cruise at the moment, which we are not, I would use our Amex card.   

 

 

 

Another reason I use Amex for all travel is the double points I earn. They can be converted to Aeroplan on a one-to-one basis.  

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We were travelling with a stop in Hong Kong, our airline went bankrupt. We phoned our mastercard

and the lady reversed the charges, she said that they have a few days receipts that they haven't

sent through to the airlines, so she could do it without the claim having to go through trustee etc.

I think the key would be to respond immediately.

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Maybe I am missing something but booking a cruise now for 2024 you are only paying a deposit (usually less than $1,000) and the final payment won't be due till 90 days out.   At 90 days you should know for sure if the company is going to go bankrupt or not.    So paying a few hundred for insurance on my deposit seems to be overkill to me.

 

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46 minutes ago, Woody14 said:

Maybe I am missing something but booking a cruise now for 2024 you are only paying a deposit (usually less than $1,000) and the final payment won't be due till 90 days out.   At 90 days you should know for sure if the company is going to go bankrupt or not.    So paying a few hundred for insurance on my deposit seems to be overkill to me.

 

Go back and read the first post. The OP's circumstances giving rise to these concerns include the fact that they would have over 50K invested by final payment.

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Does  the cruise line require  pax to pay installments prior to final payment ?

 

I have never spent more that 24K for a cruise  & we just paid the deposit until FP date  then the balance

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54 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

Why would you have anything but the deposit on the line prior to final payment?  Explain that first 

 

8 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Does  the cruise line require  pax to pay installments prior to final payment ?

 

I have never spent more that 24K for a cruise  & we just paid the deposit until FP date  then the balance

There are numerous posts scattered across various forums by people who state that they do so simply to pay off instalments as they go along rather than being faced with a single large final payment. Nothing requires them to do so, they simply find it an easy way of managing their finances for the trip.

 

Also, some credit cards will not allow you to create a credit surplus then make a charge that would be over your monthly maximum. 

 

 

Edited by Fouremco
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1 minute ago, Fouremco said:

 

There are numerous posts scattered across various forums by people who state that they do so simply to pay off instalments as they go along rather than being faced with a single large final payment. Nothing requires them to do so, they simply find it an easy way of managing their finances for the trip.

I would just keep my money until final was due

better in my bank  account

JMO

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4 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

 

There are numerous posts scattered across various forums by people who state that they do so simply to pay off instalments as they go along rather than being faced with a single large final payment. Nothing requires them to do so, they simply find it an easy way of managing their finances for the trip.

 

Also, some credit cards will not allow you to create a credit surplus then make a charge that would be over your monthly maximum. 

 

 

Wouldn’t it be better to establish a savings account in that case.  I mean if you are truly worried about bankruptcy that would be the method.  

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Just now, LHT28 said:

I would just keep my money until final was due

better in my bank  account

JMO

 

4 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

Wouldn’t it be better to establish a savings account in that case.  I mean if you are truly worried about bankruptcy that would be the method.  

Personally, I agree, but different people handle their finances in different ways. Even when bankruptcy isn't a potential issue, I'd rather have interest accruing in my bank account rather than in the cruise line's.

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1 hour ago, Mary229 said:

Why would you have anything but the deposit on the line prior to final payment?  Explain that first 

 

See post #13 by the thread originator.

 

45 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

Wouldn’t it be better to establish a savings account in that case.  I mean if you are truly worried about bankruptcy that would be the method.  

 

See post #13.

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