Question about Insurance

[DGNY]

Will be purchasing a cruise in the coming weeks and want to get insurance at the same time in order to get the pre-existing conditions waiver (mostly concerned about family members' health). I won't book air for some time later.

 

So, here is the question. Do you buy insurance based on just cruise fare and update the policy later? Or do you estimate total costs when purchasing the insurance?

[pms4104]

Will be purchasing a cruise in the coming weeks and want to get insurance at the same time in order to get the pre-existing conditions waiver (mostly concerned about family members' health). I won't book air for some time later.

 

So, here is the question. Do you buy insurance based on just cruise fare and update the policy later? Or do you estimate total costs when purchasing the insurance?

Generally, I cover only the cost of the cruise rounded up to the next price break point. We buy Travel Guard, and the premium goes up with each $500 increase in cost, rounded up to the next $500. For instance, if the cruise cost is $1850, I cover for $2000 ... if the cruise price is $2150, I cover for $2500.

 

When I buy air, I increase the coverage if necessary. Having read Travel Guard's fine print and confirmed via telecon, I understand you can increase coverage as more travel is purchased. We buy the initial coverge within 2 weeks of cruise booking for the pre-existing condition waiver ... and when we increase coverage, it must be done (at least with Travel Guard) within 2 weeks of buying additional travel arrangements to maintain that waiver.

 

Policies may be different with other insurance companies.

[Arwenmark]

I would estimate it on todays air fare prices including the air. But you can also call the customer service number or chat online with someone at insuremytrip.com or whichever one you are using. I highly recommend them though. I just got off the phone with their customer service myself. seems I put the wrong address on my policy application, [i live by coastal] and he straightened it out for me.

[beachchick]

We've used Travel Guard for years. Most times we don't book all elements of a trip at the same time. Since we absolutely must have the pre-ex waiver, we buy insurance about 10 days after our first deposit, obviously regardless of which element of the trip that is. If we're booking air later, I usually just estimate it in and then select the trip price range based on that. If we're only booking one thing and leaving the rest of it until later, I usually low-ball the estimated total and use that or simply buy the policy based solely on what we've already booked. See the thing is that you can amend the policy, but it's much easier to increase your total trip costs covered later and give the insurance company additional premium than it is to overestimate the costs and request a refund of extra premium paid. We have changed covered items, trip dates, trip costs, and even trip types. I know not all policies allow this and that we're only allowed a certain number of changes, but there is some flexibility within the policy limitations. Once we had to move a trip out 3 months. We were able to carry forward our policy using date changes because the trip and costs remained the same. There was a limitation of some kind about no changes being allowed if we were already beyond the originally listed trip date (e.g., bought policy in January for trip in June; needed to move trip out to August, that's okay, but could only do it because we made the change before the original June date).

 

IMO, it's always better to underestimate and increase coverage later. And remember that you do not need to include fully refundable items in trip costs for most policies. By that I do not mean you can leave out your cruise fare simply because the deposit is refundable up to a certain date. You must include it and any other items that have cancellation penalties of any kind, no matter when the penalty kicks in. What you can omit for trip costs are things like car rental reservations that can be cancelled without penalty even on the date of the reservation. Ditto with fully refundable hotel costs where you're allowed to cancel with no penalty up to 6 pm (or whatever) on the day of the reservation.

 

Hope I didn't just make things more confusing...That's been known to happen.

 

beachchick

[Keith1010]

Check with the insurance company you plan to use and ask them if you can add the air at a later time. Many will allow you to do this.

 

Whether or not you want to insure the air is a personal choice. Think of cruise insurance no different than your own homeowner's insurance (if you own a home) or auto insurance. Some people have no deductible and others do. It's about risk should you suffer a loss vs the cost of the insurance.

 

So, you can insure the entire trip and the cost will be x or you could consider only insuring the cruise portion and not the air. This will briing down your premium cost but obviously if you had to cancel then you would not get the cost back on your air.

 

Again, many insurance companies allow you to add more on later so just ask them before you purchase the insurance.

 

Keith

[beachchick]

Check with the insurance company you plan to use and ask them if you can add the air at a later time. Many will allow you to do this.

 

Whether or not you want to insure the air is a personal choice. Think of cruise insurance no different than your own homeowner's insurance (if you own a home) or auto insurance. Some people have no deductible and others do. It's about risk should you suffer a loss vs the cost of the insurance.

 

So, you can insure the entire trip and the cost will be x or you could consider only insuring the cruise portion and not the air. This will briing down your premium cost but obviously if you had to cancel then you would not get the cost back on your air.

 

Again, many insurance companies allow you to add more on later so just ask them before you purchase the insurance.

 

Keith

 

Just one note and specifically as it relates to Travel Guard. At least two of their policies (not the specialty ones, the regular trip ones) have restrictions about this. If you are buying the coverage in order to get the pre-ex, default, and other "extras," you must buy coverage for all non-refundable components of your trip. I'm not sure how they would find out if you didn't considering that it wouldn't be an item submitted for reimbursement, but I do know that some of their policies have this restriction.

 

beachchick

[Keith1010]

Just one note and specifically as it relates to Travel Guard. At least two of their policies (not the specialty ones, the regular trip ones) have restrictions about this. If you are buying the coverage in order to get the pre-ex, default, and other "extras," you must buy coverage for all non-refundable components of your trip. I'm not sure how they would find out if you didn't considering that it wouldn't be an item submitted for reimbursement, but I do know that some of their policies have this restriction.

 

beachchick

 

This is why I have recommended that one ask about the specifics before making the purchase so there are no surprises. Each company is different. There are certainly plenty to choose from to meet each persons own needs.

 

Keith

[cherylandtk]

It is almost a catch-22:

 

1. To cover pre-existing conditions, you must purchase a policy within 14 or 21 days of first putting money down on the trip. (Two exception policies start the clock from final payment instead of initial deposit, but they are more expensive, too).

 

2. You must cover the FULL cost of the trip to get pre-existing coverage.

 

To comply with both #1 and #2, you need to overestimate the air costs, and purchase coverage that will include all costs. IF your air is real bargain later and drops you into a lower price point, you can reduce the coverage and still cover your pre-existing conditions. But you cannot increase coverage later and still have your pre-existing conditions included.

 

http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/faqs.shtml#k

[beachchick]

This is why I have recommended that one ask about the specifics before making the purchase so there are no surprises. Each company is different. There are certainly plenty to choose from to meet each persons own needs.

 

Keith

 

Yep. We're fanatical about reading the fine print with all contracts. I think the title company agents were about ready to strangle us when we closed our home purchase. We read every page through to make sure nothing had changed or was different from what we expected or had any unexpected fine print. One thing I have no patience for is when someone doesn't read a contract and then complains when they have problems because of it. I would go a step further than saying to ask about the specifics, I'd go online and peruse a copy of the actual contract before purchasing. An agent can give you reassurances, but in the end the only thing that governs is the actual written policy.

 

You give excellent advice about checking various companies and the policies offered.

 

beachchick