Insurance Question

[TERRIER1]

We will being taking our own insurance out for the first time. In the past our TA arranged it with the insurance company. We will be arriving early and staying on in Europe after the final port. Do take the insurance for the air, cruise and hotel stays? Can anyone suggest a site to use so we can get trip insurance as well as medical since ours does not cover out of the country. Thanks for any input since I am confused.

[Barrheadlass]

The website insuremytrip.com is a good place to start. You put in what you need and it brings up what various companies offer for you to compare. You can also call and speak to a rep.

[hypercafe]

We take the insurance out for the length of the whole trip. I use a site called square mouth, lists many different company's, you buy it through the site.

[StanandJim]

Insuremytrip is a wonderful place to start, but also get a quote through your Agent, as many of them belong to professional consortium's these days which will get you their "bulk rate".

 

Also, if you do more than one big trip a year, inquire with any company that you buy Insurance from about an ANNUAL policy. That can make a significant difference, particularly as age advances.

[tgg]

Be sure to read the terms and conditions carefully before you buy. Some policies mandate covering ALL prepaid expenses for your trip. If you submit a claim and then they find out that you skipped including part of the trip, you may have the whole claim denied.

[Acrusa]

Always book insurance with in 14 days of booking your cruise,to get pre exciting condition.

[Mura]

We will being taking our own insurance out for the first time. In the past our TA arranged it with the insurance company. We will be arriving early and staying on in Europe after the final port. Do take the insurance for the air, cruise and hotel stays?

 

 

We take the insurance for anything that would be non-refundable. Usually hotel stays are refundable if you cancel 24-48 hours in advance (sometimes longer but not usually). We made reservations at a 4 star hotel in Venice which required two week's notice to cancel but when I objected, they reduced that to 48 hours. Most usually we include the cost of air (assuming we are paying for the air, not using miles) and the cruise but not hotels.

 

We've have mostly used insuremytrip.com.

[Mura]

Always book insurance with in 14 days of booking your cruise,to get pre exciting condition.

 

True, but you don't have to book the full amount of your trip until final payment.

 

I only mention this because sometimes people haven't been aware of this option.

[GeezerCouple]

True, but you don't have to book the full amount of your trip until final payment.

 

I only mention this because sometimes people haven't been aware of this option.

 

We strongly recommend TripInsuranceStore.com

 

But we suggest calling them rather than just browsing through the policy summaries on the website.

There can be some important "fine print", plus if you speak with them, they can give you the pros and cons of different types of coverage.

 

In terms of "deadlines" for paying, please double check for whichever policy *you* get.

There is a lot of variability, and if you miss a deadline, you might end up wasting payments, or having certain types of coverage excluded.

 

It is often true that one can start the coverage within the deadline (often 14 or 21 days of initial deposit), and only pay for insurance on the deposit, rather than the full amount of the trip.

 

But then, some policies require that you up the insurance coverage within a limited time of making each additional non-refundable payment (to airline, hotel, excursion, etc.).

 

These early deadlines are especially important if someone has pre-existing medical conditions for which they want coverage.

 

We asked tons of questions before getting our first travel insurance policy for what was supposed to be a major birthday and pre-retirement cruise.

With less than 2 weeks to go, we had a medical emergency and everything was cancelled.

Although we obviously could have "afforded" the loss, it was awfully nice while dealing with a few months of medical care to know that we'd get the money back so we could apply it to the travel, and not need to "pay twice" for that trip.

 

The most important thing is to make sure that you have insurance for any medical problems that might occur (whether it is your regular health insurance, or travel insurance specifically).

Including hotels, cruise, and air costs are personal preference.

It's the medical costs that could be catastrophic.

 

GeezerCouple

[silkman]

We will being taking our own insurance out for the first time. In the past our TA arranged it with the insurance company. We will be arriving early and staying on in Europe after the final port. Do take the insurance for the air, cruise and hotel stays? Can anyone suggest a site to use so we can get trip insurance as well as medical since ours does not cover out of the country. Thanks for any input since I am confused.

 

You might want to check the Chase Sapphire preferred card. It covers trip insurance up to $10,000 per person. You will still need to take out medical insurance since that is not covered.

If you check "trip insurance" or "medical insurance" in the "search", I believe there was formerly a comprehensive thread on insurance.

 

Richard

[I_r_a]

Hi Terr,

 

I get my insurance through http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/travel/

 

They offer travel, medical and evacuation insurance.

 

Enjoy your trip.

 

Ira

[Flatbush Flyer]

Take a look at Travelex "Select Traveler," which is the mid-level of their three comprehensive medical/trip/evac insurance policies. Travelex is one of the very few "direct pay" companies. You can buy it direct or from a broker like one of those mentioned in other posts.

Buy the policy w/I the time frame specified to secure a waiver of pre-existing conditions that might be identified as having been manifested during the policy's "look back" period.

A good practice is to also get a top travel oriented credit card (e.g., United Explorer Visa) that will provide added protection for trip elements purchased with the card (e.g., air tix, pre/post cruise hotel up to the card's stated coverage limits) thus saving on the valuation (and cost) of the main policy. Remember though to state travel dates from "door to door" (leave and return) on the Travelex policy.

Finally, if you're on Medicare (which is worthless abroad), choose a Medicare supplement policy that changes to basic coverage whenever you leave the country.

Finally, be very careful about annual travel policies, which may save you money but often have significant limits on total payout- particularly if you are over 70.

Edited December 12, 2015 by Flatbush Flyer

[TERRIER1]

Thank you everyone for all the information. I have some homework to do now.

[PaulMCO]

Also check the travel insurance forum on Cruise Critic.

[buggins0402]

Something I learned after a minor medical emergency on my last trip....bring the hard copy of the policy. If you have it stored in your email, you'll find that when you need to move fast to get to the care location you might not have time to find a printer.

 

I had set up a special "dumb" gmail account for our trip - it was new and never used, so clean as a whistle of personal information. I thought if in an emergency came up, I would go on my regular email and retrieve docs. Wrong move when you need stitches and are trying to quickly figure out how to get past a Spanish version of Yahoo to get into the email account. I couldn't even retrieve the

1800 hotline number for the insurance to acceptable care locations.

 

Fortunate for me, the hospital intake person decided it would be " free for today" :).

[ronrick1943]

Yes check a few place's online and compare each company seeing what's best for you. Not so sure about TA, one time it was a lot more for the same company and plan.

Rick