I Have Great News

by Steve Dasseos, The Trip Insurance Guru on May 3, 2012

Before I tell you the good news, if you don’t like hearing about anything supernatural or religious, I suggest you don’t read any further. I am not telling you what to believe because you have the right to make up your own mind. It’s out of respect I am telling you this first.

Last week my Dad went to the doctor due to discomfort in his abdomen. The CT scan revealed a golf ball sized growth in the upper lobe of my Dad’s pancreas. Generally, anything with the pancreas is bad, so my family and others started praying for him. That included my children and I praying over the phone for him.

As you can imagine, this was in my mind all the time, so late on Sunday April 29, 2012 I put this on my Facebook page:

“Please pray for my Dad & Mom. Their names are Jim & Marilyn. A golf ball sized growth was just found in the upper lobe of my Dad’s pancreas. On May 1st they see a specialist to find out more. Rather than waiting to tell you what was found, and being desperate for a miracle, I’m putting this out there as a prayer request with the hope that the specialist says to my Dad, ‘Jim, there’s nothing to worry about. I can’t find whatever appeared on the CT scan.’ ”

Thank you to everyone who responded, whether you told us or not!

Very early today, May 3, 2012, I put this on my Facebook page:

“My Dad got great news later yesterday: the biopsy today showed there’s no cancer or anything else negative! Thank you everyone for all your prayers! We are very thankful. And, my Dad said he knows he received a miracle.”

Again, thank you to everyone for their prayers, good thoughts and compassion. If you happen to know my parents, and talk to them, they didn’t know about the Facebook part because I un-friended my Mom. I wanted it to be a surprise. She probably knows about it now, but I haven’t exactly told her. ;)

If you want to see more about this, take a look at my personal Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/steve.dasseos

Bye for now,

Steve Dasseos

PS – I’m not giving you my usual request to come to TripInsuranceStore.com for advice.

Instead, thank you again for your support !

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Don’t Waste $429 on Un-Needed Trip Cancellation Insurance

by Steve Dasseos, The Trip Insurance Guru on April 18, 2012

My name is Kathy. I am interested in low cost trip cancellation insurance to cover the costs shown below in case we need to cancel our trip and also to have our mileage reinstated in that event. Ages 72 & 66, our per person cost is $3500 for hotels, car and plane tickets:

  • We bought our flight on reward points on April 12, 2012
  • The hotel we have booked will be paid on the date we arrive there, 6-11-12
  • We live in California
  • We pay our car rental after we drop the car off

Hi Kathy,

Trip cancellation insurance reimburses you the money you lose if you cancel or interrupt your trip for a covered reason. If your costs are prepaid & non-refundable they are insurable. However, it looks like you have no prepaid and non-refundable costs:

  • The credit points aren’t insurable
  • You pay your hotel after you arrive so that’s not prepaid. In addition, if you have a penalty assessed to you if you fail to show up, it’s still not insurable because it’s not prepaid.
  • Your car rental isn’t prepaid

I’d be happy to sell you a low cost ($429) trip cancellation travel insurance plan if I knew it would benefit you. However, since you have no prepaid and non-refundable trip costs, the $429 trip cancellation insurance would be a complete waste of $429 for you. Therefore, don’t waste your money buying a trip cancellation insurance plan.

The reason I’m being picky here is because I don’t want you spend $429 on travel insurance that wouldn’t pay you if you had a claim.

I hope this makes sense. If you want the right travel insurance advice, call us at 1-888-407-3854 and we’ll help you figure it all out.

Now, a word from our sponsor: TripInsuranceStore.com (the Most Exclusive, Informative & Friendliest Travel Insurance Comparison Site)

PS – If you liked what you read, please subscribe to my Blog. You can also connect with TripInsuranceStore on Facebook.

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I’m sorry to hear about Tony’s Grandma

by Steve Dasseos, The Trip Insurance Guru on April 13, 2012

Steve, On April 6th we (family of 3, and grandma who is 88) booked and paid in full for a cruise for June. On Saturday April 7th, grandma was hospitalized with neural seizures, and she’s not doing well. Came home yesterday, with home care required. Based on all this, we’ll probably not be going on our cruise.

I’ve searched online and have called a few other online travel insurance websites and I’m not sure they are giving me the correct information when they say “yes, you can get a plan to cover your grandma’s medical condition”. And then I found your wonderful website! Based on what I’ve read, it looks like I can’t get any pre-existing conditions coverage. Therefore, can I get your take on this? Tony

Hi Tony,

First, I am sorry to hear about your grandma. We’ll pray for her healing and recovery.

Next, while I didn’t hear your conversations with the other companies, you are correct to question whether you can get trip cancellation coverage for your cruise. Getting the Waiver of the Pre-Existing Medical Condition Exclusion is more than just buying it within the deadline. If you want to waive the pre-existing medical condition exclusion for cancellation, interruption & medical treatment, you have to fulfill these 5 requirements when you buy your travel insurance plan:

  • With 2 exceptions (CSA Freestyle & Freestyle Luxe) you have to insure at least your trip’s full prepaid, non-refundable cost (you can’t round it down). If you don’t know your final trip cost, estimate it high to be safe. You can always lower to the correct trip cost prior to your departure date. If it drops you to a lower trip cost range, you’ll get a partial refund; and
  • You must get your travel insurance in the first 14, 15, 21 or 30 days after you pay your earliest trip payment with some plans or no later than 24 Hours after you make your final Trip payment for other plans and
  • You have to cover your trip’s full length and
  • The insured travelers must be able to take the trip on the date they purchase the travel insurance. If you are one of the travelers, you must be “medically able to travel when you pay your premium (get your travel insurance)”. In other words, your doctor says you can travel. If your doctor’s saying you can’t travel, but you insist you can travel, the insurance company will always side with your doctor.and
  • The person with the medical condition has to be medically stable when you get your insurance – this means that person cannot have already taken a turn for the worse. This also includes having surgery or other medical procedure(s) scheduled just before you leave.

The reason why you won’t have a trip cancellation claim paid is that your grandma is not “medically able to travel”. Unfortunately, many travel insurance sellers seem to leave this information out. In my opinion, this is the most important part of the Waiver of the Pre-Existing Medical Condition Exclusion.

I hope this makes sense. If you want the right travel insurance advice, call us at 1-888-407-3854 and we’ll help you figure it all out.

Now, a word from our sponsor: TripInsuranceStore.com (the Most Exclusive, Informative & Friendliest Travel Insurance Comparison Site)

PS – If you liked what you read, please subscribe to my Blog. You can also connect with TripInsuranceStore on Facebook.

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How Do I Specify I Want the Pre Existing Conditions Coverage?

by Steve Dasseos, The Trip Insurance Guru on March 22, 2012

How Do I specify I want the waiver of the pre-existing medical condition exclusion when I buy travel insurance from TripInsuranceStore.com? I don’t want to forget to ask for it and be penalized later for not specifically requesting that I have it. Thanks, Paul

Hi Paul,

I have some good news for you. All the plans you find on TripInsuranceStore.com automatically include the Waiver of the Pre-Existing Medical Condition Exclusion if you follow the rules:

If you want to waive the pre-existing medical condition exclusion for cancellation, interruption & medical treatment, you have to fulfill these 4 requirements when you buy your travel insurance plan:

  1. With 2 exceptions (CSA Freestyle & Freestyle Luxe) you have to insure at least your trip’s full prepaid, non-refundable cost (you can’t round it down). If you don’t know your final trip cost, estimate it high to be safe. You can always lower to the correct trip cost prior to your departure date. If it drops you to a lower trip cost range, you’ll get a partial refund; and
  2. You must get your travel insurance in the first 14, 15, 21 or 30 days after you pay your earliest trip payment (Global Alert Preferred & Plus, Travelex Select, Travelex Max, Travel Guard Gold, Travel Guard Platinum, Travel Insured and TravelSafe Classic) or no later than 24 Hours after you make your final Trip payment for CSA Freestyle & Freestyle Luxe and
  3. You have to cover your trip’s full length and
  4. The person with the medical condition has to be medically stable when you get your insurance – this means that person cannot have already taken a turn for the worse. This also includes having surgery or other medical procedure(s) scheduled just before you leave. Read Steve’s blog post “Will Travel Insurance Cover My Scheduled Surgery?” for more information.

So, Paul, if you fulfill the requirements above you will get the waiver of the pre-existing medical condition exclusion with your trip cancellation travel insurance plan.

I hope this makes sense. If you want the right travel insurance advice, call us at 1-888-407-3854 and we’ll help you figure it all out.

Now, a word from our sponsor: TripInsuranceStore.com (the Most Exclusive, Informative & Friendliest Travel Insurance Comparison Site)

PS – If you liked what you read, please subscribe to my Blog. You can also connect with TripInsuranceStore on Facebook.

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Trip Cancellation Not Trip Postponement Insurance

by Steve Dasseos, The Trip Insurance Guru on March 6, 2012

We are looking for travel insurance where we are able to change the dates in case of a death in the close family. We won’t want to cancel our trip, but we’d rather have the change fees paid so we can travel at a later date. Sandy

Hi,

Thanks for sending me a good question.

Travel insurance doesn’t cover changing travel dates like you want. It can give you your money back if you are forced to cancel for a covered reason, but it doesn’t pay any extra costs incurred for a pre-departure trip delay.

Along these lines, trip cancellation travel insurance doesn’t cover change fees you incur if you voluntarily change your travel dates.

However, if you are on your trip and you are forced to interrupt your trip for a covered reason, you will be reimbursed for your prepaid and non-refundable trip costs plus the one-way airfare up to 150% of your insured trip cost. Here’s more about trip delay, missed connection and trip interruption:
http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/3/travel-delay.shtml

I hope this makes sense. If you want the right travel insurance advice, call us at 1-888-407-3854 and we’ll help you figure it all out.

Now, a word from our sponsor: TripInsuranceStore.com (the Most Exclusive, Informative & Friendliest Travel Insurance Comparison Site)

PS – If you liked what you read, please subscribe to my Blog. You can also connect with TripInsuranceStore on Facebook.

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Stop Calling Us If This Is You

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Subscribe In my last post I said “I am working on adding another smart and pleasant associate here in the near future.” I did that and now that my life is getting back to normal, I was planning on writing a Blog post about our new associate Tony. Instead, I’m going to write another “Vent [...]

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