If I already paid for my trip in full in January 2007, will any of your plans cover me? Thanks, Rachel

Many people think if it’s been months since you paid for your trip, it’s too late to get travel insurance. Here’s the correct answer:

Yes, you can get travel insurance. Any of our plans will cover all your prepaid non-refundable trip costs as long as you get the policy at least one day before you leave on your trip.

Rachel didn’t say, but if she was looking for pre-existing coverage, she couldn’t get it because she’s past the deadlines.

I live in Thailand and only return at Chistmas each year to visit my Dad. I do have an California Drivers License though. Can I get your Rental Car Collision Damage Waiver Plan? Thanks, Jeff

What do you think? Since Jeff has a valid California Drivers License, does he qualify as a US resident?

If you said, “No, he can’t get it” you are correct! Jeff’s ineligible because he has to physically reside in the US for 6 monthd before getting the Collision Damage Waiver Plan.

No matter what you’ve been told, trip cancellation travel insurance doesn’t cover you in all situations. It only covers you against “Listed Unforeseen Events”.

What does “Listed Unforeseen Events” mean?
This means that if the event’s not specifically named as a covered reason, you won’t have a valid claim. Or, put another way: a travel insurance plan only covers you for the perils or events that are listed in its Description of Coverage. If it’s not listed (or specifically excluded) it’s not covered.

What do you mean by “Unforeseen”?
Situations or losses that result from sudden and unforeseen conditions or events. Travel insurance benefits do not cover conditions or events that, on the date of purchase, are known to You. Travel insurance covers definite events, not ones that might happen.

Unforeseen is especially important when you want to cover a Pre-Existing Condition. That’s because the claim will probably be denied if there’s not “a turn for the worse”. In other words, if the person with the pre-existing condition has already had “a turn for the worse” prior to you buying your travel insurance, there won’t be any coverage.

Some common Listed Unforeseen events are:

• You, your companion or a family member has a medical emergency or dies
• You need emergency transportation / evacuation
• Your cruise line, airline or tour operator goes broke (unless the supplier’s in bankruptcy now)
• Bad weather
• A plane crash
• Lost, stolen or damaged luggage
• Cruise ship sicknesses

Here’s an important tip: Every travel insurance policy is different. Even plans from the same company are different from each other. Don’t trust what anyone tells you is covered unless you see it in the policy’s wording, too.

I ended my last entry with this:What Commonly Is Called Travel Insurance?

• travel health / medical
• trip cancellation
• flight accident
• baggage / luggage
• rental car damage waivers
• evacuation plans

Learn what these coverages are:

Travel health / medical covers you if you are hurt or get sick when you are traveling outside your country of residence. Generally, these plans have a deductible and copay. They rarely cover pre-existing conditions. If so, their definition of a pre-existing condition may be different form what you expect.

Trip cancellation plans include in a package these & other coverages: trip interruption, travel health, emergency evacuation and a wide range of other coverges. All Trip cancellation plans I know of are package plans even though articles sometimes appear advising people to get trip cancellation only plans. I cover this in more detail here

Flight accident is life insurance. You have to die in a plane crash to collect on it. Some plans include medical benefits if you’re hurt in a plane crash, too. flight insurance plan here.

Baggage / luggage coverage. You can get stand alone plans, but the drawback with these is that they usually don’t cover stolen luggage. However, a Trip cancellation / interruption package plan includes coverage for stolen luggage.

Rental car damage waivers - this is a 3rd party damage to a rental car plan available to most US & Canadian residents. Instead of paying up to $30 a day, you can get one for $9 a day. We have a Rental car damage waiver plan here.

Evacuation plans - Emergency evacuation / transportation is included in many trip cancellation / interruption plans. What’s attractive about these plans is that if you are hospitalized you can be transported to the medical facility of your choosing. Medjet Assist’s the best known of the Evacuation plans.

That’s it for now.

This is a large subject to tackle and there’s no way I can explain it all in one blog post. However, I’ll start by clarifying what travel insurance is and what it’s not.

In its most broad definition travel insurance is “insurance that covers you while you’re traveling”. In fact, this definition explains why many Homeowner Policies and credit cards can say they include travel insurance as one of their coverages.

The problem (as I see it) is that while the customer has an idea what travel insurance is, there’s no guarantee the Homeowner Policies and credit cards are covering exactly what the customer is thinking.

Steve’s Pet Peeve
Another problem is that the phrase ‘travel insurance’ is used loosely causing people to assume all plans are essentially the same. This is one of my pet peeves because I used to be a a stockbroker who specialized in financial planning (I’m still an insurance agent). Insurance is actually a legal term and it has certain understandings associated with it. Yet, many people in the travel business, who are not insurance agents, seem to apply the phrase a ‘travel insurance’ to every type of ‘protection plan’.

What Commonly Is Called Travel Insurance?

• travel health / medical
• trip cancellation
• flight accident
• baggage / luggage
• rental car damage waivers
• evacuation plans

I’ll explain these more in my next post.

Something you’ll notice about TripInsuranceStore.com is that we don’t offer travel insurance plans from every company. In fact, not even from some better known companies. We only offer plans from the companies I trust. That’s because I (Steve) am both paranoid (in a healthy way) and skeptical in the beginning about financial / insurance company’s products.

The way I look at it is that buying almost anything is a risk. Here’s how I say it up front on our Homepage:

“We understand that buying any insurance is a risk. You are trading a known certainty (your hard earned money) for an unknown quantity - the promise of the insurance policy doing what it says it will do. That’s why we pre-screen our plans to bring you only the most advantageous choices.”

Thankfully, most products & services available deliver / do exactly what they say they do. And that’s why I pre-screen our travel insurance plans.