IRS Increases Mileage Rates through Dec. 31, 2008

On June 23, 2008 the Internal Revenue Service announced an increase in the optional standard mileage rates for the final six months of 2008. Taxpayers may use the optional standard rates to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes.

The rate will increase to 58.5 cents a mile for all business miles driven from July 1, 2008, through Dec. 31, 2008. This is an increase of eight (8) cents from the 50.5 cent rate in effect for the first six months of 2008, as set forth in Rev. Proc. 2007-70.

In recognition of recent gasoline price increases, the IRS made this special adjustment for the final months of 2008. The IRS normally updates the mileage rates once a year in the fall for the next calendar year.

“Rising gas prices are having a major impact on individual Americans. Given the increase in prices, the IRS is adjusting the standard mileage rates to better reflect the real cost of operating an automobile,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. “We want the reimbursement rate to be fair to taxpayers.”

While gasoline is a significant factor in the mileage figure, other items enter into the calculation of mileage rates, such as depreciation and insurance and other fixed and variable costs.

The optional business standard mileage rate is used to compute the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business use in lieu of tracking actual costs. This rate is also used as a benchmark by the federal government and many businesses to reimburse their employees for mileage.

The new six-month rate for computing deductible medical or moving expenses will also increase by eight (8) cents to 27 cents a mile, up from 19 cents for the first six months of 2008. The rate for providing services for charitable organizations is set by statute, not the IRS, and remains at 14 cents a mile.

The new rates are contained in Announcement 2008-63 on the optional standard mileage rates.

Taxpayers always have the option of calculating the actual costs of using their vehicle rather than using the standard mileage rates.

I lived in Mexico & Guatemala from July 1985 to July 1986. I learned Spanish in Antigua, Guatemala at Centro Linguistico Internacional. I had classes six hours a day one-on-one with my teacher plus I lived with a local family. I learned it so well, I haven’t forgotten it! I do use Spanish regularly, too.

Coincidentally, Peter Greenberg wrote this on his blog, too:

“Families can learn Spanish at the Centro Linguistico Internacional in Antigua, Guatemala. With the Learn Together program, parents and children can sign up for language lessons.

Monday through Friday, each family member receives three hours a day of individual study and at least one hour working with each other to better than Spanish. The program also includes extracurricular activities like soccer matches, bicycle tours, museum tours and much more.

The best part is – these activities are all included in the price of the program. Families can chose from several different types of accommodations, including on-site apartments or living with a Guatemalan family. The price of the program is approximately $225 a week, plus $90 a week for each additional family member.”

I was named after my Grandpa: Steve Dasseos. My Grandpa was a Greek immigrant who came to the US when he was 14 years old. He built railroads and like many Greeks ended up in the restaurant business. I was blessed to have my Grandpa until I was 22 years old and my Grandma until I was 40, so I was able to get to know both of them really well.

For as long as I can remember my Grandpa always told me “If you want to get ahead, you need to be your own boss”. The key to my business’ success is the same philosophy my Grandpa Steve taught me: “give personal attention to each customer.’’

Now, the city we’re from is having a City-wide celebration. They are honoring my Grandparents as part of it. Here’s a copy of an article about my Grandparents - it’s called Steve’s Place Returns:

You can also read the article here.

Steve’s Place Returns

By Linda Tyssen
Staff Writer, Mesabi Daily News
Published: Tuesday, June 17, 2008

By today’s standards Steve Dasseos’ hamburgers could be called heart attacks waiting to happen.

But oh, the taste of those beef patties fried in lard in a cast iron skillet was, you might say, to die for, and for decades Steve’s Place was a mainstay on Virginia’s culinary scene.

Those good old days will be relived during the Great Virginia Get-Together when Steve’s Place will be recreated next to Bailey’s Lake between Natural Harvest Food Co-op and the Flags for Peace on Sixth Avenue North. The burger stand will be staffed by the Virginia Rotary Club from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, July 2-5, said Tom Nordling, a Virginia native who is helping organize the project. The burgers will be served from a trailer designed to look much like Steve’s Place in its final location.

Now don’t go to the modern Steve’s looking for hot dogs or sloppy joes. And surely don’t go looking for ketchup. The burgers will be served just as Dasseos and his wife Katherine did — mustard and onions and no red stuff. Mrs. Dasseos “felt the ketchup made the burgers too sweet’’ and the customers would fill up too fast, said Nordling. The goal, after all, was to sell beef and lots of it.

The burger shop was opened by Greek immigrant Dasseos and his wife in 1930 after he had worked for other vendors such as People’s Cafe at Fifth and Chestnut and the White Castle burger place. Next door at a coffee shop he met future wife Katherine. Early on he had known what he wanted to do in life — to feed people and be his own boss.

When he wanted to build a place to sell his burgers, the lumber cost $35, but he didn’t have the money. Katherine’s father gave him the cash, and the building went up in a day or two. “The day we put the key in the door, there was always a line of people waiting to get in,’’ Dasseos said in a newspaper story of several years ago. Over the years it was located at three different sites.

“It has become an institution in Virginia,’’ a 1977 newspaper story said. Loyal diners “have been raised on the ground beef fried in pure lard and smothered with onions, fried or raw, whichever the customer prefers.’’ Dasseos said back then, “Our ears are burning all the time because someone is always talking about us.’’ The key to the business’s success was “the personal attention they gave each customer.’’ The prices in 1930 — 5 cents for a burger, 5 cents for pop. Dasseos operated on the premise, “Make only one thing and make it good,’’ and he would say, “Virginia has been good to us.’’ Besides the burgers, customers got the coldest milk in town.

School kids would head to Steve’s after football games to get burgers and popcorn from the little shop painted orange and black. “Simple and primitive as that little place was, Steve Dasseos was clean enough and gave his customers full measure with plenty of salty opinion at no charge,’’ Virginia’s Chuck Pottsmith said in a newspaper story several years back. “He could handle rowdy kids or the boozy types in no hurry to go home.’’ His big trade was the lunch crowd. “That black fry pan was deep enough in grease to drown the patty, and the top half of the bun was just dipped long enough to get hot and spongy,’’ said Pottsmith. Dasseos would buy whole pickles, stand them on end and carve them in slices across a cutting board.

It was all part of the charm of “Greasy Steve’s,’’ as some would affectionately call the little burger shop. As years went by, meat prices went up and finally Dasseos had to charge a dollar for a burger. Then one day he said, “It’s not right to charge so much. The time has come for us to close.’’

But for a time during Virginia’s celebration, Steve’s Place will be up and running again, so put your cholesterol concerns aside and enjoy.

My mother and I are traveling together. My main point of confusion is how to set up the insurance since my mother is a Canadian resident and I am a US resident. Do we need to purchase separate policies? Shannon

Thanks Shannon for the good question. You’ll need to get separate policies. That’s because each Travel Insurance Policy is filed with the Insurance Department in every US State or Canadian Province it’s offered for sale.

Generally, the plans are the same in all the States or Provinces they are sold, but sometimes there are subtle differences that could make a policy claim complicated at best. Or completely denied at worst.

Plus, not all policies are available to everyone. Of the 6 companies we offer, Canadians can only get three of the companies (CSA, Travel Guard & TravelSafe).

Do you use Microsoft Internet Explorer? I do and I’ve used it for years mainly because it came with my Microsoft Windows. But, a few years ago, my friend Amrit suggested I start using Firefox. I was lazy to switch to it, but that was a mistake! Now Firefox is my main browser.

Why do I like Firefox?

Better Security
If you look around you find that better security is often the main reason users switch from Internet Explorer (Microsoft) to Firefox (Mozilla). And, why not? You want to be sure you are safe and secure online if you are conducting high security risk activities like online banking.

Firefox has fewer security holes and a tighter schedule of disclosing them. The enhanced security in Firefox is due to a multitude of factors the system’s inclusion of more source code reviewers and a better bug reporting system and exclusion of VBScript/ActiveX, often the source of vulnerabilities.

Firefox uses much less memory
Our computers at TripInsuranceStore.com have 2 GB of RAM so it’s not like we’re hurting for memry. But, as often happens to me, I have too many windows or tabs open at the same time (too much multi-tasking). Right now I have 12 Firefox windows open.

Browsing speed
Internet Explorer loads all the page elements before the page is displayed. This means if the page has a lot of images and elements in it, you’ll have a delay after you type the address in the address bar. Firefox shows the page elements and images immediately after they are loaded, and you will see first the header, then the menu. You don’t need to wait to see the header until the footer is loaded.

I’m sure Firefox enthusiasts can come up with many more things they like about Firefox over Internet Explorer, so you’ll need to forgive me if I didn’t mention what you like best.

If you want to try out Firefox, you can download it for free here.

I found these 7 Helpful Travel Tips on Lifehack.org. Since air travel can be frustrating, I hope you find the following travel tips from helpful:

1. Don’t travel with gel pens. You could wake up in a pool of ink, as the air pressure changes can cause the ink to burst out. I learned this lesson MANY years ago but thought they changed the technology — and I recently ruined three perfectly good pairs of pants. NEVER again! I have finally learned my lesson!!

2. ALWAYS look at the airline luggage routing tags that the ticket agent is putting on your checked baggage, and look at your claim stubs too. Don’t just assume they are putting the right tag on the right bag.

3. Take note of something interesting about the contents of your bag. It makes it easier to identify if there’s a problem.

4. Travel with Sharpie markers and zip-closure plastic bags. They are great for marking and identifying things quickly.

5. If your flight is cancelled, don’t wait in the long line in front of the ticket agent to get on another plane. Just step aside and call your airline directly from your cell phone. It’s just like cutting in line, but nobody will get mad at you.

6. Bring pre-printed return address labels with you. They’re great for quickly filling out airline luggage tags and other forms.

7. Get a travel pillow that supports your neck. Neck pillows like the Bucky brand are filled with buckwheat hulls and support your neck while you’re trying to sleep on the plane.

My first question is, how far in advance do we need to purchase our trip insurance? We have plane tickets for 2 for August 6, 2008 from LAX. I will have more questions later but first just need to know how far in advance we must purchase trip insurance. Thanks, Madelyn

Hi Madelyn, You can get your trip insurance anytime. I can only think of one reason to get a plan before you make your first payment on your trip: That’s if your next birthday happens before you make your first payment and that birthday pushes you into a more expensive age bracket.

Other than that unlikely possibility, there are deadlines to getting your trip insurance if you need pre-existing conditions’ coverage, so you might want to review this page:
http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/3/pre-existing.shtml

Steve, Regarding the price quote, we re-figured some prices and are actually paying $7,000/person (which includes airfare). We are flying Business Class - should we or should we not include the cost of our flight in the insurance estimate? If we eliminate the cost of the Business Class Tickets then the trip is $3500/person. Linda

Thanks Linda,

You only have to include the cost of Business Class tickets if they are non-refundable. In the past, Business Class and First Class tickets were refundable, but recently we’ve been seeing both Business Class and First Class tickets that are not competely refundable.

Therefore, it’s very important you find out if your Business Class tickets will refund all your money if you cancelled your trip. Ask them “If I got hit by a cement truck and had to cancel my trip, will you (the airline) give me 100% of my money back in cash and not a voucher or future credit toward the purchase of another ticket?”

You can go here to find out more on what else is included in trip costs: http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/3/trip-cost.shtml

On April 8, 2008 I wrote a post called “Does Somebody Want to Transfer Millions of Dollars Into Your Account?“. Since I hate phishing scams and all other fraudulent uses of the Internet I always forward a copy of the suspicious e-mail to the companies that are being defrauded.

For example, at PayPal the e-mail address is spoof@PayPal.com, at eBay it’s spoof@eBay.com and at pretty much every other company it’s abuse@(companydomainname)

Another reason why I stay up too late
Late last night I received an e-mail supposedly from FedEx. I put the entire email at the end of this post so you can read it at your leisure. I naturally went to www.FedEx.com and found this:

“If you believe that you have received suspicious e-mail, or have any questions or concerns, please contact us immediately at 1.800.GoFedEx / 1.800.463.3339 or via e-mail at abuse@fedex.com”.

Being the nice person I am, I immediately forwarded that suspicious e-mail you’ll find below to abuse@FedEx.com. Guess what? Almost immediately I received, in my inbox, this delivery failure message:

“Hi. This is the qmail-send program at ______. I’m afraid I wasn’t able to deliver your message to the following addresses. This is a permanent error; I’ve given up. Sorry it didn’t work out. abuse@fedex.com: failed after I sent the message. Remote host said: 554 The message was rejected because it contains prohibited virus or spam content”

More than a surprise
That was a surprise. No, it was a shock! - how stupid can that be for FedEx to reject emails it tells you to send to them! Since I wasn’t completely frustrated I went ahead and called FedEx’s toll-free number 1.800.463.3339 at 1:03 am. Eventually, I got to speak to someone live in their customer service department. I explained exactly what happened and they told me that FedEx doesn’t accept spam.

So, I explained again why was trying to forward them this because someone was impersonating FedEx, but they told me abuse@fedex.com is the only e-mail address Fedex has to receive these complaints about scams. After I asked “doesn’t this sound silly that abuse@FedEx.com rejects all forwarded spam e-mails?”, the kind man I was speaking to put me on hold for a few minutes to see if he could find anything else out.

When he came back he told me that I had to wait until after 7 a.m. Central time to call the Technical Support Department at 1-877-339-2774 and maybe they can figure out how to email Fedex.

I called FedEx’s Technical Support Department this morning. They said that abuse@fedex.com is the only e-mail address Fedex has to receive these complaints. And they wanted me to call Customer Service again!

Oh well, I guess FedEx doesn’t really want to know who’s impersonating them and damaging their good name.

PS - here’s that email that FedEx won’t let me give them:

Subject: FedEX PARCEL DELIVERY NOTICE
From: “FedEx Online Team Management.”
Date: Tue, May 13, 2008 11:34 pm

Dear Customer!

We have been waiting for you to contact us for your Confirm able Package that is registered with us for shipping to your residential location.We had thought that your sender gave you our contact details.It may interest you to know that a letter is also added to your package.However, we cannot quote its content to you via email for privacy reasons.

We understand that the content of your package itself is a Bank Draft worth of $120,000.00 USD, FedEx do not ship money in CASH or in CHEQUES but Bank Drafts are shippable.The package is registered with us for mailing by your colleague, and your colleague explained that he is from the United States but he is here in Nigeria for a three (3) months Surveying Project as he works with a consultant firm in Nigeria West Africa We are sending you this email because your package is been registered on a Special Order.

What you have to do now, is to contact our Delivery Department for immediate dispatchment of your package to your residential address.Note that as soon as our Delivery Team confirms your informations, it will take only one working day (24 hours) for your package to arrive it’s designated destination.For your information, the VAT & Shipping charges as well as Insurance fees have been paid by your colleague before your package was registered.Note that the payment that is made on the Insurance, Premium & Clearance Certificates, are to certify that the Bank Draft is not a Drug Affiliated Fund (DAF) neither is it funds to sponsor Terrorism in your country. This will help you avoid any form of query from the Monetary Authority of your country.

However, you will have to pay a sum of £82GBP to the FedEx Delivery Department being full payment for the Security Keeping Fee of the FedEx company as stated in our privacy terms & condition page. Also be informed that your colleague wished to pay for the Security Keeping charges, but we do not accept such payment considering the facts that all items & packages that is registered with us have a time limitation and we cannot accept payment not knowing when you will be picking up the package or even responding to us.So we cannot take the risk to have accepted such payment in case of any possible demur rage.

Kindly note that your colleague did not leave us with any further information.We hope that you respond to us as soon as possible because if you fail to respond until the expiry date of the foremost package, we may refer the package to the Nigerian Commission for Welfare as the package do not have a return address.

Kindly contact the delivery department (FedEx Delivery Post) with the details given below:

FedEx Delivery Post
Contact Person:Daniel Christopher
Email:dchristopher1960@gmail.com
Tel: +2348053062492

Kindly complete the below form and send it to the email address given above.This is mandatory to reconfirm your Postal address and telephone numbers.

FULL NAMES:
TELEPHONE:
POSTAL ADDRESS:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:

Kindly complete the above form and summit it to the delivery manager on: dchristopher1960@gmail.com

As soon as your details are received, our delivery team will give you the necessary payment procedure so that you can effect the payment for the Security Keeping Fees. As soon as they confirm your payment receipt of £82GBP, they will not hesitate to dispatch your package as well as the attached letter to your residence. It usually takes 24 hours being an over night delivery service.

Note that we were not instructed to email you, but due to the high priority of your package we had to inform you as your sender did not leave us with his phone number because he stated that he just arrived Nigeria and he hasn’t fix his phone yet. We indeed personally sealed your Bank Draft and we found your email contact in the attached letter as the recipient of the foremost package.

Ensure to contact the delivery department with the email address given above and ensure to fill the above form as well to enable a successful reconfirmation.

Do not reply this email because this email account is not monitored.Send your details to:dchristopher1960@gmail.com

Yours Faithfully,
Mrs. Margaret Blaire.
FedEx Online Team Management.
All rights reserved. © 1995-2008
———————————————————————————————————-
This E-mail is only for the above addressees. It may contain confidential or Privileged information. If you are not an addressee you must not copy, distribute, disclose or use any of the information in it or any attachments.
———————————————————————————————————-
FEDEX INTL>>>

US State Department travel warnings do not mean that it’s a place where the government may not be favorably disposed to the United States. Instead, the United States’ State Department issues these warnings because for a variety of reasons it may not be safe to travel in those areas. These reasons include, but are not limited to, natural disasters (like the Myanmar cyclone or the China earthquake) civil unrest, war.

The US State Department keeps an updated list of travel warnings. Here’s some information from their website:

What Are Travel Warnings, Country Specific Information & Travel Alerts?

Travel Warnings
Travel Warnings are issued when the State Department decides, based on all relevant information, to recommend that Americans avoid travel to a certain country. Countries where avoidance of travel is recommended will have Travel Warnings as well as Country Specific Information.

Travel Alerts
Travel Alerts are a means to disseminate information about terrorist threats and other relatively short-term and/or trans-national conditions posing significant risks to the security of American travelers. The TAs are made when there is a specific threat that cannot be countered. In the past, Travel Alerts have been issued to deal with short-term coups, violence by terrorists and anniversary dates of specific terrorist events.

Country Specific Information
Country Specific Information are available for every country of the world. They include such information as location of the U.S. embassy or consulate in the subject country, unusual immigration practices, health conditions, minor political disturbances, unusual currency and entry regulations, crime and security information, and drug penalties. If an unstable condition exists in a country that is not severe enough to warrant a Travel Warning, a description of the condition(s) may be included under an optional section entitled “Safety/Security.”On limited occasions, we also restate in this section any U.S. embassy advice given to official employees. Country Specific Information generally do not include advice, but present information in a factual manner so the traveler can make his or her own decisions concerning travel to a particular country.

Here’s the link to the US State Department Travel Warnings’ page.

As you know, there’s unimaginable human suffering in Burma after the devastating cyclone. And on top of that the evil military junta that rules Burma is preventing most aid from entering the country. In fact, the UN had two shipments seized by the government at the airport.

I personally have never lived in a disaster zone. I did, however, volunteer for six weeks with the Red Cross in Mexico City after the September 1985 earthquakes. I was living in Monterrey, Mexico and as soon as I heard the news myself and my friends went down to Mexico City to help. Nobody knows what the final death toll from the Mexico City earthquakes was, but after what I saw I know it was well over the estimate of 25 people dead.

As bad as it was in Mexico City, it’s multiple times worse in Burma. Mexico had an earthquake which is clearly a disaster, but a cyclone is worse. You have rain, high winds, storm surge and lots of standing water around afterwards. It destroys bridges, roads, railroad lines and makes the country impassable.

But a least, Mexico City was easy to get to and in the days after the earthquake the weather was warm and sunny. Just think of Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans and you’ll get an idea on a small scale of what’s happening in Burma.

You personally can help the cyclone victims in Burma. 100% of your contributions go directly to Burma. My family and I have known Steve and Kathy Gray since 1998. Steve & Kathy have a long-standing relationship with a Burmese pastor, Timothy Laklem of Asian Tribal Ministries, one of the few Christian ministries with access into the country.

TripInsuranceStore.com’s clients and visitors are generous and kind people. Even though budgets are stretched, any amount of money you give will help. No gift is too small. Click Here & You Can Help The Burma Cyclone Victims

PS - I’m not pushing any religious agenda. My purpose is to see people get help without administrative expenses & advertising dollars eating up the donations.

And, if you want to know more about Steve & Kathy Gray, go here: (it’s aways a good idea to know something about any organization you give money to)
http://www.steveandkathygray.com/index.php - you might be suprised to find church leaders who will openly say “Yes, the churches in the USA have problems…”

There will be two adults on this trip…what if one of them cancels but the other one goes…how is that handled? Don

Don, that’s a great question. And it’s a simple answer, too:

As long as the one who cancels can prove they had a non-refundable financial loss on their share of the trip costs, that person can make a claim for their loss.

My answer assumes the reason they cancel their trip is a covered reason and that they follow all the rules for cancelling their trip according to their Travel Insurance policy.

You can go here to see what’s covered.

We’re going to Budapest for 4 days then to Istanbul. Can you give me the names and contact information for hospitals and doctors that you deal with in those cities.

There’s no list of doctors and medical facilities we deal with worldwide. The doctor must be a “Legally Qualified Physician” and it’s best if she or he isn’t a relative of yours. Your Travel Insurance plan will cover any Legally Qualified Medical Facility as long as you seek the initial treatment while you’re on your trip.

Plus, if you need help while on your trip, call your travel insurance plan’s 24 hour Emergency Assistance Phone Number.

I only plan on renting a car for 2 days to drive from Portland, Maine to Gettysburg, PA to pick up my daughter at school. Can I get the Collision Damage Waiver from you for that short a period of time? Bob

Hi Bob,

Yes, you can get the Collision Damage Waiver for just 2 days. In case you didn’t see this, the Collision Damage Waiver covers you for calendar days and not 24 hour rental periods.

For example, if you pick the car up on a Saturday and return it Monday this counts for 3 coverage days making the policy $30 ($9 per day times 3 days plus Travel Guard’s $3 policy fee).

And, even though you clearly said you’re getting a car, I just want you to be aware that in case you meant “car” as a generic term, this Collision Damage Waiver doesn’t cover trucks, not SUVs, passenger vans, nor 4 wheel drive vehicles.

Can I cancel and re-book My trip to reset the pre-existing conditions deadline?

We don’t get this question a lot, but nearly every time we do it’s because a traveler has been advised by their travel agent that they should cancel and re-book their trip so travel insurance will cover their pre-existing conditions. In other words, the clock is reset so the person can buy travel insurance within the pre-existing conditions’ waiver deadline.

Insurance companies are not stupid. All the travel insurance plans I know of address this somewhere in their terms and conditions. They usually have some kind of a phrase that’s along the lines of “this booking must be the first and only booking for the same travel destination and dates”. The travel insurance companies have already anticipated that this advice is out there and they’ve covered it within their policy wording.

I am trying to plan a trip for this summer but it is possible that work commitments may force me to rearrange my travel, but not cancel it. I’m considering buying a “cancel for any reason” plan. My question is what coverage I would then have for the rearranged trip? Would I need to buy new insurance for that? Would the insurance cover airline’s change fees or my having to pay the difference if the new airfare was higher? Thank you for your help. Michelle

Hi Michelle,
One drawback with the “cancel for any reason” plans is just that - trip cancellation. In other words, there’s no option to use it for travel delay or postponing a trip.

While the policy wordings seem to leave this open as a possibility, you can “read between the lines” and see this is the case because the policy wordings all say the trip cancellation needs to occur at least 48 hours or 2 days before your departure date.

Therefore, you’d be left with making a claim on your trip plus be needing to arrange a new trip to go where you want to go. Go here to learn more about Cancel For Any Reason Plans.

Whether you’re taking your first cruise or have been on a few, this question always comes up: “how do I select the right cruise?” It should come as no surprise that every cruise line out here offers something different.

My family & I have taken 3 cruises. The first was Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2 on a transatlantic crossing - as our first cruise this gave us too high a standard to measure the others by.

The second was on the Norwegian Sun in Jan. 2006. They had a really good kids program and the Freestyle Dining (no set dinner seating times) was especially good since our children don’t get hungry on a regular schedule.

The third was Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Sea. The kids prgram was good, but not as good as NCL’s. The ship was very nice & we were happy on this trip, too.

One of the blogs I regularly read has a good article called Find the best cruise for you…. I found this to be a good read especially if you’re wondering if you should use a travel agent or not.

TripInsuranceStore.com is the first and only (for a while) travel insurance comparison website to offer Travel Insured’s new trip cancellation travel insurance plans:

You can now get quotes on Travel Insured Comprehensive and Gold plans for per person trip costs of up to $30,000. Plus you’ll find the plan costs for person trip costs of up to $100,000.

Here are some of the plan highlights:

- The Gold plan prices have been lowered
- Travel Insured has also added “Cancel For Any Reason” coverage as an optional upgrade (except for residents of NY, OR and WA States when traveling with a family member
- You can get “Cancel For Work Reasons” coverage as an optional upgrade (except for residents of NY, OR and WA States when traveling with a family member
- The Comprehensive & Gold plans now include “Missed Port of Call” as part of their Missed Connection coverage
- The Travel Insured Comprehensive plan has $50,000 & the Gold plan has $250,000 Secondary Emergency Medical coverage
- You can upgrade to Primary medical and eliminate the deductibles for just $25 per person
- Travel baggage coverages are increased to $1500 with the Comprehensive & $2500 with the Gold plans

Go here to see the new Travel Insured plans.

My sister and I put a deposit on a cruise last Feb 2007, to depart in September 2008. We purchased the insurance at that time with the travel agent, for the cruise portion of the vacation. We are now purchasing our air fare and hotel for a pre cruise stay. Can we now get additional insurance through you for just the air and hotel portion, and keep the cruise portion with the other carrier? The final payment for the cruise is due June 18. Thanks, Linda

Yes Linda, you can insure any part of your trip cost with one of our plans. And you can get the plan anytime, even if you’re past your final payment.

The only part of this scenario you should keep in mind is if you end up having a medical claim. It’s likely the cruise line’s plan has Secondary medical coverage. Secondary’s not better or worse than Primary. It just refers to the order in which a claim is paid.

Therefore, if you end up getting another travel insurance plan, you must take care not to submit the same medical claim to both companies separately. I’ve seen people do this because they assumed that’s what they are supposed to do. The problem with submitting the same medical claim to both companies separately is that it has the appearance of committing medical claim fraud. It’s also known as “double dipping”.

In none of the cases I’m referring to, was “double dipping” ever the customer’s intention. However, in those cases it became known to both companies’ claim departments and it created a lot of unnecessary paperwork to get those claims paid.

PS - It’s not just “double dipping” on medical claims you have to watch out for. You have take care not to submit the same claim to both companies separately on any of the coverages where the policies overlap.

Summer and hurricane season are quickly approaching. And even after hurricane season is over, then there’s winter. If next winter is anything like the winter of 2007-2008, you’re going to hope your travel insurance covers you in case of bad weather.

No matter what kind of bad weather you want your travel insurance to cover, you have to purchase your travel insurance plan before the bad weather is forecast. Don’t call us if you’re going to Cancun and you just saw on the nightly news that a hurricane is approaching. It’s too late to buy travel insurance at that time because travel insurance covers unexpected events.

Bad weather can affect your trip in a couple of different ways:

1: it can prevent you from leaving on your trip altogether
2: it can happen en route causing your flight either to be delayed or diverted to a different city
3: it can affect your destination - the place you’re going might be rendered uninhabitable by a prior storm
4: it can happen to you while you’re on your trip forcing a mandatory evacuation by the authorities
5: or, there are various other ways that bad weather can affect your trip

Here’s how the travel insurance plans we offer work when it comes to bad weather:

1: If the common carrier airline you’re flying on has a cessation of services for at least 24 hours due to bad weather, that’s a covered reason to cancel your trip.
2: if bad weather along the way or from your departure city causes you to be delayed for at least 5 hours (or 6 - 12 hours for other plans), then you’ll have a travel delay. Click here to learn more about travel delay coverage.
3: you might be safe and fine at home, but maybe a bad storm renders your lodging uninhabitable, this can be covered travel insurance.
4: you are already on your trip and, if due to an approaching storm the authorities call for a mandatory evacuation of where you are, this can also be covered by travel insurance.

Some of the above scenarios will be a trip cancellation, a missed connection / travel delay or even a trip interruption. The circumstances will determine what kind claim you’ll have. To learn more about bad weather travel insurance coverage, click here to go to our detailed Bad Weather description page.

Sometimes it’s a good idea to have some local currency before you arrive at your destination. Chances are you’ll need some money in the local currency - for a cab, public transportation or even a meal.

You might say “I’ll get money at an ATM”. Unfortunately, if you’re traveling to a developing country an ATM might not even be available. Or maybe the ATM won’t be compatible with your card (this could happen anywhere). Either way, it’s a good idea to have some local currency on hand even before you leave the USA.

There are some other options (though you might get gouged or taken advantage of):

- Go to a restaurant or a store in the airport, pay your bill in US dollars and ask to get the change in the local currency
- Ask a taxi driver to exchange money for you
- Convert some of your money at one of those money exchange kiosks

There is another way: you can get the local currency before you arrive. That is, you can order currency ahead of time, before you leave on your trip and have it delivered directly to you.

If you’re a US Resident, here’s where I recommend you get local currency: Go to www.BuyTravelMoney.com. The cash can be delivered straight to your doorstep. Rates are competitive and two-day shipping is free on orders of US $750 or more.

We are renting a mid-sized car. Would your Collision Damage Waiver cover driving on gravel and dirt roads?

You’re covered for normal use of the car. Not all roads are paved everywhere, so if in the course of your trip you take gravel and dirt roads, it’s covered by our Collision Damage Waiver.

On the other hand, if you say, “Let’s see what this baby will do!” and drive off road and / or cause damage to the car, then you may have a difficult claim.

No matter what happens, it’s your responsibility to explain what happened to any authorities, the car rental agency & the insurance company.

On Feb. 24, 2008 I wrote about the U.S. Geological Survey’s website where you can see recent earthquakes from the whole world or just the USA.

I was looking at the site tonight & saw 2 recent 5.0+ quakes near Oregon plus a few smaller ones there & towards California. I searched online & found this:

Unusual Earthquakes Measured Off Oregon
By JEFF BARNARD Associated Press Writer

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Scientists listening to underwater microphones have detected an unusual swarm of earthquakes off central Oregon, something that often happens before a volcanic eruption - except there are no volcanoes in the area.

Scientists don’t know exactly what the earthquakes mean, but they could be the result of molten rock rumbling away from the recognized earthquake faults off Oregon, said Robert Dziak, a geophysicist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Oregon State University.

There have been more than 600 quakes over the past 10 days in a basin 150 miles southwest of Newport. The biggest was magnitude 5.4, and two others were more than magnitude 5.0, OSU reported.

On the hydrophones, the quakes sound like low thunder and are unlike anything scientists have heard in 17 years of listening, Dziak said. Some of the quakes have also been detected by earthquake instruments on land.

The hydrophones are left over from a network the Navy used to listen for submarines during the Cold War. They routinely detect passing ships, earthquakes on the ocean bottom and whales calling to one another.

Scientists hope to send out an OSU research ship to take water samples, looking for evidence that sediment has been stirred up and chemicals that would indicate magma is moving up through the Juan de Fuca Plate, Dziak said.

The quakes have not followed the typical pattern of a major shock followed by a series of diminishing aftershocks, and few have been strong enough to be felt on shore.

The Earth’s crust is made up of plates that rest on molten rock, which are rubbing together. When the molten rock, or magma, erupts through the crust, it creates volcanoes.

That can happen in the middle of a plate. When the plates lurch against each other, they create earthquakes along the edges.

In this case, the Juan de Fuca Plate is a small piece of crust being crushed between the Pacific Plate and North America, Dziak said.

Source: AP News

Hi, I’ll bet you’re afraid to answer this question: Isn’t insurance just legalized gambling? I think every time I don’t file a claim, the company wins. Right? (anonymous question)

I wouldn’t say it’s a gamble, though there’s risk involved with any kind of contract you enter into. Insurance is a unilateral contract because only one party, the insurer, has made a legally enforceable promise, such as to pay covered claims.

Here’s what I say on TripInsuranceStore.com:

Buying travel 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. This is why I pre-screen our plans.

People manage the risk of losing money on a trip different ways:
- Some people use the same insurance company for every trip
- Some self-insure
- Some ignore travel / trip / cruise insurance altogether
- Some take their agent’s advice
- Some shop around
- Some forget

Even though I sell travel insurance, I believe insuring a trip is a personal decision. None of these choices is inherently right or wrong, they are just a matter of personal preference.

Now, sometimes you have to lay aside your own prejudices in order to protect other people from the negative result of your decision. For example, when I was a life insurance agent, it surprised me how many people purposely ignored their family’s financial condition should they die young. They always thought they’d beat the system by living long. The trouble is that death is permanent & guaranteed.

If losing money by not traveling, having an expensive medical claim or needing a costly emergency evacuation wouldn’t burden you nor destroy your finances, then the need for travel insurance probably doesn’t exist for you.

If these would cause you distress, consider getting travel insurance for your trip. Go here to get some side-by-side comparison quotes.

Does Travel Insurance cover the flight cancellations by American, Southwest, United, Delta, Alaska & Midwest Airlines? Thanks, Kate

You may not like this answer Kate, but generally the answer is “No” because it’s the airline’s responsibilty to get you to your destination (your ticket is a contract with the airline).

For example, American Airlines has offered to make amends to travelers with refunds, vouchers and compensation for overnight stays. I suspect the other airlines will do something similar.

On the other hand, if you had travel insurance prior to these recent flight cancellations and you have been affected by the recent airline cancellations you may be covered. Due to the recent mass airline cancellation each travel insurance company is handling claims differently. We cannot pre-determine a claim, so we are strongly advising our clients to contact their respective insurance companies’ claim department to discuss and to determine if you have a payable claim.

So far, only American Airlines has a page that tell you what to do in filing a claim with them: Here’s the American Airlines page

PS - Go here to see what else travel insurance doesn’t cover