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.”

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).

I understand that emergency evacuation covers the person who is sick. But, what about the other people that are traveling with them? Can we cut our trip short and is this a covered expense with travel insurance? Marianne

Hi Marianne,

Here’s how travel insurance covers you for the situation you describe: one person is evacuated via their emergency transportation and the others still have to cut their trip short.

First, if there’s room on the emergency evacuation plane then it might be possible for one of the family members to ride along with the person. There’s no guarantee for this because it depends on the situation and how serious the medical condition is. If it’s a choice between taking another doctor or medical professional along versus taking a family member, the evacuation company is clearly going to take the medical professional along.

However, the other three of you will have a trip interruption. All our travel insurance plans will reimburse you up to 150% of your unused prepaid nonrefundable trip cost when you interrupt your trip for a covered reason.

My air tickets are “nonrefundable” but can be reissued or changed for a “change fee.” I know that all trip insurance policies will only refund the “change fee” and not the cost of the tickets. Why then do I have to insure the “full cost” of the trip? Dion

Hi Dion,

Unfortunately, you’ve been given the wrong information. I can’t say how all travel insurance companies work with “nonrefundable” tickets, just the ones we offer. All our plans will refund you the full out-of-pocket cost you paid for your tickets if you cancel or interrupt your trip for a covered reason.

Therefore if you want to be able to be reimbursed for the money you paid for your ticket or are concerned about pre-existing conditions, you need to insure the actual out of pocket prepaid cost of your trip.

I am considering a trip to Cancun in the fall and traveling on Frontier airlines. I guess they filed for bankruptcy protection, does this mean I can’t get trip insurance if I use Frontier? Rod

Rod, Here’s how the Travel Insurance works:

You can still get travel insurance to cover you for everything except cancellations, travel delays, missed connections or trip interruption due to Frontier Airlines’ Bankruptcy filing or if Frontier ceases its operations.

That means if you get hit by a cement truck and have to cancel your trip, you’ll be covered. The same goes with any of the other events that are covered reasons.

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.

We presently have a plan for unlimited 35 day long trips and can buy extra days in 15 day increments. Are your plans along the same idea or do you have to buy everytime you go on a trip? Thanks, June

Hi June,

Our Travel Insurance plans only work if you cover the full travel dates. Therefore, you have to buy everytime you go on a trip.

We do have an Annual Travel Insurance plan available for US Residents, but the coverage does not include any Trip Cancellation nor Trip Interruption benefits.

I wrote a post about this on Jan. 20, 2008. You can read it here: http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/blog/annual-travel-insurance-plans-for-us-residents/

We might be having 3 drivers, but we don’t want to pay extra. Is Rental Car Insurance priced per driver? Howard

I have some good new for you Howard:
The Rental Car Insurance / Collision Damage Waiver’s price is based on the one car per calendar day. Not on the number of drivers since only one person can drive a car at a time. You don’t pay extra for additional drivers.

This means that “Backseat Drivers” are free, too.

You must list any additional drivers on the on the Rental Car Insurance / Collision Damage policy. And, this is important, you do need to list any additional drivers on the rental agreement or else they won’t be covered even if you had them on the Rental Car Insurance.

You can get more information here: http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/rental-car-insurance.shtml

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.

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.

My biggest concern is having to cancel because I don’t get to return from my military deployment at the anticipated time. I can’t find anything in the literature that addresses this concern. How does Travel Insurance handle cancelling or delaying due to military actions? Doug

Thanks for asking this, Doug. Coverage questions relating to military actions are becoming more common.

Other than getting a Cancel For Any Reason plan (which only allows for trip cancellation for any reason), there’s no coverage available if your leave is changed or you are reassigned because of military actions. You can read more about War coverage here.

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.

This is new to me but we are renting a condo next year in Florida for a total of $6,000. There is no cancellation clause in the lease, which we have’t signed yet. Is there any kind of protection we can buy in case of cancellation? We don’t plan on it, but you never know. Sherry

Travel insurance covers prepaid and nonrefundable trip costs. Since the owner isn’t asking for a deposit, then you won’t have any prepaid non-refundable trip costs to cover.

In addition, since there’s no wording that specifically states the dollar amount of money that you would lose for forfeit if you left early, then as the agreement stands there isn’t any trip cost that you can cover with travel insurance.

I suspect that the owner thinks his wording clearly states that you are obligated to pay all or part of the $6,000 for the rental. However, I don’t think a travel insurance company will agree with the owner based on the wording you sent me.

I am going on an organized tour in Asia. The tour operator requires that each person have $75,000 insurance for “repatriation of remains”. Even though I would just as soon leave my remains in Asia, I do want to go on the tour! I looked at your plan comparisons and I can’t see any that specify insurance for repatriation of remains. Which plans offer it? Jane

“Repatriation” means “to bring or send back to his or her country or land of citizenship.”

All our plans include “repatriation” as part of the Emergency Evacuation or Transportation coverage. There are 2 different kinds of repatriation coverage in our plans:

1) Medical Repatriation: Something bad happens to you and you are sent home, for example, via an air ambulance

2) Repatriation of Remains: Something even worse happens to you (you pass away) and your body is transported home

We often hear “I would just as soon leave my remains in _____”, but the reality is that if you passed away, you are removed from the decision-making process. I’m sure your relatives would rather have you repatriated back home. It wouldn’t be fair for them to have to pay the expense, so that’s why all our travel insurance plans include “repatriation”.

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.

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

Since we’ve already paid our final payment can we still get a Travel Insurance plan?

Yes, you can get a travel insurance plan any time until the day before you leave on the trip. Many people get well after their final payment dates. The cost doesn’t change, either.

One thing you can’t do is wait until something unexpected happens and then rush out to buy a policy to cover that event. That’s because travel insurance only covers “unexpected events”.

It’s funny, but you’d be surprised how many calls we get from people when there’s some major bad weather forecasted. They ususally start with “I kept forgetting to buy travel insurance and now I want to order a plan for my trip starting in 3 days”. Of course, we tell them that that event won’t be covered.

Go here to learn what else is or isn’t covered.

My family and I have received a lot of favor from ticket counter agents over the years. We’re nice to them because it’s the right thing to do, but it’s shocking how badly we’ve seen others treat them!

Peter Greenberg, the Travel Detective has a video that gives you some good strategies for scoring airline upgrades: (you can view his other videos, too)