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

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.

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.

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.

You’ve probably seen this on paragraph TripInsuranceStore.com. If not, here it is for your convenience:

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 it will do. This is why we pre-screen our plans.

The promise by the travel insurance company to pay is based on the policy’s wording - commonly known as the “Certificate of Coverage”. Unfortunately, the majority of buyers (and in my opinion sellers, too) only read the policy brochure.

Why do I think this is “unfortunate”? It’s because a travel insurance company has spent thousands of dollars and hired skilled and competent lawyers to write their travel insurance policy’s wording. I don’t believe the “good travel insurance companies” are out to trick anyone with obscure words and semantics games.

They are trying to explain what is, at best, a complicated set of concepts and ideas, in a way their customers can understand. From the customer’s point of view, this may seem nearly impossible, though.

Let’s say you are looking for travel insurance. Where do you start? In a nutshell, you start with asking the right questions, reading the fine print and making sure that you’re actually getting what you think you’re buying.

But, what are the right questions? That’s what I’m going to make the subject of some future posts. Stay tuned.

Hi, My final payment on my cruise is due tomorrow, but I have not bought airfare yet. Do I need to buy the airfare before buying the travel insurance and does insurance need to be bought before final payment? Thank you, Kimberly

Hi Kimberly, You didn’t say, but if you need pre-existing medical conditions coverage your deadline is no later than 24 Hours after your final trip payment with a CSA plan or an HTH plan.

Otherwise, you can get any of our plans at any time until the day before you leave on the trip.

As for buying the airfare, you can estimate the cost of the airfare and include it in the trip cost you insure. That gives you the freedom to get your airfare when you want to get it.