Should I insure my trip deposit first?
Learn from the pros when it comes to travel insurance!
With travel coming back, more and more travelers are wanting to protect their investment and purchase travel insurance with trip cancellation benefits. This is SMART! If “they” can shut down the world once, they most certainly can do it again, but this time you can be prepared and protected.
You know that you need travel insurance, but do you know WHEN you need to purchase it? Learn from the team at TripInsuranceConsultants.com that it’s important to purchase your insurance as soon as you put the first deposit down on your upcoming trip.
Most tours and cruises require a small deposit when booking while having you make a larger deposit later. Lynette Rempel, a licensed insurance agent and VP of Travel Insurance Sales at TripInsuranceConsultants.com, can help you understand the benefits of insuring that small deposit. It’s often assumed you have to insure the full cost of the trip at time of purchase which can be a little hard to swallow considering you still owe on decent amount of money to the tour company or cruise line.
When you purchase a travel insurance policy for at least that small amount now you begin to lock in some very important time sensitive benefits that will protect your investments. When you continue to pay on your trip, you can then add to the trip cost of the insurance policy as you pay it on your time schedule.
Here are the time sensitive benefits she was referring to:
Waiver of Pre-Existing Conditions – If you have a medical history, that would be considered a pre-existing condition, which might be a reason to you have to cancel, you need to lock in this waiver so pre-existing conditions would be covered.
Cancel for Any Reason Policy (CFAR) – If you are interested in purchasing a CFAR plan this needs to be purchased within the time sensitive window. CFAR policies will allow you to cancel for ANY reason you* can no longer go if it was due to your decision not to go, an example would be fear of traveling. *This does not cover if the travel carrier decides you won’t be going by cancelling the trip completely.
Financial Default of a Common Carrier – Can a major cruise line go bankrupt and keep your trip cost investment? During this Covid pandemic, Crystal Cruises did just that! If you want to protected for financial default of your travel supplier, you have to start the policy during the time sensitive period window.
Future medical situations - By insuring your deposit now you also protect yourself from a future medical situation that might be created and that may be the reason you end up having to cancel.
Travel Insurance is the one thing you buy for your trip that you hope you don’t have to use.
Lynette explains that although she and her team never want anyone to have to use the insurance , they DO want to give you as many reasons as possible to do so if needed. Being a licensed insurance agent, not just a travel agent, she knows insurance and it’s most important to her to make sure travelers know what is and what is not covered when they purchase a policy. For more information about this strategy of insuring your deposit first or other travel insurance questions or inquires you can reach her at lynette@tripinsuranceconsultants.com. Remember the age-old adage of any insurance policy… you have to buy the insurance BEFORE something happens!