by onlinefinancialnewsletters | May 21, 2015 | Personal Protection
From weather delays to onboard mishaps, protecting yourself and your vacation is something you should consider before you set sail on your next cruise.
Covered Events
The unfortunate events covered by cruise insurance vary depending on policy. Common ones include missed departures and delays, cruise operator cancellations, emergency traveler cancellations, lost and stolen luggage, medical emergencies, medical evacuations and cruise operator financial default.
Two special insurance features most travelers find particularly desirable are 100 percent refund policies and trip interruption coverage. The first will reimburse your pre-paid travel expenses in the event that you need to cancel your trip for any reason including a job loss or medical emergency. The second will reimburse your expenses if you need to cut your vacation short and fly home.
Buying Direct from Cruise Operator
Most cruise operators offer passengers some form of insurance protection, through it is often more limited in scope than comparably priced third party policies. For example, most do not cover cancellations due to operator financial default, terrorism or political unrest. If traveler cancellation is covered, there may be a cut off several days prior to departure. And medical coverage is often quite limited, usually excluding pre-existing conditions.
In the event of a covered situation requiring reimbursement, most cruise lines will pay up in the form of non-transferable credits towards future travel. Most often, expiration dates and strict redemption rules accompany these vouchers. Cash reimbursement is quite rare.
Purchasing Third Party Insurance
If you want broader coverage and cash reimbursement, you’ll have to purchase your cruise insurance through a third party provider. TravelGuard, TravelSafe and InsureMyTrip are three popular companies offering a range of cruise insurance products.
When reviewing your options, consider a ‘primary’ policy. It may cost a bit more, but coverage kicks in the moment something goes wrong—reducing or eliminating the time you’ll wait for reimbursement. If you chose ‘secondary’ coverage, you must attempt to collect on a primary policy before your cruise insurance will cover a thing. For example, if someone steals your camera while on the ship, a secondary policy will only cover your loss after you’ve attempted to collect on your homeowner’s insurance policy.
Cost of Investment
Whether you choose to purchase directly from your cruise operator or from a third party, expect to pay 5 percent to 10 percent of the cruise price for insurance. While this may be as much as $1,000 on a $10,000 cruise, the cost is minimal compared to the potential losses you’ll incur if you have to cancel your trip due to an emergency, the ship malfunctions and you find yourself stranded in a foreign port, or the cruise line goes out of business.
by onlinefinancialnewsletters | May 8, 2015 | Personal Protection
While car theft has been a great concern for car owners, it is less of a concern because of the improvement in technologies such as transponder keys, tracking and recovery systems, improved integrated active alarm systems, etc. But while car theft has dropped, car thieves have not given up… and the most common car crime today is VIN switching or VIN cloning.
How VIN Cloning / VIN Switching is Done
- Thieves steal your car.
- They then look for a model that is the same as yours.
- Thieves will make a copy of that vehicle’s VIN.
- They will create a fake VIN plate for your car which makes the car easy to sell.
What’s terrible bout this is that you may buy a car thinking it has a clean bill of health. But the real car’s history may be masked.
Worse, the police can seize the car if it was in fact stolen and you’ll likely be out of the money you spent on the car. (Some states like Wisconsin require auto dealerships to reimburse consumers when the dealership has sold a car with a bad VIN but not all states require this.)
Protect yourself from VIN Cloning
Here are some of the things that you can do so that you can protect yourself from VIN cloning and avoid buying used cars that have been stolen.
Check the Address of the Seller
Criminals will not let you know their address. If you are the buyer, always go to the seller and meet at his or her house. If he says that he is a motor dealer, go to his place of business. A legal trader will not have a problem with you visiting his business site. He will also have printed invoices and a legit landline number.
If the seller asks to meet at a convenient location, make sure to bring a friend.
Right to Sell
Buying from a private individual is riskier than buying from a car dealer because when things go wrong, you might not be able to find the seller if he or she is just a private individual.
To see if the seller has the right to sell, meet at the address indicated on the registration papers. Go into the house and don’t just meet outside the house. If the person has nothing to hide, then there should be no problem getting inside the house. If you find something unusual, walk away right at that very moment.
Question Low Prices
Be wary of cars that are being sold at an insanely low price. If there is some bodywork damage in the car, then the seller might go a bit lower. However, if the seller is willing to accept any price, then alarm bells must sound off because a car thief will settle for any amount instead of getting caught with a stolen car.
Check the Documents
Inspect each and every document that will be handed to you. Try to spot any forgeries. Check the VIN on all the records, the door sticker, dash, car frame, service and title records. All of the VIN indicated there must match. Check for any signs that it may have been tampered with.
Check the CARFAX if there are any clone alerts.
The odometer must match the mileage that is reported on the document. Check if there are any registrations between states. If there are, then this is a cause for alarm as this might be a stolen car.
Get a Mechanic
You can always get an expert mechanic to check on the car if there are any anomalies.
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