InsureMyTrip Blog

When we created our Ratings and Reviews forum, we didn’t know that in just one year, we’d receive 10,000 reviews of our products, making Ratings and Reviews on InsureMyTrip.com not just another tool for our users, but the largest collection of unbiased travel insurance reviews anywhere in the industry.

Thanks to our dedicated customers, we now have ten thousand (and still climbing!) pieces of valuable insight to help all the members of the InsureMyTrip community.  Ten thousand star ratings.  Ten thousand ways to differentiate between plans.  Ten thousand voices contributing to the conversation, sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly — all unbiased, unedited, and available to anyone who’s interested in what other travelers have to say about their insurance purchases.

In this day and age, hearing from others about their purchases is a crucial element in any online shopping experience.  With an important and often challenging product like travel insurance, it’s even more valuable to hear from your fellow travelers about the plans they’ve bought.  Which ones are the best value for the money?  Which offered the most comprehensive benefits?  Which have the most trustworthy and satisfactory claims processes?  Which companies, coverages, and plans can you trust?

No one wants to make a mistake when they’re buying insurance.  Thanks to all of the customers who have taken the time to add their reviews to our site, we now have ten thousand ways to help you get it right.  And because we’re so grateful to our wonderful customers for providing their feedback to benefit our whole community of travelers, we’ve partnered with Ten Thousand Waves Spa near Santa Fe, New Mexico to provide our lucky 10,000th reviewer with a weekend getaway.  Christine from Des Moines, Iowa has been offered the chance to relax with a loved one at the Japanese-style resort and spa and receive the full complement of services that Ten Thousand Waves has to offer.  Congratulations to Christine, and sincere thanks to Deborah Fleig and the entire team at Ten Thousand Waves for providing this generous prize.

Travel isn’t always meticulously planned.  While many of us like to take the scrupulous approach of scheduling things months in advance, making sure each hotel is booked, each flight secured, each detail firmly in place well ahead of our anticipated departure, there’s no denying that some trips just don’t work that way.  Sometimes travel opportunities sneak up on us quite unexpectedly — whether from sheer spontaneity or something more serious that requires us to make hasty arrangements — and just because the planning phase has to be shortened considerably, doesn’t mean that travelers should be any less proactive about buying a travel insurance policy to cover them in the event something goes awry.  We’re fond of reminding travelers to purchase their travel insurance immediately after making their first trip deposit, so they’ll have access to all the potential benefits and options available.  But what happens if the initial trip deposit and the trip itself go practically hand-in-hand?

If you’re in a time crunch and need travel insurance quickly, here are some tips to help you make an informed, though snappy, decision:

Don’t worry about fancy benefits. While Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) policies are extremely popular with many travelers, for good reason, they’re probably not where you want to focus your search if you’re about to depart.  CFAR is intended to help you out if you choose to cancel your trip for any reason that’s not stated as being covered on your travel insurance policy.  However, if you’re putting together a last-minute itinerary, chances are you won’t be changing your mind.  Also, since CFAR policies require you to cancel — and notify all of your travel suppliers of your decision — a minimum of two days prior to your departure, last-minute travelers may not have time on their sides.

Do keep up with the news.  If you’re planning to depart quickly, you should scan the news and weather for any events that may disrupt your trip.  It’s likely that anything you find will not be covered by your travel insurance policy; since travel insurance is only for unforeseen events, any hurricane threats, possible airline strikes, or other threats to your travel experience that are already being discussed in the media will more often than not be considered “known perils” and won’t be covered.  Obviously, if you’re determined to travel, you should still purchase a travel insurance policy to protect you against any and all other disruptions, but it’s best to enter into your travel insurance purchase having a realistic expectation about what benefits are truly available to you.

Take advantage of time-sensitive benefits.  The good news about being in a hurry is that, since you’ll be purchasing your travel insurance soon after you’ve made your first payment on the trip, you’ll probably be eligible for some very helpful benefits that aren’t offered to travelers who wait.  Items like pre-existing conditions waivers offer valuable coverage, but are only available if you buy travel insurance within 10-30 days of your initial trip payment.  That’s good news for last-minute travelers.

Use resources wisely.  While it’s our goal to make it easy for travelers to buy their travel insurance from us online, we also offer personalized Customer Care assistance 365 days a year.  If you’re stumped, it may help you come to a more timely decision if you contact our licensed experts via phone or live chat.  You might also find that our Ratings and Reviews forum is a good resource to help you narrow down your options, so you can check “travel insurance” off your to-do list and get on with your last-minute trip.

Travel insurance is a relatively unique product — it’s highly individualized in both its necessity and its scope.  What may be of crucial importance to one traveler as far as insurance coverage is concerned may not even make the Top Ten list of needs for another traveler; what one policy has to offer may be ideal for my family, but not for yours.  InsureMyTrip’s Customer Care Center has been working with travelers for more than a decade to help them make decisions about their own travel insurance needs, and during that time, we’ve learned that there is almost never a one-size-fits-all solution.

Our passion has become helping every traveler find the perfect fit for his or her needs.  When we got to know the people at Meet, Plan, Go!, an organization devoted to helping those who want to take an extended sabbatical (or “career break”) from their day jobs to travel, it immediately became clear to us that this was a community of dedicated and passionate travelers with some very specific travel insurance requirements.  It’s no small thing to take the kind of leap of faith these career breakers must take — to organize a way to purposely leave behind everything familiar and strike out into the world for an adventure that might last months or even years.  We were inspired by their courage and their spirit, and we knew we had to find a way to help them secure their travels so they could fulfill their dreams without having to worry about illness, injury, or unexpected setbacks.

We’re pleased and proud to be the exclusive travel insurance provider for Meet, Plan, Go! After extensive planning and research, our Customer Care Center now has a dedicated hotline specifically for career breakers, and our representatives are thoroughly educated on the unique needs of those taking an extended leave so they can provide specialized service to the career break community.  We look forward to working with Meet, Plan, Go! and their members, and we thank them all for taking us with them.  Nothing excites us quite as much as being able to play a small part in someone’s grand plans.

To speak with one of our licensed Customer Care representatives about insuring your career break, call 885-773-9375.