Crum & Forster - Travel Insured International Worldwide Trip Protector

Extremely expensive comparing premium to possible coverage. If regular insurance charged comparable amounts, no one could afford it. But unfortunately it is necessary for travel coverage. In short, premiums are relatively high compared with conventional non-travel insurance.

Good coverage for a good price.

I purposely selected this policy from Travel Insured International because it claimed to cover Bankruptcy or Default of the trip provider. The trip provider, Vantage Travel, encouraged me to pay them in full in cash, one year in advance, in order to save 10%. Although I normally prefer to pay travel expenses via credit card, this provision in the insurance policy reassured me that it would protect my cash payment. Yet scarcely one month after making the payment, Vantage canceled my trip, offering me a full refund, which never arrived. I contacted Travel Insured International to see if I could file a claim, based on the default provision. They told me to file the claim, requesting all kinds of documentation, including the travel provider's irrelevant cancellation policy if I were to cancel the trip. The claim was denied. Even though, in my opinion, the travel company was in default of payment, the insurance company later told me that their fine print definition of default requires that the travel company should no longer be in business. Still, I took comfort in the advice of two different insurance representatives that I could use the premium paid for this policy toward another trip. I then tried to do this and was denied the privilege because I had previously filed a rejected claim. So, besides losing the money paid for the trip, I have also lost the money for the insurance premium I paid to protect me. I feel that besides Travel Insured not paying me what I lost, they gave me a lot of conflicting information, so I will never use them again. I advise others to be wary, too, of using this unreliable company. Update: Eventually Vantage Travel filed for bankruptcy. I then refiled my claim under the bankruptcy clause of this policy. The insurance company turned it down again. The convoluted wording of the bankruptcy clause seems to state that I cannot recover my loss if I actually paid the trip provider for the trip!!! I complained to Insurance My Trip but they were useless.