News :

Travel Insurance Falling Out of Favor

Here’s a topic that inspires fear, loathing — and boredom.

Yes, we’re talking travel insurance. We fear illness and accidents, loathe thinking about them when we plan a trip and are too bored to plow through 20 pages of fine print on an insurance certificate.

“Nine times out of 10, they don’t read it,” Angela Norton, spokeswoman for CSA Travel Protection in San Diego, said of travelers who buy packaged policies for trip cancellation and interruption, medical costs and evacuation, luggage loss and other mishaps.

Now, some heavy-hitting critics are asking, “Why bother?”

First, Consumer Reports magazine in May ran an article titled “Travel Insurance : Why You Rarely Need It.”

The typical traveler can afford to forfeit trip deposits and is covered by medical insurance, homeowners’ policies or credit cards for most other losses, said one of the experts quoted, Bob Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America in Washington.

In emergencies, he added, airlines and other suppliers might offer refunds or waive penalties.

“I never buy travel insurance,” said Hunter, a former federal insurance administrator under Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

In September Jeffrey Miller, a travel lawyer and consultant in Columbia, Md., wrote a piece in the trade magazine Travel Weekly titled “Losing Faith in Travel Insurance.”

After 15 years of encouraging travel agents to sell such policies, which can pay commissions of 25 percent or more, he wrote, “I no longer believe travel insurance to be a vacation staple.”

In the last year, Miller said, many friends and clients had complained about insurers denying apparently legitimate claims. Confusion reigned over what policies cover.

After his article was published, he said, he “got a lot of grief from the industry.”

Source : http://www.kansascity.com/