Do you match price for the same coverage offered at a better price elsewhere? I purchased a policy from you last night. Tonight I stumbled on another website and put in the same trip and it gave me a quote for about $45 less - for the same plan. Madeline

Hi Madeline, All travel insurance plans are the same cost for the same plan no matter where you buy it from. The only things that could change the price are your ages, per person trip cost & if the trip’s over 30 or 31 days in length.

Some of my competitor’s websites give you the option of using your total trip cost. They then divide it by the number of travelers. I think this is sloppy. And, if you wanted to cover a pre-existing condition, it would disqualify you because you’d end up under-insuring your trip cost (thus breaking most plans’ rules).

Here’s how Madeline’s situation turned out:

In Madeline’s case, the trip cost was $1980 each for 2 people and $805 each for 2 people. And this is how it ought to be insured (we’d round the trip cost up, too). On those other sites, you’d end up insuring up to $1500 each on all 4 people.

You might say, “isn’t the claim is 100% of total trip cost?”. The answer’s no, because when you file a trip cancellation or interruption claim the insurance co. will want proof of the per person trip cost. And then they’ll pay a maximum of up to the person’s insured amount. If you have one total price on one invoice, you can divide it by the number of travelers. But if you have a cruise where the 1st 2 people in a cabin pay more that the 3rd & 4th, you have to insure the trip on a per person basis.

Back to Madeline’s trip: unknown to her, that site divided $5570 (1980+1980+805+805) by 4 and covered them at $1392.50 each which is wrong. And at claim time, she would’ve lost up to $960. OUCH!