by
Carl Hampton
11/21/2006
The California Insurance Commissioner has
ordered Trip Assured to stop doing business
in the state of California. This
Tennessee-based travel insurance company was
apparently defrauding companies. But Trip
Assured claims that what they were selling
in California was not travel insurance. The
Commissioner finds their claim undeniable
since what they were selling could easily
fall into the insurance category or
definition. Trip Assured 's main marketing
target is senior citizens.
California decided to take action once
notice was taken that other states like
Michigan, Texas, Florida, and North Carolina
were taking similar actions against Trip
Assured. Upon further research, Trip Assured
denied 30 claims in California and there
were 76 claims filed against them (in the
last 36 months) with the Better Business
Bureau (BBB). However the BBB states that
those claims were addressed by Trip Assured
although those that filed the claims would
not agree with that assessment of the
situation. There are also other travel
insurance companies that have claims filed
against them which is unfortunate since the
travel insurance industry is growing
rapidly, especially for those expensive
vacation trips. The BBB in Tennessee has now
revoked their (Trip Assured) membership -
you would think that would mean something
since the company is based in Tennessee.
Here is an example from one of the claims
made against Trip Assured. Sylvia Resnick is
a senior citizen that booked a trip just for
herself to Europe as well as a cruise while
in Europe. She purchased Trip Assured
through her travel agency at the time of
booking the trip. It had taken her a long
time to save up for the vacation that was to
be “that trip of a lifetime”. During the
vacation, she suffered serious back injuries
and had to cancel the cruise. As soon as she
arrived home she saw her doctor and obtained
a doctor’s note that stated that she could
not continue with the cruise due to the
injury. As required by the policy she sent
that note to Trip Assured expecting to be
paid out under the terms of the agreement.
It came as a total shock when they denied
her claim and thus did not return her money.
There are two questions here. The first is
why would an insurance company that is
supposedly aimed at satisfying their clients
put this senior citizen through this? The
second question is how could the BBB view
this situation (and situations just like
this) as resulting in a satisfactory
outcome?
Be very careful the next time you invest in
trip insurance. For those of you who have
already purchased Trip Assured, you can
contact their bank. It is First National
Bank of Tennessee and the hotline number is
931-707-3561, but that hotline is only
effective for MasterCard customers, but call
nonetheless to see what non-MasterCard
customers should do. Hours of operation are
6 am. to 2:30 pm. Pacific Time. If you want
to make a complaint, contact the state
Department of Insurance at 800-927-4357 or
you can file a complaint online at
www.insurance.ca.gov.
Have an opinion or a question you would like
me to answer, then write me!
http://www.CarlHampton.com
