Insurance. What do you use? Insurance through DVC?

[VGCgroupie]

Do you use the insurance via DVC?
If so how do you feel about it?
If I buy today does it cover upcoming existing reservations or will it only cover something I book after purchasing?
From what I understand is that if I have 2 use years the insurance only covers 1 use year? How do transferred points get handled in that situtaion?

Does anyone have other insurance they recommend for traveling to DVC resorts on DVC points?

 

[erionm]

We purchase the Travel Insurance available through DVC. We've never needed to file a claim. Keep in mind that if you file a claim, it only reimburses maintenance fees for your points. It also covers other non-reimbursable expenses.

That insurance is sold by Use Year and covers all reservations made using that UYs points. It doesn't matter if the reservation was made before or after the insurance was purchased to be covered.

Banked & Borrowed points are only covered if their original UY is covered by their own policy.

If you have multiple contracts all under the same membership, all are covered by a single policy. Difference memberships would likely require separate policies to over the points (ask MS about this).

Don't know about transferred points. That would be a question for MS.

 

[sethschroeder]

No insurance

We would either see if MS can give us a one time exception to move the points back to normal status/bank or we would just rent out the stay last minute. Things like my flights and health are covered by my credit card or just health insurance.

I can't think of a good reason for it. I can't imagine it covers anything more than just the MFs not the true cost of the hotel room to replace but maybe I am wrong.

In the end I have traveled extensively in my life and the only time I ever get it is for a cruise and that is directly related to the potential massive cost of health related issues on a cruise ship.

I could also see trip insurance for a uber expensive trip to Africa or something as well.

 

[VGCgroupie]

We purchase the Travel Insurance available through DVC. We've never needed to file a claim. Keep in mind that if you file a claim, it only reimburses maintenance fees for your points. It also covers other non-reimbursable expenses.

That insurance is sold by Use Year and covers all reservations made using that UYs points. It doesn't matter if the reservation was made before or after the insurance was purchased to be covered.

Banked & Borrowed points are only covered if their original UY is covered by their own policy.

If you have multiple contracts all under the same membership, all are covered by a single policy. Difference memberships would likely require separate policies to over the points (ask MS about this).

Don't know about transferred points. That would be a question for MS.

Thanks for all the help. Odd when I asked MS they said they have nothing to do with the insurance and to contact the insurance.

 

[VGCgroupie]

No insurance

We would either see if MS can give us a one time exception to move the points back to normal status/bank or we would just rent out the stay last minute. Things like my flights and health are covered by my credit card or just health insurance.

I can't think of a good reason for it. I can't imagine it covers anything more than just the MFs not the true cost of the hotel room to replace but maybe I am wrong.

In the end I have traveled extensively in my life and the only time I ever get it is for a cruise and that is directly related to the potential massive cost of health related issues on a cruise ship.

I could also see trip insurance for a uber expensive trip to Africa or something as well.

I’m in this camp usually, but I have an upcoming stay that is 650 points and I’m getting a bit nervous.

 

[cruisehopeful]

I bought an annual policy for Allianz. I'm assuming that it would cover the maintenance cost of the points if I were to lose the points. Honestly, that was not a concern of mine because I do think I could do a last minute rental if I were truly going to lose my points. My concern was for the cruise in case we had a medical emergency + it'll cover airfare since I usually fly Alaska.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I bought an annual policy for Allianz. I'm assuming that it would cover the maintenance cost of the points if I were to lose the points. Honestly, that was not a concern of mine because I do think I could do a last minute rental if I were truly going to lose my points. My concern was for the cruise in case we had a medical emergency + it'll cover airfare since I usually fly Alaska.

Would be interested to know if it somehow would cover dues. I do have an upcoming cruise in April. I assume it not calendar year just one year from purchase?

 

[Mouseforward]

I’m in this camp usually, but I have an upcoming stay that is 650 points and I’m getting a bit nervous.

Things can happen

When my sister had her son in law pass and had to cancel in the "holding zone" I was able to rent the reservation and at least recover more than just the dues. There is no way I could use a 2br worth of points in holding with no vacation time.

Even if a member could cancel the reservation , bank what they could, and just rent the expiring points with an SSR reservation for $15 a point it would be better than points in holding , or just getting dues from what is IMO overpriced insurance.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Would be interested to know if it somehow would cover dues. I do have an upcoming cruise in April. I assume it not calendar year just one year from purchase?

You choose the start date. I purchased it a few weeks ago and I put start date as August 2. It'll cover 365 days beginning on Aug 2!

 

[davidhr]

I don’t get insurance for DVC stays. I use my credit cards insurance for flights and things like that, but I’m ok with absorbing the risk of the DVC points.

 

[sethschroeder]

I’m in this camp usually, but I have an upcoming stay that is 650 points and I’m getting a bit nervous.

We just had a 719 point stay this summer. I can understand some nervousness from it.

I would verify if you do get insurance will it work since you already booked the stay.

just rent the expiring points with an SSR reservation for $15 a point

Ya unless the insurance covers replacement cost (ie the cash price of your DVC room) then getting $15/point actually is a better return than what the insurance will pay out.

The one downside I can see though is if something happens to me then others would be lost at how to do everything. That being said I talk about DIS enough that my wife likely would know to come here and ask what to do and someone would help.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Things can happen

When my sister had her son in law pass and had to cancel in the "holding zone" I was able to rent the reservation and at least recover more than just the dues. There is no way I could use a 2br worth of points in holding with no vacation time.

Even if a member could cancel the reservation , bank what they could, and just rent the expiring points with an SSR reservation for $15 a point it would be better than points in holding , or just getting dues from what is IMO overpriced insurance.

We just had a 719 point stay this summer. I can understand some nervousness from it.

I would verify if you do get insurance will it work since you already booked the stay.




Ya unless the insurance covers replacement cost (ie the cash price of your DVC room) then getting $15/point actually is a better return than what the insurance will pay out.

The one downside I can see though is if something happens to me then others would be lost at how to do everything. That being said I talk about DIS enough that my wife likely would know to come here and ask what to do and someone would help.

I was thinking about if something happened with our flight. But I guess I wasn’t really thinking about holding so the most I would lose is 1 nights worth of points the rest would go to holding and I could use them to normally book something else.

 

[Mouseforward]

The one downside I can see though is if something happens to me then others would be lost at how to do everything.

I am going to guess that the DVC points would be the least of your family's concern in that case.

 

[Steelers0854]

I bought an annual policy for Allianz. I'm assuming that it would cover the maintenance cost of the points if I were to lose the points. Honestly, that was not a concern of mine because I do think I could do a last minute rental if I were truly going to lose my points. My concern was for the cruise in case we had a medical emergency + it'll cover airfare since I usually fly Alaska.

It does not, we have the same policy (or what I'm assuming is the same plan) and I called and asked and they don’t cover Timeshares in the plan.

 

[PolyRob]

The Travelex DVC plan covers much more than dues on points if you can't go. It also covers things like trip delays, baggage delays, and even damage to the DVC unit.

I know you also have multiple premium cards with insurance, but this only requires you to be staying on your points. The credit cards require you to charge part of your flight and this can also supplement if you hit the cap on some cards like CSR which is $100 per day up to five days for baggage delay.

For the price I think it's worth the peace of mind. As @erionm mentioned you need it for all the UYs if you banked and borrowed for a reservation so you may need to purchase up to three plans depending on how your reservation was made.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

It does not, we have the same policy (or what I'm assuming is the same plan) and I called and asked and they don’t cover Timeshares in the plan.

Curious about this annual plan— we travel a lot but things rarely go wrong/get cancelled (she says, jinxing herself). If we have $50k of trips for a year do we need a policy that covers $50k or can we just pick a lower threshold and be capped at that amount if we ever need to use it?

 

[condorthb]

I just purchased it through DVC. Last time I bought it (2024) I paid $99.
This time it was $121. Ouch, almost a 25% increase.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

Curious about this annual plan— we travel a lot but things rarely go wrong/get cancelled (she says, jinxing herself). If we have $50k of trips for a year do we need a policy that covers $50k or can we just pick a lower threshold and be capped at that amount if we ever need to use it?

We have an Allianz annual plan. Have used them for many years, and were pleased with the smooth process for handling the one claim that we filed. The base policy limit for trip cancellation/trip interruption is $5000 with options to increase that to either $10K or $15K at extra cost. I have never thought about the annual total for all our trips when deciding on the policy limit. In practice, I consider the most expensive trip we have planned during the policy period and pay the upgrade to cover that. Some years, we only need the $10K limit, others we have needed the $15K level.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

We have an Allianz annual plan. Have used them for many years, and were pleased with the smooth process for handling the one claim that we filed. The base policy limit for trip cancellation/trip interruption is $5000 with options to increase that to either $10K or $15K at extra cost. I have never thought about the annual total for all our trips when deciding on the policy limit. In practice, I consider the most expensive trip we have planned during the policy period and pay the upgrade to cover that. Some years, we only need the $10K limit, others we have needed the $15K level.

Thank you! I've always wondered, say I am planning a trip to WDW with a cruise-- if the total cost is 15k, but only the non-refundable cruise portion is $10k, can you just set the option to the $10k limit? Like is there any penalty for undervaluing the total cost of your trip other than capping what you can get paid back?

 

[dwg]

We have an Allianz annual plan. Have used them for many years, and were pleased with the smooth process for handling the one claim that we filed. The base policy limit for trip cancellation/trip interruption is $5000 with options to increase that to either $10K or $15K at extra cost. I have never thought about the annual total for all our trips when deciding on the policy limit. In practice, I consider the most expensive trip we have planned during the policy period and pay the upgrade to cover that. Some years, we only need the $10K limit, others we have needed the $15K level.

Just trying to understand correctly. I am not aware if third party insurance will cover the cost of a DVC stay on point. Was the trip that you made a claim for a DVC stay on points? if, so did Allianz reimburse you in any way for the cost of the room or is the DVC insurance the only way to recoup some of the costs of a DVC room when staying on points.