Travel Insurance Policy: put it "on hold" or cancel?

With the credit you are locked in to using them for your next trip you insure. Your needs may change before then so unless the credit also allows you to switch to a different policy which may cover your needs better, that could be a drawback. The time they give you to use the credit is very generous so that is a plus.

Not sure what the pro rata reduction would be. If it is not significant, my choice would be to take the refund. You are then free to choose whichever company and policy fits your needs the best when you travel again.

Mark makes several good points. Couldn't agree more.

Does putting it on hold protect the price?

Take the money. I would ask why pro-rata? You have not and will not file any claim, so I would ask for an explanation as to why you are not getting a 100% refund. We did from Travelex also for a canceled RS tour.

Price "protected", but added trip costs assumed at going rate.

You might look at their new policies to see if they have added exclusions for the virus/pandemics that were not in your original policy. If there is added protection, it might be worth putting the policy on hold to maintain those.

What Alan said. The tour was cancelled, you didn't cancel. You should get 100% back. Take the cash.

I’ll disagree with many and ask the obvious questions: what is the pro rata refund amount? What was the purchase amount? Thus how much are you losing with taking the cash refund?

NOT all insurance plans are the same. Many start running on day 1 thus instant coverage= no full refund. Just because YOUR policy allowed you a full refund Pretrip doesn’t mean that every policy/carrier allows for that option.

So back to the real issue: how much money do you lose with the refund option?

I canceled mine for the remainder of this year.

In March, I had a trip cancelled. The travel insurance company I used had "pandemic" as an exclusion in the fine print, so my policy was useless. I would get as much of my money back as possible.

Whatever choice you decide on, whether it be "on hold" with insurance credit toward a future trip or a "pro rata refund", please let us know how it turned out. I purchased travel insurance through Travel Guard / AIG for a July Rick Steves tour which of course was cancelled. This was the first time I bought a cadillac travel insurance plan based on the good medical coverage and "cancel for any reason" clause. Also RS seems to have a well established track record and trusted relationship with Travel Guard. I asked for a refund from Travel Guard as soon as my tour was officially cancelled. I was forced to accept a voucher for future travel. I was not given the option of a refund, "pro rata" or otherwise. I am not pleased about it but I accept that reality. And yes, I have read my policy which has lots of ambiguous language, but that is another matter.

I would have accepted a refund as long as it was at least 80% of my travel insurance policy costs had they offered that to me. I would like to know how this turned out for the one who started this topic and anyone else's travel insurance related pandemic cancellations.

I just had the same experience with a Travel Guard policy for a Rick Steves tour in September. I was given a credit voucher for "one time use only ... to be redeemed by the original travel agency listed." It has a two year expiration. I certainly hope to be on another RS tour within two years but who knows. I received a full refund from Allianz Insurance for the Delta flights I cancelled for this trip. Delta also refunded every cent of the flights, even though they didn't cancel them, I did. So, all things considered we are in good shape.

We have used Travel Guard for multiple trips over many years and have never filed a claim, so we aren't particularly happy about these terms.

Looking forward to a vaccine so we can travel again!

Thanks to all who replied. I decided on the "on hold" option. Hancock re-issued the policy for a future travel date of Sep 2022, which I can modify when actual dates are known. Other option was refunding $275 premium at ~50%.