VacationGuard Insurance [MVC Insider 10/13]

[Superchief]

Fasttr,
Thanks for doing all of the legwork for something that many of us are interested in. Hopefully, he will be receptive to your feedback because I don't see how many MVC owners will sign up when there are so many questions. These are my thoughts regarding what would be a reasonable expectation for coverage:

1. All travel and trip related expenses should be covered in the year the trip is taken, regardless of the source of the MF/Points.
2. The simplest solution for everyone is that the insurance would cover the related MF for the year that travel occurs, regardless of when the MF fees were paid. The DC program really makes it virtually impossible to 'enforce' the when paid approach.
3. If they insist that the policy only covers the MF fees in the year they are incurred (rather than when travel occurs), will they actually pay for MF for an exchange from a 2014 week to a trip in 2016 (assuming the person purchased the policy in all three years.)
4. If there is any truth to needing to purchase the policy when the reservations are booked, they will not get many takers in 2014 since many of us have already booked our trips for the year.

I purchased the MVC partner policy a few years ago and had to file a claim. The trip included an II exchange using a week from the previous year. I think it was with TravelGuard, but can't recall. I had no problem having my MF reimbursed even though it was an exchange week.

Good luck with your call. We all look forward to learning more. This rollout reminds me of the recent healthcare fiasco, since nobobdy appears to know anything about the policy they are trying to sell. There is never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.

 

[Fasttr]

This rollout reminds me of the recent healthcare fiasco, since nobobdy appears to know anything about the policy they are trying to sell. There is never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.

How true!!!

I've added your comments/questions to the pile.

 

[jimf41]

I don't have any questions to add as yet. I haven't spoken with an agent either at MVCI or TG. It seems that the agents are causing the questions. The policy itself is quite clear IMO as far as it relates to MVCI stays, they are all covered if you reserve your week or use DC points.

Folks that trade in from another chain, use II with their MVCI week, XYZ's or getaways might have an issue to be settled.

 

[m61376]

What I'd like to know is even IF they only cover the MF's for an exchanged week (assuming it is an exchange in II and a Marriott to Marriott exchange) if you were insured the year the MF's were paid for the week, will the current year policy provide the other coverage for the trip (air, medical, etc.)? For ex.- if I banked a week in 2013, but use an exchange in 2014, will I have full coverage under my 2014 policy, or will I at least have coverage except for the MF's, since they were paid in 2013?

Also- if I exchange my Marriott week for another week (Starwood, Royals, etc.) would that trip be covered if it was during the use year and the exchange emanated from a Marriott week?

 

[Fasttr]

Notes from call with Brian Rock, National Director, VacationGuard, Inc.

First, let me say that Brian was very pleasant to talk to, called me right on time, and certainly took all the time that I needed to get my questions answered (55 minutes total) and was genuinely concerned to make sure that I was comfortable with my understanding of the plan before we wrapped up the call. Kudo’s to him for that. Brian has been with VacationGuard since 2004 and is currently responsible for daily operations and sales for VacationGuard.

As for obtaining information in writing, the Description of Coverage for plan SVTP 1013 is the best there is according to Brian. It was posted by me earlier, compliments of jimf41, but here is the LINK again for easy reference. The additional information specific to certain states (that jimf41 is waiting to get) merely contains additional restrictions that may be imposed by certain states due to their individual insurance laws and regulations. Therefore the SVTP 1013 summary is the best document to explain the full plan and coverages. That said, as Brian pointed out, timeshare vacation ownership is very specialized and as such, they cannot cover every possible nuance in a summary of coverage and he fully admits that the summary is lacking in any clarity regarding Use Year, which is why he took the time to answer my questions, and as I said earlier, I did find him very upfront and open. That said, in the end, all of his clarifications are merely verbal representations, so take that for what it’s worth.

He did indicate that they would be providing additional clarifying information in the November MVC Insider to hopefully further clarify some of these questions.

To keep this post to a reasonable length, I have attached my notes from the call on the PDF below….

 

[jimf41]

Great job FASTTR! Thanks to your persistence I now fully understand this use year issue. Now I just have to decide whether or not to purchase a 2013 policy for another $119. For me it's only a one time thing after that my usage will be covered by buying the annual plan

Again, good work FASTRR.

 

[bluestar4]

Thanks for the complete notes. So here's my next Marriott booking:

In Dec 2013, I will borrow points from the 2016 Use Year to book Maui in Jan 2015.

Based on my understanding of your conversation, I would have to call Vacation Guard and buy coverage for the 2016 use year. Correct?

How would buying 2016 coverage in Dec 2013 affect pre-existing conditions?

 

[Fasttr]

Thanks for the complete notes. So here's my next Marriott booking:

In Dec 2013, I will borrow points from the 2016 Use Year to book Maui in Jan 2015.

Based on my understanding of your conversation, I would have to call Vacation Guard and buy coverage for the 2016 use year. Correct?

How would buying 2016 coverage in Dec 2013 affect pre-existing conditions?

You are correct based on my understanding. I also believe, based on what I was told, that you could actually wait and buy the 2016 Use Year coverage sometime in 2014 as long as it was before your trip in 2015. I was told that you don't need to buy it at the same time as your booking of the 2015 week.

As for pre-existing conditions, we did not specifically discuss how your situation would be handled (using borrowed points from a future use year, in that the policy was purchased long before the MF's would be paid), but seemingly, they would either apply the 60 day lookback from the date you purchased the policy, or they would be very generous and exactly follow the wording in the summary description which says as long as you buy the policy before 3 days after paying those 2016 MF's (which you would have), they would waive it. Sorry, I don't have a specific for you on that one. I will send Brian a follow up email in a day or so to clarify any specifics I don't have a clear answer for, like this one, and report back.

 

[Superchief]

Fastrr,
This is very helpful information. Just to clarify, it appears that DC points stays that use banked points for the previous year would be convered since they are within the 1 year carryover window. Would II trades for a 2013 week traded to a 2014 week week be covered with a 2014 policy?

One other clarification, if the MF fees aren't covered in the insured year, does that also eliminate the ability to have the other travel expenses covered during that year? Thanks for your help.

 

[Fasttr]

Fastrr,
This is very helpful information. Just to clarify, it appears that DC points stays that use banked points for the previous year would be convered since they are within the 1 year carryover window. Would II trades for a 2013 week traded to a 2014 week week be covered with a 2014 policy?

One other clarification, if the MF fees aren't covered in the insured year, does that also eliminate the ability to have the other travel expenses covered during that year? Thanks for your help.

DC points from 2013 banked and used in 2014 would be covered by a 2013 Use Year policy. Again, you have to insure the base year where the points originated, and then that policy covers you forward until you use the points in a week in 2014 in your example.

Same for II weeks, if your original base week came from 2013, and you traded via II for a week in 2014, as long as you purchased a 2013 Use Year policy, your week in 2014 would be covered.

I am not 100% certain I understand your last question, but in the examples above, as long as you purchased a 2013 Use Year policy, if a covered event happened on your 2014 week (allowing you to recoup MF's, or medical costs, etc), you would be covered even if you did not ever purchase a 2014 policy.

Hope that helps.

 

[Superchief]

.

I am not 100% certain I understand your last question, but in the examples above, as long as you purchased a 2013 Use Year policy, if a covered event happened on your 2014 week (allowing you to recoup MF's, or medical costs, etc), you would be covered even if you did not ever purchase a 2014 policy.

Hope that helps.

Let me clarify: If I had a policy for 2014 but not for 2013, would the other (non MF) travel expenses for a trip in 2014 be covered if I was using an II exchange from a 2013 week?

Are they offering the insurance for 2013, since it appears I would need coverage for both years to cover my exchanges and banked DC points. Thanks again. They should pay you a commission for helping all of us.

 

[Bunk]

Fasstr:

Thank you for taking the time to obtain all this information and share it with us.

You wrote: "Coverage for exchanges is provided even if you exchange into a non-Marriott property, as the coverage is ultimately linked back to the value of your Marriott MF’s, Dues, etc associated with your Use Year week."

Can you confirm whether the coverage extends to all timeshares we own, including non-Marriott timeshares.

 

[Fasttr]

Let me clarify: If I had a policy for 2014 but not for 2013, would the other (non MF) travel expenses for a trip in 2014 be covered if I was using an II exchange from a 2013 week?

Are they offering the insurance for 2013, since it appears I would need coverage for both years to cover my exchanges and banked DC points. Thanks again. They should pay you a commission for helping all of us.

First part of question = No. ALL coverage is tied back to the original Use Year week or points....so in your example, you would only have coverage for that 2014 usage (originating from a 2013 week/points) if you had purchased the 2013 Use Year plan. The coverage for medical, etc is still tied back to the originating Use Year purchased.

Yes, you can purchase 2013 now, I believe he said only through the end of this year.

 

[Fasttr]

Can you confirm whether the coverage extends to all timeshares we own, including non-Marriott timeshares.

Excellent question....I'll ask and report back.

 

[eyeball]

VacationGuard Insurance

This is the email conversation I had with VacationGuard, I believe this somewhat clarifies the insurance issues. It appears that we will need continuous annual policies to insure coverage. Bill Dyke

Question emailed to VacationGuard

"Please verify that the new VacationGuard policy for Marriott Timeshare owners covers me for the 2014 calendar year even if my several reservations for 2014 involve Destination Points using 2013, 2014, and
2015 Home Resort exchanges for Destination Points. The 2014 trips include a combination of using my Home Resorts and Marriott Explorer Trips."

Email Reply from VacationGuard

"Your VacationGuard Timeshare Plus plan covers you only for the specific Use-Year points insured. Use-Year is easy to determine as it's for the annual billing use.

If you are intending to cover your upcoming 2014 Use-Year, it will in fact cover MVC/Destination Points used from your 2014 Use-Year. However, you seem to indicate you want to use banked 2013 Use-Year points, and borrowed 2015 Use-Year Points. If you want to protect points in a given use-year, you need to have a plan for that use year as well. In your case, it would seem you would want a plan for all 3 use-years; 2013 (banked), 2014 (current), and 2015 (borrowed). We recommend you contact Marriott Vacation Club to purchase the plans needed.

Thank you for your interest in VacationGuard.


Sincerely,

Kathy Smith
VacationGuard(r)
P: 866.314.9480 l email: Service@VacationGuard.com M-F 8:00AM-5:00PM CST www.vacationguard.com

Please note: All terms, conditions, exclusions and provisions of the plan apply. All benefits will be determined at the time a claim may occur based on the information and documentation submitted."

 

[Fasttr]

eyeball....that is in line with my understanding as well. Nice to have confirmation of the same info from 2 sources at VacationGuard....thanks for posting.

 

[Fasttr]

Can you confirm whether the coverage extends to all timeshares we own, including non-Marriott timeshares.

Bunk....here is Brian's reply to your question....

A great question, but the Marriott plan is priced for protecting your Marriott Vacation Ownership only. If you had other company Timeshares, we do offer Timeshare Plus on the VacationGuard retail site, however, because the “retail” plan can cover more than one timeshare developer ownership under one plan, it’s also $159 for each Use-Year.

Seems to me if you own Marriott and non-Marriott and want to cover them all, it might make sense to pop for the $159 coverage direct from VacationGuard rather than take the $119 Marriott plan.

 

[Fasttr]

In Dec 2013, I will borrow points from the 2016 Use Year to book Maui in Jan 2015.

Based on my understanding of your conversation, I would have to call Vacation Guard and buy coverage for the 2016 use year. Correct?

How would buying 2016 coverage in Dec 2013 affect pre-existing conditions?

bluestar4....I asked Brian your specifics and here was his detailed response.

Remember, only Marriott Associates can purchase protection on a borrowed or banked week for a member. But Associates can only protect up to 2 Use-Years forward. So, it would be a “No” if booked today because one cannot buy VacationGuard that far forward, but it would be “Yes” if booked after 1/1/2014, as the Associate can then access that 2016 Use-Year in their purchase options. It’s still a non-issue though. The example trip is in 2015, still some 15 months out, and therefore you have lots of time to protect that borrowed 2016 Use-Year when eligible. Because vacation ownership is usually planned well in advance, we have a business rule to protect against expected losses:

· On a NEW reservation, meaning nothing booked for travel dates in their system, you can buy up until the day you book the reservation. If you book today, for travel tomorrow, you can buy VacationGuard. We allow this because it is highly unlikely you would be sick and unable to travel if you are in fact paying for a new reservation to travel immediately.

· However, on an EXISTING reservation, that’s been in their system, we stop the plan offer 10 days prior to travel. That’s because as you will note from every example we’ve talked on, you usually had Months to plan the trip, including adding travel insurance. You know you have to plan in advance. But, suddenly, just Days before your travel, you want to add travel insurance. In this last minute window, the odds of something being wrong, or the ability to see hurricane swirling in the atlanic, are indeed high. So, we have a 10 day cut on on EXISTING reservations (but no cut-off on Last Minute bookings/ reservations). This is another reason why in your example above, there is ample opportunity to add VacationGuard on the borrowed 2016 Use-Year time. By buying early, at the START of ones’ Use-Year, you can simply remove the stress of trying to protect your planning and circumstances at the last minute]

I had indicated you could buy furture years by calling VacationGuard, but from his reply, it sounds like you actually have to buy future years by calling MVC, as only they would know if you had borrowed points from that future use year and used them or not.

Regarding the Pre-ex question, here was his response....

I’ll answer it as 2 different questions. Since with Marriott, you don’t have to pre-pay 2016 Dues if borrowing against 2016 time, the Maintenance Fees would not be known until that future Use-Year gets billed, however, the protection would still be there. We just have to wait until the Future Use-Year bill is incurred before we can pay for that portion of the covered loss. Part 2 is about Pre-ex. The plan waives the Pre-existing Medical Conditions Exclusion upon renewals, so if you had a 2013 Use-Year, 2014 Use-Year, the 2015 Use-Year, and now a 2016 Use-Year, the waiver would apply, even if those plans were bought early as part of a current trip booking need. However, if one skipped the 2015 Use-Year plan, there would be a lapse, and the 2016 Use-Year plan would then look for the plan conditions to apply the 60 day look back.

Based on my discussions with him, I interpret the 60 day window in your case to be 60 days prior to purchasing the VacationGuard plan for the 2016 Use Year to cover your 2015 Maui week. That is of course assuming you did not already have coverage for 2013-2015 already in place to allow for a waiver of the pre-ex.

 

[Fasttr]

Brian at VacationGuard also provided me with a very detailed explanation of pre-existing conditions in general, which I figured I would share in case anybody wants to know.....

Further, you’ll recall from our discussion that “Pre-ex waiver” is badly misunderstood. Most people think it gives coverage for all prior medical conditions, which is just not true.

Pre-existing Condition means an illness, disease, or other condition during the 60 day period immediately prior to your effective date for which you or your Traveling Companion, Domestic Partner, Business Partner or Family Member scheduled or booked to travel with you:

1. received or received a recommendation for a diagnostic test, examination, or medical treatment; or
2. took or received a prescription for drugs or medicine.

Item (2) of this definition does not apply to a condition which is treated or controlled solely through the taking of prescription drugs or medicine and remains treated or controlled without any adjustment or change in the required prescription throughout the 60 day period before coverage is effective under this Policy.

We go on to allow a “waiver” under certain conditions:

The Pre-Existing Condition Exclusion is waived provided you meet the following requirements:

1. the payment for this plan is received within 3 days from the date you paid the initial billing payment for your Maintenance Charges; and
2. you are not disabled from travel at the time you make your plan payment

For purposes of this plan only, if a new plan is purchased without lapse after your initial twelve month plan term is completed, the Pre-Existing Condition Exclusion is waived.

All the waiver does is extend coverage to an illness, disease, or other condition during the 60 day period immediately prior to your plan effective date, which experienced a worsening or deterioration, and resulted in a basis for Trip cancellation. For instance, a broken leg happening 2 days prior to plan purchase is still not covered, as it happened prior to plan purchase. However, a broken leg that developed an infection, which then results in cancellation, could be covered if they had the wavier apply on a Pre-existing Condition Exclusion, because the infection was a “worsening or deterioration” of an existing medical condition within the 60 day look-back window.

 

[bluestar4]

Brian at VacationGuard also provided me with a very detailed explanation of pre-existing conditions in general, which I figured I would share in case anybody wants to know.....

Thanks for the quick and complete answers. Not a simple program but the explanations are very helpful.

 

[tiel]

This is the email conversation I had with VacationGuard, I believe this somewhat clarifies the insurance issues. It appears that we will need continuous annual policies to insure coverage. Bill Dyke

Question emailed to VacationGuard

"Please verify that the new VacationGuard policy for Marriott Timeshare owners covers me for the 2014 calendar year even if my several reservations for 2014 involve Destination Points using 2013, 2014, and
2015 Home Resort exchanges for Destination Points. The 2014 trips include a combination of using my Home Resorts and Marriott Explorer Trips."

Email Reply from VacationGuard

"Your VacationGuard Timeshare Plus plan covers you only for the specific Use-Year points insured. Use-Year is easy to determine as it's for the annual billing use.

If you are intending to cover your upcoming 2014 Use-Year, it will in fact cover MVC/Destination Points used from your 2014 Use-Year. However, you seem to indicate you want to use banked 2013 Use-Year points, and borrowed 2015 Use-Year Points. If you want to protect points in a given use-year, you need to have a plan for that use year as well. In your case, it would seem you would want a plan for all 3 use-years; 2013 (banked), 2014 (current), and 2015 (borrowed). We recommend you contact Marriott Vacation Club to purchase the plans needed.

in this case, where you have points from multiple years used to for a single reservation...if you purchased policies for 2013 and 2014, and failed to purchase one for 2015 for some reason, would you have some kind of prorated coverage for your trip? The reason I ask is, I am fairly forgetful, and might do exactly as mentioned. Assuming there is a proration, would it cross all categories of coverage? Further, do you have to file multiple claims, one/policy? I've never had an occasion to file any claim, so I don't know how it works.

There is another area in which this type of policy based on the "use year" is problematic, at least to me. So long as Marriott continues using VG as the supplier of "its" insurance, maybe all is well. We will all just buy our annual policies at the beginning at the calendar year or when we pay our maintenance fees and all is well. But what if VG were no longer the provider, say in 2015, for example, you buy a policy from the new provider. Would your coverage then be prorated across the 2 providers? Would the "new" provider understand this? In any case, owners would be required to file/manage two separate claims. A bit of a nuisance, but certainly doable, I guess. I have no idea how many times Marriott has changed providers, but it will happen.

I don't know, it just seems unduly complicated, but it is what it is. We'll be buying it, most likely, but I hope we never have to file a claim!

 

[Fasttr]

in this case, where you have points from multiple years used to for a single reservation...if you purchased policies for 2013 and 2014, and failed to purchase one for 2015 for some reason, would you have some kind of prorated coverage for your trip? The reason I ask is, I am fairly forgetful, and might do exactly as mentioned. Assuming there is a proration, would it cross all categories of coverage? Further, do you have to file multiple claims, one/policy? I've never had an occasion to file any claim, so I don't know how it works.

There is another area in which this type of policy based on the "use year" is problematic, at least to me. So long as Marriott continues using VG as the supplier of "its" insurance, maybe all is well. We will all just buy our annual policies at the beginning at the calendar year or when we pay our maintenance fees and all is well. But what if VG were no longer the provider, say in 2015, for example, you buy a policy from the new provider. Would your coverage then be prorated across the 2 providers? Would the "new" provider understand this? In any case, owners would be required to file/manage two separate claims. A bit of a nuisance, but certainly doable, I guess. I have no idea how many times Marriott has changed providers, but it will happen.

I don't know, it just seems unduly complicated, but it is what it is. We'll be buying it, most likely, but I hope we never have to file a claim!

Per my discussions with VacationGuard, if for example you booked a week in 2014 using a combination of points from 2013, 2014 and 2015, and using your example only purchased the insurance for 2013 and 2014, your MF's associated with the points you used from 2013 and 2014 to book that week would be covered, but not the MF's associated with the 2015 points you used as you never insured that year's batch of points. As for the ancillary coverages (medical, etc), based on my conversations, they would cover you for the week under your 2013 and/or 2014 policy, so you would still have coverage for that stuff even if you failed to insure 2015.

I am not sure about your different insurance company question. I am assuming any change in Marriott carriers would be going from a VacationGuard annual plan to another company's annual plan, so its unlikely you would be covering the same Use Year with both plans, one would end and the next would pick up (assuming they had similar Use Year rules). I guess each would just insure based on what you had covered.

For making it as simple as possible, I think you nailed it with this statement....

We will all just buy our annual policies at the beginning at the calendar year or when we pay our maintenance fees and all is well.

 

[jeff76543]

I didn't see reference here to whether DC members who live outside the U.S.A. (and maybe Canada) can purchase the insurance through Marriott DC. I seem to recall that there were issues relating to Europeans using DC points for airline ticket purchases and I also see that the insurance policies are slightly different depending on the U.S. state of residence. On the other hand, I don't remember seeing an explicit reference that non-U.S.A. residents cannot purchase the insurance.

Any information about purchase by non-U.S.A. residents would be appreciated.

 

[Fasttr]

I didn't see reference here to whether DC members who live outside the U.S.A. (and maybe Canada) can purchase the insurance through Marriott DC. I seem to recall that there were issues relating to Europeans using DC points for airline ticket purchases and I also see that the insurance policies are slightly different depending on the U.S. state of residence. On the other hand, I don't remember seeing an explicit reference that non-U.S.A. residents cannot purchase the insurance.

Any information about purchase by non-U.S.A. residents would be appreciated.

When you click through to VacationGuard from the My-VacationClub.com site, there is a question for "Are you a US Citizen" and when you click "No", it removes the need to enter an address, but you have a pull down menu with Countries listed and it appears it will let you continue. Based on that, one would assume non-US residents could purchase the coverage....but I shot Brian an email just to see if there were any special issues that non-US residents need to know, and will report back when I hear back from him.

 

[jeff76543]

Thank you Fasttr.

You really should get a commission from VacationGuard...