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Importance of Travel Insurance with Travel Defend · Travel Mug Podcast

• 0:00
  Jenn: Hey everyone.
• 0:00
  Jenn: Welcome back to the Travel Mug Podcast.
• 0:04
  Jenn: This week we're going to chat about something super important.
• 0:08
  Jenn: Don't turn it off when you hear the subject.
• 0:10
  Jenn: It is travel insurance.
• 0:13
  Jenn: We're gonna make travel insurance fun, I promise.
• 0:17
  Jenn: We can't believe that in 2023 after all we've been through that there are people who are still not buying travel insurance and I know these people and So we all think it's never gonna happen to me, but like we literally never know and if you guys scroll back a couple episodes We had Shana on our podcast telling us about her like medical emergency and you think that's never gonna happen to me but like It can literally happen to anyone so, we are not insurance experts.
• 0:51
  Jenn: So we found someone who is so we want to welcome Ben Camille to our show, Ben is America's foremost travel insurance expert and he is the founder and ceo of Travel Defend, America's leading travel insurance brokerage concierge service welcome to the show Ben.
• 1:12
  Ben: Hey, thank you so much for having me
• 1:14
  Jenn: We are excited to chat about travel insurance.
• 1:18
  Ben: We're gonna make this a lot more interesting than people realize.
• 1:21
  Ben: I can assure you of that.
• 1:23
  Ben: I've seen a lot of crazy stuff, so.
• 1:25
  Jenn: I cannot wait to hear the crazy stories.
• 1:28
  Jenn: But first, tell us about Travel Defend.
• 1:31
  Jenn: And how you started the business.
• 1:39
  Ben: Yeah.
• 1:39
  Ben: Let's kinda get into that because it is a really interesting story and I think it kind of bleeds into everything else that happens here at Travel Defend.
• 1:42
  Ben: I ran personally with a business partner.
• 1:44
  Ben: I ran luxury tours for almost 20 years.
• 1:47
  Ben: And when I'm saying luxury tours, I'm talking super high up, you know, many families would come, this is just for a week a hundred, two, three, $400, 000.
• 1:55
  Ben: Okay.
• 1:55
  Ben: So we're talking like the, the highest end luxury that almost exists out there.
• 1:59
  Ben: And COVID obviously really destroyed our business.
• 2:03
  Ben: It hit really hard.
• 2:04
  Ben: It was actually like just started when the governor, we were in California at the time, shut down everything about a week before our event.
• 2:12
  Ben: And we had all that money in the bank, ready to rock.
• 2:15
  Ben: I have family, have kids, all that.
• 2:17
  Ben: And we had to basically give everyone their money back.
• 2:19
  Ben: And it was pretty brutal.
• 2:21
  Ben: And we didn't make money for a couple of years, two, three years.
• 2:25
  Ben: And so that was a lot of stress kind of going on with that.
• 2:28
  Ben: That's a whole podcast for a different time.
• 2:31
  Ben: Anyway, so once things started coming back, we realized just internally, we said, no one is going to book our tour without travel insurance because there's just way too much money on the line.
• 2:41
  Ben: People are going to, are already freaked out to book this.
• 2:44
  Ben: And so as is my way.
• 2:47
  Ben: I just, I mean, you know, I got really, really hyper focused.
• 2:50
  Ben: I said, well, if this is for my clients, I really better figure this out.
• 2:53
  Ben: Cause again, this is super luxury market.
• 2:55
  Ben: And I just started delving into that world.
• 2:58
  Ben: And I realized that my brain really worked well with understanding travel insurance, because it can be very complicated.
• 3:05
  Ben: Like at my own events, you know, and part of the event is we do super high end dining.
• 3:09
  Ben: I would walk into the kitchens, see the chefs.
• 3:12
  Ben: I don't know what the hell's going on.
• 3:13
  Ben: Okay.
• 3:13
  Ben: Like that, my brain does not understand 600 people and food service, and it just I've been doing almost 20 years.
• 3:20
  Ben: I never could get it.
• 3:22
  Ben: And something about travel insurance.
• 3:23
  Ben: Just I don't know, my brain worked and I understood it.
• 3:26
  Ben: And I started helping our own clients who are going coming to our tours.
• 3:30
  Ben: And then I realized that all the other companies in our niche have the same problem.
• 3:35
  Ben: Nobody was going to book them either without knowing.
• 3:37
  Ben: And I started a company called Travel Defend, and I said, send all your people to us and we will help them and make sure they're protected in real life.
• 3:44
  Ben: And we made a lot of connections at the insurance company and started to realize, like, how do we actually get people paid?
• 3:49
  Ben: How do we actually, like, I was really delving into this in a very deep way.
• 3:53
  Ben: I reached out to a lot of these people.
• 3:54
  Ben: I met with them.
• 3:55
  Ben: I had dinner with them.
• 3:56
  Ben: I went to all their conferences.
• 3:57
  Ben: Like, I really delved very deeply into this.
• 3:59
  Ben: And then when that worked so well, and everyone was loving the service because people really have a lot of questions.
• 4:05
  Ben: They want to know, you know, what policy is going to protect me.
• 4:08
  Ben: What are the exclusions?
• 4:09
  Ben: What happens medically?
• 4:10
  Ben: Like people really know nothing.
• 4:12
  Ben: The ignorance that's out there with travel insurance is, is shocking.
• 4:15
  Ben: I mean, no one understands anything about it.
• 4:17
  Ben: And they're buying random stuff that of course will never help them, but they don't even know what they're buying.
• 4:22
  Ben: And so after that point, we started really going deeper into tour operators, travel agents end users.
• 4:29
  Ben: And at this point, I've actually stopped doing all the luxury tours and our company has pivoted.
• 4:34
  Ben: All we do is travel insurance now.
• 4:36
  Ben: And we work with almost 150 tour operators and travel agents, which is just a drop in the bucket, but it's still.
• 4:44
  Ben: I mean, you know, we have thousands and thousands of clients now and so they know as a travel generator operator, right?
• 4:51
  Ben: They know that they know nothing about travel insurance, and so they want to make sure their clients are protected in real life.
• 4:57
  Ben: They send all their people to us.
• 4:59
  Ben: We, as a concierge service, we answer all their questions.
• 5:01
  Ben: And again, we have access to every policy in North America.
• 5:05
  Ben: So it's not like we only have one option.
• 5:07
  Ben: We have every option.
• 5:08
  Ben: So we'll talk to the client, figure out what's good for them, do the paperwork for them.
• 5:12
  Ben: And then most importantly, we'll make sure they get paid if they have a problem.
• 5:14
  Ben: And we don't charge a penny more than the policy costs.
• 5:17
  Ben: We never add any cost.
• 5:18
  Ben: And so it's really a home run.
• 5:19
  Ben: It's a win win.
• 5:20
  Ben: You know, we have a WhatsApp that's set up 24 hours a day.
• 5:24
  Ben: And so anyone on their trip has any issue, they reach out to our team and our team will guide them, make sure they're prepared, you know, they're medically protected.
• 5:31
  Ben: And we bring at this point millions of dollars to the insurance companies and we have tremendous power there.
• 5:37
  Ben: I have the head, you know, head of claims department.
• 5:39
  Ben: We have all their personal cell phone numbers and all that.
• 5:41
  Ben: We're in contact with these people almost daily.
• 5:43
  Ben: And so that's the basic idea of how we started and what Travel Defend does.
• 5:49
  Ben: And I think when people start to realize how much we bring to the table, I'm not doing this as like an ad for us.
• 5:54
  Ben: I mean, the fact is, is that, you know, You can buy it on your own and be faceless.
• 5:58
  Ben: Nothing.
• 5:59
  Ben: No one knows about you.
• 6:00
  Ben: No one cares about you.
• 6:01
  Ben: You don't even understand what you're doing.
• 6:03
  Ben: Or you work with us for the same price, we'll take care of you.
• 6:05
  Ben: So it's just a win win for everyone really.
• 6:07
  Meggan: Completely agree.
• 6:08
  Meggan: So then talk to us sort of getting a little bit deeper into that.
• 6:12
  Meggan: Talk to people, I guess, listening about the importance of actually buying the travel insurance.
• 6:18
  Meggan: Like, do you recommend people do it for every single trip?
• 6:21
  Meggan: Like, talk to us about why they should have it.
• 6:25
  Ben: Well, number one, travel insurance can be very cheap.
• 6:27
  Ben: Okay.
• 6:28
  Ben: If you're not going on a super expensive trip and you're, you know, as you get older, the prices go up.
• 6:33
  Ben: Okay.
• 6:33
  Ben: That's how the computers are built, but if even if you're older and the, and you're going on a very cheap trip where you don't want to protect the cost of the trip and you just want medical, this is very cheap.
• 6:44
  Ben: Okay.
• 6:44
  Ben: You're talking in most cases, $100-$200.
• 6:47
  Ben: So we're not talking about big money, certainly just as a bare minimum, to be medically protected.
• 6:54
  Ben: I mean all day.
• 6:55
  Ben: That's why I said I have crazy stories because our whatsapp is available 24 hours I mean just last week in Egypt, we had a man that had a stroke, 81 year old and he needed to be medically evacuated back to America, you know, we had a man, last week also in Mexico who had a diving accident.
• 7:10
  Ben: He had a collapsed lung.
• 7:11
  Ben: I mean we really see a lot of sickness and hospitals and cancellations and luggage issues and airline issues and I mean it's just all day long.
• 7:21
  Ben: So I'm saying why, you know, wouldn't you protect yourself medically?
• 7:25
  Ben: I mean, I'm not, I'm only 42 years old, but when I was 19, I went to Panama and I got bit by like this weird bug and my blood got infected and I was in the hospital for five days.
• 7:35
  Ben: Okay.
• 7:36
  Ben: So, and I don't even remember what happened with the bill.
• 7:39
  Ben: Cause I didn't even know about travel insurance at the time, but I remember getting a big bill and I remember it wasn't good.
• 7:44
  Ben: But the point is like, why wouldn't you spend $100 and make sure, you know, you're medically protected because this can be a life changing, you know, scenario.
• 7:54
  Ben: So yeah, that's the basic idea.
• 7:57
  Meggan: And before we move on to the next question, I did just want to clarify.
• 7:59
  Meggan: So obviously your company is in the U.
• 8:01
  Meggan: S.
• 8:02
  Meggan: Do you service only U.
• 8:03
  Meggan: S.
• 8:03
  Meggan: citizens?
• 8:04
  Ben: No, we do Canada as well.
• 8:06
  Ben: We do all of North America.
• 8:07
  Meggan: Excellent, good to know.
• 8:09
  Jenn: That's good news for us, Meggan.
• 8:12
  Meggan: It is.
• 8:13
  Ben: Yeah, the only place in Canada that we can't do is Quebec.
• 8:17
  Ben: Quebec has, obviously, right?
• 8:18
  Jenn: Yeah, they always have their own rules.
• 8:20
  Ben: Anyway, no one on our team speaks French, so it's fine.
• 8:22
  Ben: But, yeah, there's always different rules there, and there's, there's tremendous regulation there, and they don't allow, they don't allow it.
• 8:29
  Ben: So, besides for Quebec, we can handle anyone in Canada.
• 8:32
  Meggan: Excellent.
• 8:33
  Jenn: I wanted to ask when you suggest people Like when do you suggest they buy travel insurance, only because I have a friend who recently went on a a cruise like just two weeks ago and she just posted on facebook like nothing like buying travel insurance while you're driving to the airport and i'm like that's an interesting choice, so and I know for myself I have a trip booked in February which is just Just about six months or just under six months from now that I haven't bought travel insurance for yet.
• 9:04
  Jenn: So I'm like when should I buy it like immediately after I book or like can you wait until you're driving until the airport?
• 9:12
  Ben: Well, there's gonna be certain and again, I'm just talking, you know holistically because every company has little differing rules and things like that.
• 9:19
  Ben: But generally prices will go up as you keep getting closer to your trip.
• 9:24
  Ben: Okay, that's the way the computers are all built like that because they know statistically when people buy travel insurance within a few days of their trip, I'm not saying your friend that did that obviously, but statistically people think in their mind or they know.
• 9:36
  Ben: Oh, there's a problem I better buy travel insurance And so they built in the price to go up as you keep getting closer to your trip.
• 9:44
  Ben: So that is a fact that maybe you know, if you're six months out, it will be cheaper now than in, you know, if you wait three months, it probably the price will go up.
• 9:51
  Ben: So that's a factor.
• 9:53
  Ben: The other factor is once you've put a deposit down on your trip, you have with most policies, 21 days to buy your travel insurance or pre existing conditions are not covered anymore.
• 10:03
  Ben: So if you have any sort of medical, medical lingering issue.
• 10:08
  Ben: They may not cover.
• 10:09
  Ben: You know, Canada is much more strict than America in regards to that rule.
• 10:13
  Ben: Some policies will require you to show medical records like they can get really crazy.
• 10:17
  Ben: I mean, Canada is crazy.
• 10:18
  Ben: Hate to say it.
• 10:20
  Ben: So I could tell you things generally are easier in America.
• 10:24
  Ben: And the companies typically are cheaper in America.
• 10:27
  Ben: I guess there's more competition in America.
• 10:28
  Ben: So you have that you But yeah, that's the basic idea in terms.
• 10:33
  Ben: So I would recommend if someone, you know, is going on a trip, just buy it because why would you want to pay more?
• 10:38
  Ben: I'm saying that's the basic idea.
• 10:40
  Jenn: Right.
• 10:40
  Jenn: I actually, I didn't realize that the prices went up as you got closer.
• 10:43
  Jenn: I had no idea.
• 10:44
  Jenn: So now I know.
• 10:46
  Ben: It's an algorithm designed to grab you.
• 10:50
  Jenn: It totally makes sense.
• 10:52
  Jenn: I just didn't think of it before.
• 10:54
  Ben: Well, like flights also can work in that way.
• 10:56
  Ben: As you keep getting closer to your flight, a lot of times, you know, the prices will go up.
• 10:59
  Ben: So.
• 11:00
  Jenn: For sure.
• 11:01
  Jenn: So how does buying a policy through TravelDefend work?
• 11:05
  Jenn: Kind of like walk us through the steps on how someone would purchase.
• 11:08
  Ben: Yes.
• 11:09
  Ben: Yeah, so they would.
• 11:10
  Ben: So we have two ways to purchase.
• 11:11
  Ben: One of the ways that I'll get into is currently only available in America right now, but we're building it out for Canada.
• 11:17
  Ben: But we'll talk about the first more common way is that people will actually call us.
• 11:22
  Ben: I know it sounds like wow 1950s or something people actually calling us.
• 11:27
  Ben: But that is the heavy lifting of our business.
• 11:29
  Ben: I mean, we have a lot of staff here, you know, ready to rock and roll, but essentially people will call and they'll say, hey.
• 11:37
  Ben: I'm looking to go here and I'm from the state and this is where I'm going.
• 11:41
  Ben: This is how much money is on the line.
• 11:42
  Ben: This is what's important to me.
• 11:43
  Ben: You know, I have elderly parents.
• 11:45
  Ben: I want to make sure if something happens to them because many policies will not cover that.
• 11:48
  Ben: So we can get very detailed.
• 11:50
  Ben: Our whole team are really experts at, at knowing all this kind of stuff.
• 11:54
  Ben: And you would call us and we would figure out, you know, what the best policy is for you.
• 11:58
  Ben: Primary.
• 11:58
  Ben: That's another thing we should go into primary coverage, not secondary coverage, because that's probably the most important thing there is to know about travel insurance, which most people don't know.
• 12:05
  Ben: So we'll get into that later.
• 12:06
  Ben: But the point is we'll make sure you have the correct policy for your situation.
• 12:11
  Ben: We will do the paperwork for you because I know you love doing paperwork so much that we'll, you know, do the paperwork for you.
• 12:17
  Ben: And then you will get typically again, we'll connect over WhatsApp, which is used by 2 billion people worldwide.
• 12:22
  Ben: So most of our clients have WhatsApp.
• 12:24
  Ben: And you'll get the confirmation of benefits, which is the policy to your email.
• 12:28
  Ben: We could also WhatsApp it to you.
• 12:29
  Ben: And then you know that 24 hours a day, if you need anything, you reach out in that way.
• 12:34
  Ben: And that's the basic idea.
• 12:36
  Ben: If there's a claim, let's say you do have a claim, on your trip, we'll guide you.
• 12:39
  Ben: Typically, you'll make a claim when you return home.
• 12:41
  Ben: And then you will book on our calendar.
• 12:43
  Ben: We will send you a link.
• 12:44
  Ben: You will book a meeting with our claims, team.
• 12:47
  Ben: And it takes about.
• 12:49
  Ben: Maybe 20, 30 minutes and they will go, they will start your claim on your behalf and also go with you line by line exactly what you need to provide to the insurance company.
• 12:58
  Ben: Okay.
• 12:58
  Ben: That's what most people get lost in translation because they don't know what to provide.
• 13:03
  Ben: And a lot of the insurance companies don't even tell you what to provide because they don't want to pay you, right?
• 13:08
  Ben: They want to cause problems for you.
• 13:10
  Ben: And so we don't let them do that.
• 13:11
  Ben: We make sure that our people have perfect, beautiful claims wrapped like a bow.
• 13:16
  Ben: They send it back to us.
• 13:17
  Ben: Our team looks it over.
• 13:18
  Ben: We go to the head of the claims department with it.
• 13:20
  Ben: And we say, Hey buddy, this is one of our clients.
• 13:23
  Ben: I want them to get paid.
• 13:24
  Ben: And I mean, you can look at our Google reviews, but I mean, this is on, this is crazy.
• 13:28
  Ben: What I'm about to tell you.
• 13:30
  Ben: But we had a lady last week who got paid in two days.
• 13:33
  Ben: Okay.
• 13:33
  Ben: Two days.
• 13:34
  Ben: I mean, this is unheard of and no one ever heard of such a thing.
• 13:37
  Ben: We have another man got paid.
• 13:38
  Ben: And this was a whole Switzerland situation where it was a $10, 000 trip.
• 13:43
  Ben: Delta told him, he was in Ohio.
• 13:45
  Ben: This guy Delta told him that they couldn't get him to his destination for three days.
• 13:50
  Ben: Okay.
• 13:50
  Ben: And they said, oh, there's major weather problems.
• 13:52
  Ben: He looks up, it's blue skies.
• 13:54
  Ben: He's like, I don't know what the hell you guys are talking about.
• 13:55
  Ben: There's no weather problems.
• 13:57
  Ben: Point is Delta said that.
• 13:59
  Ben: In the policy that he had, which is in many policies.
• 14:02
  Ben: But basically if that happens he's, he could get all his money back.
• 14:06
  Ben: And he said, look, it's going to affect about 50 percent of my trip.
• 14:09
  Ben: Not interested in going.
• 14:10
  Ben: And and I should really pull up that review and read it to you.
• 14:13
  Ben: Cause it's killer.
• 14:13
  Ben: It's killer.
• 14:15
  Ben: Anyway seven days.
• 14:16
  Ben: Okay.
• 14:16
  Ben: And he got fully paid out and he was literally like, he called me, called our office and he was like freaking out.
• 14:23
  Ben: He's like, this is insane.
• 14:24
  Ben: And when you bring millions of dollars to insurance companies, they know where their bread is buttered and they really take care of you.
• 14:29
  Ben: Whereas when you're on your own, you know, you're nothing.
• 14:32
  Ben: That's just the, you know, harsh reality of it.
• 14:34
  Meggan: Yeah.
• 14:35
  Meggan: I, you know, that's, that's true.
• 14:37
  Jenn: I can imagine, you know, I, thankfully, well, I have submitted a claim, but it was 2020 and it was crazy times, but I can imagine that having someone to basically hold your hand and guide you through this entire thing like how much of a weight that would be off of your mind, rather than trying to figure all this out on your own like that is so stressful and you're so right like so many people's like eyes just like glaze over when you're trying to like read this stuff and it is really
• 15:06
  Ben: and why do I find this stuff fascinating?
• 15:10
  Jenn: We need people like you,
• 15:12
  Ben: but I didn't even know
• 15:14
  Meggan: everybody has a purpose.
• 15:16
  Ben: Okay.
• 15:16
  Ben: I'm going to stop our show for a second.
• 15:18
  Ben: I'm reading this to you.
• 15:18
  Ben: I don't care.
• 15:19
  Ben: Okay.
• 15:19
  Ben: You ready?
• 15:20
  Meggan: Yeah.
• 15:20
  Ben: !This is one of our people that works here.
• 15:22
  Ben: His name is Josh.
• 15:22
  Ben: It says Josh.
• 15:24
  Ben: This is a Google review that I'm reading.
• 15:25
  Ben: "Josh at Travel Defend was beyond amazing.
• 15:27
  Ben: Our trip had to be canceled due to weather delays.
• 15:29
  Ben: And Josh walked us through the process step by step from when we were still talking to the airlines through submitting the claim until reimbursement.
• 15:35
  Ben: I've dealt with insurance before, and it's a long drawn out process.
• 15:38
  Ben: With Josh, we made the claim on Friday afternoon of the long July 4th weekend, had a response on July 5th and payment on July 12th.
• 15:46
  Ben: Unheard of in the industry.
• 15:47
  Ben: Thanks Josh and Travel Defend." That's like a mic drop action, right?
• 15:51
  Meggan: That is, I actually read that review.
• 15:53
  Meggan: I went and I checked you out on Google and I saw that review actually.
• 15:57
  Meggan: So that actually leads very well into my next question in terms of differentiation.
• 16:02
  Meggan: So obviously we know TravelDefend is a brokerage of sorts.
• 16:06
  Meggan: So how is your company different from me going directly to a travel insurance company?
• 16:12
  Meggan: I know that you are, but you know what I'm trying to say.
• 16:15
  Ben: So that's actually a good distinction to note because we're actually not a travel insurance company.
• 16:20
  Ben: All these guys are fighting with each other, right?
• 16:22
  Ben: They're all saying, Oh, I'm better than you.
• 16:24
  Ben: Or I have something better than you are.
• 16:25
  Ben: I have different price than you.
• 16:26
  Ben: We have access to everything.
• 16:28
  Ben: And so we're better than all of them.
• 16:30
  Ben: Right.
• 16:30
  Ben: When you go to travel insurance company, typically, you're going to have one or two options.
• 16:34
  Ben: Now, if you even understand the options in many cases are very limiting.
• 16:39
  Ben: I'll give you an example.
• 16:40
  Ben: And most of my examples are from America.
• 16:41
  Ben: I apologize.
• 16:42
  Ben: Okay.
• 16:43
  Ben: That's where we do the majority of our
• 16:44
  Meggan: Most of our listeners are from America.
• 16:46
  Ben: Okay.
• 16:46
  Ben: Fine.
• 16:47
  Ben: Cause that's where we do the majority of our policies from America.
• 16:49
  Ben: Anyway.
• 16:50
  Ben: Aliance Okay.
• 16:51
  Ben: Or alliance.
• 16:51
  Ben: No one knows how to pronounce it.
• 16:52
  Ben: That is the biggest travel insurance company in America.
• 16:55
  Ben: They're massive.
• 16:56
  Ben: They're whatever billion dollar company.
• 16:58
  Ben: Now, two years ago, they switched all of their policies from primary coverage to secondary coverage.
• 17:04
  Ben: This is what I said.
• 17:04
  Ben: We're going to talk about.
• 17:05
  Ben: Right?
• 17:06
  Ben: And so what does that mean in real life?
• 17:08
  Ben: Right?
• 17:08
  Ben: So primary coverage means from step one, the insurance company is saying that it's their obligation to pay you.
• 17:14
  Ben: Okay.
• 17:15
  Ben: So let's say there's a medical issue or an airline issue.
• 17:18
  Ben: And that sounds like what you buy when you buy, you think they're going to help you.
• 17:22
  Ben: I mean, that just sounds basic, but what got instituted into not two years ago before that, but what Allianz kind of accepted upon themselves is all of their policies, and they hide this by the way, in the fine print, very buried, very deep.
• 17:36
  Ben: All of their policies are secondary coverage now.
• 17:38
  Ben: And secondary coverage means that because they have that written in.
• 17:42
  Ben: They have the right by you buying it.
• 17:44
  Ben: They have the right to point the finger elsewhere and say, yeah, maybe we'll pay you.
• 17:47
  Ben: Maybe someone else should pay you.
• 17:49
  Ben: Why doesn't the airline pay you?
• 17:50
  Ben: Oh, you got, you got sick.
• 17:51
  Ben: Where'd you get sick?
• 17:52
  Ben: You're like, oh, I was at a restaurant.
• 17:53
  Ben: Oh, let this restaurant.
• 17:54
  Ben: Maybe they should pay for your whole trip.
• 17:55
  Ben: Like they will be very blatant and who they will blame, even though they know they'll never pay it.
• 18:01
  Ben: It's really just what they want to do is kick the ball down the field.
• 18:04
  Ben: Right.
• 18:04
  Ben: It's a term that we love called circular paperwork.
• 18:07
  Ben: Okay.
• 18:07
  Ben: They want you just to go in circles forever and hopefully you give up.
• 18:10
  Ben: And then, and when they did this, there's data on this, the payout rates, meaning who has the highest payout rates and who's easiest to pay, who's tough to pay.
• 18:18
  Ben: And Allianz used to be fantastic.
• 18:20
  Ben: We used to use them all the time for our clients.
• 18:22
  Ben: Not anymore.
• 18:22
  Ben: They're impossible now, you know, trying to get paid with them is, is, is hell on earth.
• 18:27
  Ben: And so really to make sure that people are buying a policy with primary coverage.
• 18:32
  Ben: is very, very important.
• 18:33
  Ben: But to answer your question, yeah, I mean, when you're buying on your own, are you extremely knowledgeable about travel insurance?
• 18:40
  Ben: Typically most people are not.
• 18:42
  Ben: I, you know, we speak to people here who we would give them what we suggest as a policy.
• 18:47
  Ben: Okay.
• 18:47
  Ben: And they'll say, but I spoke to my brother and my brother said I should use whatever AIG.
• 18:52
  Ben: And we're like, okay, is your brother a travel insurance expert?
• 18:55
  Ben: And this lady starts laughing.
• 18:57
  Ben: Like maniac laughing.
• 18:58
  Ben: No, he's lives under my mom's basement.
• 19:01
  Ben: I'm like, what is his opinion about travel insurance matters?
• 19:04
  Ben: Like, I don't know.
• 19:05
  Ben: That's what he said.
• 19:05
  Ben: I'm like, okay, listen, most people know nothing about what they're talking about.
• 19:09
  Ben: So when you're buying on your own, it's really, that's the main issue.
• 19:12
  Ben: I think is that people are just very ignorant as to- it's not their fault.
• 19:15
  Ben: It's not like talking down to them.
• 19:17
  Ben: I mean, I'm ignorant about many things I'm not an expert in, but the point is if you don't know, and you go to a travel insurance company, you buy whatever you see Is it actually going to pay you in many cases?
• 19:27
  Ben: No.
• 19:28
  Ben: In certain cases, yes, you could luck out.
• 19:30
  Ben: But in many cases, it's tough.
• 19:31
  Ben: And the industry has gotten tougher.
• 19:33
  Ben: Certainly past covid, they've gotten much tougher because a lot of them got killed.
• 19:38
  Ben: So they make it tough.
• 19:40
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 19:41
  Jenn: Yeah, that makes sense that after COVID, it would be much more difficult after everybody's submitting their.
• 19:46
  Ben: Yeah.
• 19:46
  Ben: And many policies have removed COVID.
• 19:49
  Ben: They don't even want to pay for COVID anymore.
• 19:50
  Ben: So that's also a big problem.
• 19:51
  Ben: But COVID is like coming back.
• 19:53
  Ben: Like in the last month, we've had a, like a bunch of claims for COVID.
• 19:56
  Ben: And it kind of came out of nowhere.
• 19:58
  Ben: And all of a sudden there's a, you know, COVID is kind of happening again.
• 20:02
  Meggan: Yeah.
• 20:03
  Jenn: Yeah, it definitely hasn't gone away despite our hopes and dreams.
• 20:06
  Meggan: Hopes and dreams.
• 20:09
  Ben: Yeah, no, I'm with you on that.
• 20:11
  Ben: But I kind of thought it was kind of dying away.
• 20:13
  Ben: But lately I've just been seeing, if I wasn't in this industry, I don't know that I would, but just in terms of cancellations, you know.
• 20:20
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 20:20
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 20:21
  Jenn: So considering that you do help thousands of clients in real time on their trips.
• 20:28
  Jenn: I know you've shared a couple little stories, but do you have any, like, really crazy stories that you can share with us?
• 20:35
  Ben: Oh man, I'm gonna get, how graphic should I get?
• 20:38
  Ben: We have, we have a lot of broken stuff, so.
• 20:41
  Jenn: Yeah, I bet.
• 20:42
  Ben: One of the worst that I, that I remember was just this lady also in Egypt.
• 20:47
  Ben: Maybe Egypt is dangerous, I don't know.
• 20:49
  Ben: But she was in Egypt, and in an area with all the pyramids and stuff like that, and, you know, the steps there are ancient steps.
• 20:57
  Ben: And so I guess, you know, they're not like super safe or whatever.
• 21:01
  Ben: And the tour was taking them through this area late at night, maybe 10, 11 p.
• 21:05
  Ben: m.
• 21:05
  Ben: And this lady slipped and she slammed her face onto the rocks or onto the steps and her eye socket got shattered.
• 21:15
  Ben: Her nose got broke and her front teeth got smashed right off.
• 21:19
  Ben: And she sent us a picture.
• 21:20
  Ben: Yeah.
• 21:21
  Ben: I'm not going to show you the picture, but I have it.
• 21:23
  Ben: And she got just a massive bill.
• 21:26
  Ben: I mean, a massive bill.
• 21:28
  Ben: I mean, they were doing certain reconstructive stuff and they were doing just everything in the book at least to get her home.
• 21:35
  Ben: And I can't remember exactly, but it was probably.
• 21:39
  Ben: 60 or $70, 000.
• 21:40
  Ben: Something like that.
• 21:41
  Ben: And we got her all fully paid and she wrote us this incredible Google review and Google didn't let it go through.
• 21:46
  Ben: They thought it was like fake or something like that.
• 21:48
  Ben: And many of our Google reviews get stopped because they don't, I don't know.
• 21:52
  Ben: They just, it was like weird algorithm or whatever.
• 21:55
  Ben: But that was, That was like a famous one that I remember that that was really, I mean, she was even trying to talk to us on the phone.
• 22:02
  Ben: She couldn't even talk.
• 22:03
  Ben: It was just really, really ugly, ugly.
• 22:05
  Ben: But the point is, is that, you know, If you would work here for a week and you really see what goes on in the real world, you know, people would have a whole different impression because many people they, you know, I guess it's good, you know, they live their life and I guess things go well and problems never happen.
• 22:22
  Ben: And they're like, Oh, I'll be fine.
• 22:23
  Ben: I'll be fine.
• 22:24
  Ben: And then when, you know, you see the reality of how many people have sicknesses and injuries and cancellations.
• 22:31
  Ben: I mean, literally, I think if anyone, we should do a documentary.
• 22:34
  Ben: Come work here for a week.
• 22:35
  Ben: You see so much crazy stuff going on.
• 22:38
  Ben: It just really opens everyone's eyes, you know?
• 22:40
  Ben: And I think that's kind of the disconnect.
• 22:42
  Ben: I don't care.
• 22:43
  Ben: I mean, it doesn't matter.
• 22:44
  Ben: A hundred, two hundred dollars.
• 22:45
  Ben: Trust me.
• 22:45
  Ben: I don't care.
• 22:46
  Ben: But just for your listeners, for their benefit, like really just, it's not, it's not worth it.
• 22:52
  Ben: It's just not worth it.
• 22:53
  Meggan: No.
• 22:54
  Meggan: And I think it goes back to what you said at the beginning too, Jenn, is, is people really do think that's not going to happen to me.
• 22:59
  Meggan: I'll be fine.
• 23:00
  Meggan: But I'm sure that woman didn't expect to break her face open.
• 23:04
  Meggan: So it's the same, it's the same idea.
• 23:06
  Meggan: Like you really, yes, you might think, Oh, I went on that trip.
• 23:10
  Meggan: I paid for travel insurance and I didn't use it.
• 23:13
  Meggan: But you're lucky, actually.
• 23:14
  Meggan: So having it and then having to use it really will save you a lot of angst obviously money and then really understanding the value of having something to protect you when you're not in your home country.
• 23:27
  Ben: Yeah.
• 23:28
  Ben: Plus there's a lot of other things that if you really know what you're doing, where believe it or not, you can actually make money out of the equation.
• 23:34
  Ben: Like for it doesn't again, it doesn't exist from any policy that I've seen in Canada, but in America and many states, they'll have something called travel inconvenience.
• 23:43
  Ben: Okay, which is another thing you can add on.
• 23:46
  Ben: It's 15 a person typically in most policies.
• 23:49
  Ben: And that's the only one that I see.
• 23:51
  Ben: That I see paying out like crazy.
• 23:53
  Ben: So basically what that means is let's say you have a family.
• 23:55
  Ben: I'll use the ideal scenario, family with, you know, a lot of people in it, four or five, six, seven people.
• 24:01
  Ben: . Not good at math.
• 24:01
  Ben: So I'll have to do the math.
• 24:03
  Ben: Let's say you have seven people in your family.
• 24:04
  Ben: Okay.
• 24:05
  Ben: And part of traveling convenience, there's 22 different things on the list.
• 24:09
  Ben: If any of these things happen, you've got 250 cash per person.
• 24:13
  Ben: And so the, what are you would think that it would be like, they'll come up with the most random inconvenience, like, Oh the.
• 24:19
  Ben: I don't know.
• 24:20
  Ben: You come up like the air conditioner was something that will never happen.
• 24:24
  Ben: The ones that they put in there, some of them are ridiculous, will never happen.
• 24:27
  Ben: But the common ones are flight delay, flight delay.
• 24:31
  Ben: Are you crazy?
• 24:32
  Ben: I'm looking at this.
• 24:33
  Ben: I'm like, you guys are going to give cash for flight delay, flight flight cancellation as well.
• 24:38
  Ben: Flight diversion, tarmac delay, if your credit cards get frauded on your trip, there's a lot that we see that happen to people, the flight delay is like a slam dunk, so I'm going to take out my calculator, hold on, I tell you I'm really bad at math, 7 times 250, okay, this is if you get one flight delay, you get $1, 750, and that policy could have cost you $200.
• 25:00
  Ben: I mean, like my point is I see this stuff all day.
• 25:03
  Ben: If you buy the right thing, you know, by the way, you can get up to three inconveniences.
• 25:07
  Ben: So the most that we saw was a family like this and they had two inconveniences on their trip and they did make, you know, around.
• 25:14
  Ben: $3,000-$4,000 So you can imagine you make three, four G's now again, that's not common.
• 25:20
  Ben: I understand that.
• 25:20
  Ben: But you know, to get flight delay is pretty, who has not gotten flight delay?
• 25:29
  Meggan: You will get, and that's the stuff, you know, like that's the stuff, the experts with your company can tell people about.
• 25:35
  Meggan: So that's what we've been talking about this whole time, but this is also a travel podcast.
• 25:41
  Meggan: So before we let you go we'd love for you to tell us maybe a favorite travel destination you have been so far.
• 25:49
  Meggan: And then somewhere on your list you really want to go, but you've not got there yet.
• 25:53
  Ben: Hmm.
• 25:54
  Ben: That's a good question.
• 25:55
  Ben: So I don't know if you've been there, but I'd like to know what your thoughts are.
• 25:58
  Ben: Have any of you been to Israel?
• 26:01
  Jenn: No.
• 26:02
  Ben: Okay.
• 26:02
  Ben: That, that to me takes the cake.
• 26:04
  Ben: It is just, it is such a different world and such a special thing and, and, you know, it's the really the home of three faiths.
• 26:14
  Ben: You know, you have Judaism, Christianity, and, and Islam, and you really feel regardless of faith.
• 26:20
  Ben: whatever, everyone will tell you the same thing.
• 26:22
  Ben: There's a certain holiness that you feel there that you just will not experience anywhere else.
• 26:28
  Ben: And I've been personally it's, it's, it's such, it's, and there's no way to describe it either.
• 26:33
  Ben: It's like, you really feel in a certain way that.
• 26:36
  Ben: There's just whether I feel like whether you're religious or not.
• 26:39
  Ben: I think everyone has this feeling there.
• 26:41
  Ben: And it's just a certain feeling of of holiness and, and spirituality that I think is very beautiful.
• 26:47
  Ben: And I'm sure that exists, you know, in, you know, the Himalayas and things like that as well, I guess.
• 26:52
  Ben: I don't know.
• 26:52
  Ben: I've never been there.
• 26:54
  Ben: But that was my experience there.
• 26:56
  Ben: And we can, I don't know how deep you want to get into that, but there's a lot to talk about in terms.
• 27:00
  Ben: So I would really highly recommend that you guys go to Israel.
• 27:02
  Ben: I think that you will have like a life changing experience there.
• 27:06
  Ben: And where do I really want to go?
• 27:08
  Ben: The only place that I keep talking and thinking about.
• 27:11
  Ben: I know like our most popular destination when we do travel insurance for these luxury tours is always Africa, the African Safari, those are very, very popular.
• 27:19
  Ben: I mean, that, that and Iceland are, I think now, right now, the hottest places to go.
• 27:24
  Ben: But for me, I don't know.
• 27:25
  Ben: I just always was intrigued by Australia.
• 27:28
  Ben: I love, I don't know.
• 27:29
  Ben: It just, everyone seems so like beautiful looking, like everyone's hot there and everyone sounds cool.
• 27:37
  Ben: Yeah, like everyone sounds cool and it's so chill and I don't know, I just like very attracted to Australia, I feel like, but I've never been there.
• 27:45
  Ben: So that's
• 27:46
  Meggan: on our list as well.
• 27:47
  Jenn: That's on our list.
• 27:48
  Ben: Let me throw the question at you.
• 27:50
  Ben: What's your favorite places?
• 27:53
  Jenn: I think so for me, my favorite place.
• 27:56
  Jenn: Gosh, I always used to say Iceland and it's still up there But I went to Scotland a year and a half ago, and that is really high up there I had a really great experience and I definitely can't wait to go back.
• 28:08
  Jenn: Especially the Isle of Skye and Edinburgh I'm really excited to go back there.
• 28:14
  Ben: I ran a Scotland tour.
• 28:15
  Ben: I ran a, I'll tell you about that So with my company what the only tour we ever did outside of America was a Scotland tour.
• 28:23
  Jenn: Oh, okay.
• 28:23
  Ben: Because we had so many clients asking us
• 28:25
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 28:25
  Ben: To do it.
• 28:26
  Ben: And so I personally, I picked them up at the airport wearing a kilt and people, I guess, like I kind of look like I could be Scottish, I guess, And so at the airport, so many people came up to me asking for directions.
• 28:39
  Ben: And as soon as I would open my mouth, they'd be like, what?
• 28:43
  Ben: And so I really had fun with that.
• 28:45
  Ben: And we were there in August during the military tattoo, you know, the whole festival, the Edinburgh festival.
• 28:50
  Ben: So that's when we did our tour.
• 28:52
  Ben: Yeah.
• 28:52
  Ben: Epic, epic.
• 28:53
  Ben: I love that answer.
• 28:54
  Ben: That's great.
• 28:57
  Meggan: For me, I would have to say Iceland.
• 28:59
  Meggan: That hasn't changed.
• 29:00
  Meggan: I've been quite a few places in Europe and South, et cetera, but we just booked our 2nd trip to go back for next year in June.
• 29:07
  Meggan: Actually, within the last week.
• 29:09
  Meggan: So, yeah, I'd have to say Iceland.
• 29:11
  Meggan: It's a.
• 29:12
  Meggan: It's just pure magic.
• 29:13
  Meggan: I've never been anywhere like it yet in my life.
• 29:16
  Ben: So yeah, I want to go there for sure.
• 29:18
  Ben: For sure.
• 29:19
  Meggan: So thank you so much.
• 29:22
  Meggan: That is it for this week's podcast.
• 29:23
  Meggan: Thank you, Ben, for joining us and sharing this valuable, truly, truly valuable information with our listeners.
• 29:30
  Meggan: Before we let you go, where can people find TravelDefend and more information to sort of check out your services?
• 29:36
  Meggan: What do you recommend in terms of them getting in touch or going online to find out more about you and TravelDefend?
• 29:42
  Ben: Yeah, so just TravelDefend.
• 29:44
  Ben: com, just straight up, there's no hyphens, nothing, no funny business, just TravelDefend.
• 29:50
  Ben: com.
• 29:50
  Ben: Or they can just call 1 800 578 2871, again 1 800 578 2871 and our team is here and ready to help.
• 29:59
  Meggan: Excellent.
• 30:00
  Meggan: And that, of course, will be in the show notes as well.
• 30:03
  Meggan: We'll be sharing some info throughout the couple of weeks after the episode comes out in regards to Travel Defend.
• 30:09
  Meggan: As for us, you can follow the Travel Mug Podcast on Instagram and Facebook and threads at Travel Mug Podcast our website, TravelMugPodcast.
• 30:17
  Meggan: com.
• 30:18
  Meggan: Support the show, of course, through Buy Us a Coffee.
• 30:21
  Meggan: Link is in the show notes or leave us a review on Apple or Spotify.
• 30:24
  Meggan: But until next time, thank you so much for your support as always, and we'll talk to you soon.
• 30:29
  Meggan: Bye.