Experience with DiveAssure’s liveaboard rider?

[Dogbowl]

Does anyone have any experience with DiveAssure in general, and it’s liveaboard rider in particular? Has anyone made a claim with them? I guess I’m wondering if they’re legit and will pay out claims.

I did a search on SB and didn’t find anything recent. I already have DAN dive insurance and trust them but I’ll be going on a liveaboard and am interested in liveaboard coverage. I know with DiveAssure, the liveaboard rider must be purchased with dive and travel insurance, and cannot be purchased separately. I know it’ll be totally redundant but would still like to weigh the cost vs benefit of getting it.

 

[outofofficebrb]

I have extensive experience with the policy because I’ve bought it quite a few times (with the Liveaboard Rider) but have not made a claim (thankfully). I have had to call their customer service and they are helpful. I’ve also read a lot of the fine print recently because there have been extensive discussions on Scubaboard about it. In fact, if you do a search for Dive Assure, no doubt my username will be in almost all the recent references.

If you call or email to buy the policy instead of online, you can buy just the travel insurance and Liveaboard rider portions without the accident insurance portion if you already have DAN and don’t need it. It’s not an option to do online, unfortunately.

Long story short, for liveaboards and dive specific travel, it is more encompassing than DAN’s. They are also the only insurance company that I have found that covers liveaboards and diving for certain issues that wouldn’t be covered under other policies in standard trip interruption and cancellations. Think lost diving days due to medical inability to dive, someone getting DCS and having to change or abort dive schedule (lost dives/cancelled trip), broken air compressors, etc. You could argue that the Liveaboard operator may refund or whatever but it is not always guaranteed....i have seen some liveaboards caution to buy insurance because they may not/won’t depending on circumstances.

I could go on and on but if you review their coverage terms, that should help you decide if it’s for you or not. It’s not in legalese and is very easy to access and to read.

 

[outofofficebrb]

I wanted to post an update. I put a deposit down for a liveaboard/trip in October 2019 and as always, I am interested in purchasing dive travel insurance with a liveaboard rider from Dive Assure. I have purchased many policies from them before but this one was a bit different. Unfortunately, Dive Assure's online system does not allow you to purchase coverage this far in advance; they only allow you to purchase coverage for trips up to 18 months in advance. I shared with them that this poses to be a problem because many liveaboard operators publish schedules and accept bookings 2-3 years in advance and even have sailings selling out this far in advance. It is even more crucial because they are the only insurance provider (to my knowledge) that extends specific liveaboard coverage. In order to receive trip coverage for financial default, the fine print stipulates that you must purchase coverage within 14 days of initial trip payment in order to receive that benefit. In addition, trip cancellation is also an issue. That is where the 18 month window poses to be a problem. Airlines in financial trouble are not unheard of - even in Europe. My travels take me back to Indonesia this time and that is always a worry, along with the other companies I am paying money to.

I e-mailed customer service to explain my situation. Their standard response was that I would not receive financial default coverage because it would not be purchased within 14 days of initial trip payment (my first deposit). I replied that I did not think I should be penalized for this because their online system does not allow purchase of it, not because I did not want to purchase it within that time frame. I asked if I could purchase coverage via phone instead. They said that they would look into it and respond in a timely manner. Since I was close to the 14 day window, they said that when approved, either way, it would count as though my policy were purchased within the 14 day window. Communication was excellent and they kept me updated.

I just received an e-mail this morning confirming that they are able to register me for coverage manually. However, they are only able to extend trip cancellation coverage starting at 18 months prior to departure. This would allow me to have coverage for financial default but if I need to cancel my trip between now and the 18 month before departure mark, I would not be covered. Once I am within the 18 month window, trip cancellation coverage would become active. It isn't ideal, but this is a compromise that I am willing to accept. I have excellent credit card coverage for trip cancellation which covers this "hole" but I thought this experience was really interesting and I wanted to share it with others who are considering dive travel insurance/liveaboard riders with Dive Assure. I think if I did not have such good credit card cancellation coverage, this would not have been acceptable. The take home message is if you are purchasing a trip that is more than 18 months from now, you can call or e-mail to have an exception made with caveats.

I hope this helps someone else.

 

[Dogbowl]

@outofofficebrb , thanks for posting this.

I suppose you do not carry DAN insurance, since you buy Dive Assure?

I’m considering whether I should switch over on my next renewal (from DAN to Dive Assure due to the liveaboard rider), but haven’t been convinced of Dive Assure’s reliability. While I’ve heard of many reports of how DAN assisted during an incident, and how they paid for everything, I have not heard of any reports from Dive Assure customers of the same.

Any thoughts?

FWIW, DAN does not offer trip insurance for Canadians, so it really is a hassle piecing together coverage, for trip, dive, liveaboard, general medical coverages. Dive Assure is a one-stop shop for all of that.

 

[outofofficebrb]

@outofofficebrb , thanks for posting this.

I suppose you do not carry DAN insurance, since you buy Dive Assure?

I’m considering whether I should switch over on my next renewal (from DAN to Dive Assure due to the liveaboard rider), but haven’t been convinced of Dive Assure’s reliability. While I’ve heard of many reports of how DAN assisted during an incident, and how they paid for everything, I have not heard of any reports from Dive Assure customers of the same.

Any thoughts?

FWIW, DAN does not offer trip insurance for Canadians, so it really is a hassle piecing together coverage, for trip, dive, liveaboard, general medical coverages. Dive Assure is a one-stop shop for all of that.

Hi, @Dogbowl! There is a very fatal flaw in Dive Assure’s coverage for us in the United States. This includes annual dive accident policies and dive travel policies that include dive accident insurance. There is no dive accident coverage domestically, only when traveling abroad. That is a huge problem for many. I still carry DAN dive accident insurance as a result. Honestly, even if they did offer coverage, I still think DAN is the powerhouse here and wouldn’t have it differently. Since you are in Canada, this would be different. I would double check their coverage for Canada. When buying for US a pop up disclaimed appears.

When purchasing Dive Assure’s dive travel policy online, it automatically includes dive accident coverage with the policy. You can call in and opt to have the dive accident portion removed. It’s a very negligible amount so I just keep it on there. To be fair, I think DAN has a much larger following on this board so it’s no surprise you hear more about DAN claims and experiences than Dive Assure.

My personal preference is DAN annual dive accident coupled with DA dive travel insurance plus liveaboard rider.

 

[Dogbowl]

Hi, @Dogbowl! There is a very fatal flaw in Dive Assure’s coverage for us in the United States. This includes annual dive accident policies and dive travel policies that include dive accident insurance. There is no dive accident coverage domestically, only when traveling abroad. That is a huge problem for many. I still carry DAN dive accident insurance as a result. Honestly, even if they did offer coverage, I still think DAN is the powerhouse here and wouldn’t have it differently. Since you are in Canada, this would be different. I would double check their coverage for Canada. When buying for US a pop up disclaimed appears.

When purchasing Dive Assure’s dive travel policy online, it automatically includes dive accident coverage with the policy. You can call in and opt to have the dive accident portion removed. It’s a very negligible amount so I just keep it on there. To be fair, I think DAN has a much larger following on this board so it’s no surprise you hear more about DAN claims and experiences than Dive Assure.

My personal preference is DAN annual dive accident coupled with DA dive travel insurance plus liveaboard rider.

I see! So you’re doubling up. I might end up doing that too, because I really want to keep DAN.

Thx!

 

[outofofficebrb]

I see! So you’re doubling up. I might end up doing that too, because I really want to keep DAN.

Thx!

Yes. I figured if something happened, it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. When I tried to remove it from the policy once, I was surprised how little the difference was. It wasn’t worth removing given the 5 second cost-benefit analysis in my head. Happy insurance shopping!

 

[RyanT]

@Dogbowl, here's my personal view, (2 psi on this). Irrespective of whether I purchase something else, I always keep my DAN membership. I think it's important to support the organization that helps coordinate chamber visits, especially in this day of declining chamber access. Also, they do offer a lot of great ancillary benefits. For example, I experienced a ruptured eardrum recently (not related to diving). I called DAN and promptly was able to talk with someone about recommendations for returning to diving. The ENT physician I saw had no experience with diving, so the discussion I had with DAN was very helpful.

 

[Dogbowl]

Yes. I figured if something happened, it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. When I tried to remove it from the policy once, I was surprised how little the difference was. It wasn’t worth removing given the 5 second cost-benefit analysis in my head. Happy insurance shopping!

Hehe, thanks! I hate insurance shopping.

@Dogbowl, here's my personal view, (2 psi on this). Irrespective of whether I purchase something else, I always keep my DAN membership. I think it's important to support the organization that helps coordinate chamber visits, especially in this day of declining chamber access. Also, they do offer a lot of great ancillary benefits. For example, I experienced a ruptured eardrum recently (not related to diving). I called DAN and promptly was able to talk with someone about recommendations for returning to diving. The ENT physician I saw had no experience with diving, so the discussion I had with DAN was very helpful.

I agree with this. In the grand scheme of things, that extra several hundred dollars annually is not too much to pay for peace of mind.

 

[outofofficebrb]

Hehe, thanks! I hate insurance shopping.



I agree with this. In the grand scheme of things, that extra several hundred dollars annually is not too much to pay for peace of mind.

I would rather insurance shop than to have to lawyer shop.... It means I’m staying out of trouble!