Press Releases

Travel Insured Urges Insurance for Trips Paid with Tax Refunds

by John Stone | Apr 11, 2010

East Hartford, CT, April 12, 2010 – April can be a dreaded time of year for taxpayers as filing deadline approaches, but the season has a silver lining for many aspiring travelers who carefully plan a vacation purchase with their IRS tax refund. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced on April 2, 2010 that refunds are increasing based on its current tax refund statistics through March 26.

IRS reported that 66,587,000 taxpayers who filed thus far will receive an average $2,978 tax refund this year, an increase of 9.5% from the average $2,719 received last year. Additionally, the $204.2 billion in total tax refunds so far this year is up 3.9% from the cumulative $196.5 billion in tax refunds verified through March in 2009.

Travel Insured International, the leading independently-owned travel insurance provider, urges taxpayers electing to use their refunds to help pay for a 2010 vacation to protect their tax-return vacation investment with Travel Insurance. Travel Insured wants to raise taxpayer awareness that travel should be a rewarding, rejuvenating experience, but it will be a depressing one when a taxpayer blows an income tax refund by being forced to cancel a vacation for which they failed to obtain trip insurance coverage.

The popular online travel forum TripAdvisor.com, which attracts almost 45 million monthly consumer viewers according to comScore Media Metrix web traffic ratings, published results from its 2009 tax refund survey. TripAdvisor asked 1,710 readers: “Will you use any portion of your 2009 tax return for travel this year?” The answers were 46% “Yes” and 54% “No.”

Tax Refund Scam Advisory

Travelers awaiting their income tax refund before booking a trip can take a key first step by checking the Internal Revenue Service web site for helpful advice. Taxpayers click on “Where’s the refund?” to go to a status tool page for making a simple inquiry about their recently submitted return and its tax refund.

Be sure to check the “don’t fall for scams” IRS advisory which notes the following:

  • IRS never initiates contact with taxpayers by Email.
  • Do not reply to Emails from anyone claiming to be IRS or asking for tax info.
  • Report any such Emails to the government link in the IRS site.
  • Study the enclosed examples of phony IRS emails to learn to avoid scams.

Taxpayers protecting their vacation plans following tax season should include Trip Cancellation / Trip Interruption coverage, a key component of each plan from the Worldwide Trip Protector product line from Travel Insured International. The coverage will protect the hard-earned nest egg from IRS that helped fund their trip. Worldwide Trip Protector products ensure that if illness, an accident, a job loss, a travel supplier bankruptcy (in most plans), or other covered reason forces policyholders to cancel or cut short their trip.

If the worst happens, insured taxpayers will still see another refund, this time from Travel Insured. They can save their trip for another day when travel conditions are more favorable. A Travel Insured plan provides a cash refund for covered losses unlike many supplier plans that offer a credit toward the same trip, often with a rebooking deadline period within which the credit must be taken. The taxpayer who travels relaxed on a well-earned vacation after tax season is the one who travels insured with Travel Insured.

This website contains highlights of the plans developed by Travel Insured International, which include travel insurance coverages underwritten by United States Fire Insurance Company, Principal Office located in Morristown, New Jersey, under form series T7000 et al, T210 et al and TP-401 et al, and non-insurance Travel Assistance Services provided by C&F Services and for WTP Cruise only, AwayCare and Blue Ribbon Bags. The terms of insurance coverages in the plans may vary by jurisdiction and not all insurance coverages are available in all jurisdictions. Insurance coverages in these plans are subject to terms, limitations and exclusions including an exclusion for pre-existing medical conditions. In most states, your travel retailer is not a licensed insurance producer/agent, and is not qualified or authorized to answer technical questions about the terms, benefits, exclusions and conditions of the insurance offered or to evaluate the adequacy of your existing insurance coverage. Your travel retailer may be compensated for the purchase of a plan and may provide general information about the plans offered, including a description of the coverage and price. The purchase of travel insurance is not required in order to purchase any other product or service from your travel retailer. CA DOI toll free number is 800-927-4357. The cost of your plan is for the entire plan, which consists of both insurance and non-insurance components. Individuals looking to obtain additional information regarding the features and pricing of each travel plan component, please contact Travel Insured International. P.O. Box 6503, Glastonbury, CT 06033; 855-752-8303; [email protected]; California license #0I13223. While Travel Insured International markets the travel insurance in these plans on behalf of USF, non-insurance components of the plans were added to the plans by Travel Insured and Travel Insured does not receive compensation from USF for providing the non-insurance components of the plans.