Foreign Visitors Insurance - Renewal FAQ

A: When you renew the insurance, all the terms and conditions of the plan carry over with respect to the original effective date.

If you were to buy a new policy, if you had any medical conditions in the previous duration (whether you know about it or not), they would be considered a pre-existing condition in the new duration. Also, your deductible, coinsurance etc. would start all over again.

However, if you were to renew it instead, if they were covered in the previous duration, they would continue to be covered in the new duration as well. Therefore, renewing the policy has big advantages.

A: Please refer to the first FAQ on this web page, above. Renewing the insurance has big advantages. You would take a big risk in order to save just $5, even if you think you didn't have any medical conditions in the previous duration. It is simply not worth the trouble. Lets assume you had bought the insurance for 3 months earlier. You want the insurance for another 2 months.

If you were to renew the insurance, and a week later, if you were to fall sick, and if the doctor says that your problem is one month old, you would be covered, because your insurance is 3 months 1 week old.

However, if you were to buy new insurance, and a week later, if you were to fall sick, if the doctor says that your problem is one month old, you would not be covered, because your insurance is only 1 week old, but your problem is 1 week old.

Also, you may not be eligible to repurchase the same plan, based on some conditions, but you may be able to renew.

A: Insurance companies charge you a $5 renewal fee to cover the cost of printing, handling and mailing you the new insurance card, policy wording etc. The insurance company is simply allowing you to pay in installments and if you continue to renew in small increments, the charges of mailing the fulfillment kits again and again add up to a lot and therefore, some fee must be charged.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to waive the $5 renewal fee. This fee is charged by the insurance company, and not us.

A: There is no such concept. Those are two completely different foreign visitors insurance products. You will have to make a new purchase if you want to buy a different product. All the terms and conditions will apply all over again, as if you had never purchased the insurance before.

A: It depends upon the product type, but you can generally update the contact details such as your mailing address, phone number and the email address while renewing the policy.

A: No. If you have purchased the combined policy, you can not renew the insurance just for one person. As the scenario you described is quite common, we advise people to complete a separate applications for each person as there is no difference in premium either way. In fact, we have described this in our purchase FAQ in detail.

A: You must renew the insurance on or before the last date of coverage. There is no grace period.

Please note that in IMG policies, the expiration date is one day after the last date of coverage and there is no coverage on expiration date (and you were not charged for that day, either.) You must renew the BEFORE the expiration date of the policy.

If you would like additional coverage after your insurance has expired, you can do so on this web site.

A: No, if you are buying a new Patriot America policy, all the terms and conditions of the policy will start all over again. Therefore, you will have to again purchase for a minimum of 3 months in order to be able to renew in future.

A: In IMG insurance plans, the expiration date is not included in the coverage duration and you have not been charged for that day either.

E.g., if you have taken the insurance for 3 months effective June 17, 2010, your coverage dates are from June 17, 2010 to September 16, 2010. However, the IMG documents indicate that your expiration date is September 17, 2010. You have not paid for the coverage on September 17, 2010 and you don't have any coverage on September 17, 2010. That is because you can't have the 17th day of the month 4 times in 3 months. In other words, whether they put the expiration date as September 16, 2010 and provide coverage on that date, or you put the expiration date as September 17, 2010 and do NOT provide coverage on that date, in any case, the coverage duration is the same, and is exactly the same for which you have paid.

If you look closely, it in fact, says that your expiration date is September 17, 2010 12:01 AM EST. That means, to be very precise, you have the coverage for 59 seconds on that day. However, practically, you don't have any coverage on that day.