Travel Insurance Horror Story

Karen Triggiani notified me of this:

Contracts don't have to be written in another language to be meaningless, of course. A few weeks ago, I heard from reader Ilana Goldman, whose travel insurance claim had been denied. Under the terms of her agreement, she had to take her case to arbitration. But the arbitration requirement seems like nothing more than a stalling tactic by the insurance company. The arbitrator refused to accept her case because "the business in this matter has not complied with our requests in the past." I suggested that Goldman sue the insurance company. The matter has yet to be resolved.

And what of Woods? Deutsche Bahn denied her request to drop the matter. In an e-mail, a representative explained, to absolutely no one's surprise, that rules are rules.

"As we did not receive a notice of cancellation in time, the BahnCard for the subsequent period of validity was issued," he wrote. "In the meantime the account was turned over to a collection agency since we received neither a response to our reminders nor the payment due."

Next time, Woods may want to just buy a train ticket.