The Importance of Mexico Home & Condo Insurance

The Importance of Mexico Home & Condo Insurance

You would be surprised that many new home & condo buyers in Mexico neglect to insure their investment the day they take possession of their most valuable asset in Mexico. When purchasing a home or condo in Mexico Insuring your investment is just as important in Mexico as it is in the United States or Canada. The same exposures and more exist in Mexico as they do in any other part of the world.

Insuring your property in Mexico should be part of your budget when planning to invest in Mexico. Securing the insurance for your home or condo in Mexico is not as difficult as it used to be even 5 years ago. Policies can now be found written in English or at least provided in English as a courtesy translation. Insuring your property will mitigate your out of pocket exposure in the event of an unforeseen loss that causes damage to your home or condo in Mexico.

Purchasing Mexico Home & Condo insurance can be frustrating if you are not working with an experienced insurance agency that is licensed and has the knowledge of this constantly changing marketplace. Most carriers in Mexico provide catastrophic perils such as Hurricane, Tsunami, Flood and Earthquake, just to name a few. These insurance companies that will write catastrophic coverage in Mexico will have different underwriting guidelines and requirements that must be met in order for them to accept coverage.

All Mexico Insurance carriers have different appetites for the type of business they want to underwrite. These are some of the underwriting requirements from various companies.

1) Is your Property Location More or Less than 550 Yards from ANY body of water?

2) Are ALL the openings of your Home or Condo equipped with professionally made Storm Shutters approved by Miami Dade or an accepted Florida Building Code?

3) Is your Property Replacement Value More or Less than $500,000 USD?

When researching what insurance agency to work with that will assist in writing your Mexico Home or Condo Insurance policy, be sure you find an insurance agent that understands the changing Mexico insurance environment, be sure to ask the right questions and most importantly be sure that your insurance agent is asking you all the right questions about your property. If your property is not properly written on the insurance policy and you have a loss then your insurance carrier can deny your claim.

West Coast Mexico Insurance provides a personal approach to data collecting from their clients. They have created an online Mexico Home & Condo insurance application that asks all the right questions, so your property is insured correctly. Mexico home insurance that looks and feels like a US home policy written in English with clear deductible options and competitive pricing.

For most individuals we are talking about their most valuable asset in Mexico, which is why making sure you are Protected from the Unexpected is West Coast Mexico Insurance’s number one Priority.

This article is brought to you by our affiliate West Coast México Insurance 

“Protecting Clients Assets & Health in Mexico since 2004!”

Contact Jason Wagner for more information @ Jason@InsureMeWC.com

Mexico Travel Medical Insurance Protection

Why it is so important to have an accident & illness plan in place in the event of a medical emergency

When traveling or living in Mexico, many people never take the time to consider what will happen in the case of an emergency or a sudden illness. The healthcare coverage that you have in the United States or Canada is often not valid when traveling to other countries.. Before traveling one needs to determine the type of coverage they currently have in place and if they aren’t covered internationally, they need to make sure they get a travel medical insurance that will cover them when in Mexico or a foreign country.

Obtaining travel health insurance protection can be quite inexpensive, especially when compared to having to use your credit card in the case of an illness or injury. When traveling, using a credit card can cause you to pay extremely large amounts for medical care when outside of the United States. Another issue with using a credit card for medical expenses is that if you did not use your card when you originally booked your travel, there is a chance that you won’t be able to use it to obtain medical assistance either.

When looking at International healthcare policies, there are a few things that you really need to make sure will be included in the policy. The first thing you need to make sure you have in place is an accident and illness policy. Be sure that you secure at least $100,000.00 USD of Medical Benefits per person in your family. Most policies will protect up to $1Million depending on age limitations.

In April 2014, a 66 year old women who was in Southern Baja slipped down some stairs and broke her hip. She was rushed to a nearby hospital where an air evacuation was coordinated. The cost of the air evacuation was $62,000.00 USD to California. The travel medical policy she secured with West Coast Insurance Services paid for all the expenses related to this injury. When on vacation or spending long periods of time out of your home country, you never know when an accident such as this could happen, and to be prepared and protect yourself is a must regardless of the amount of time you are away.

You may be walking into your hotel and slip on the sidewalk. A small slip can cause something as catastrophic as breaking your leg or color bone. In any type of accident, you need to make sure that you have adequate health coverage in place to cover you for anything that can possibly happen. Food poising is common when traveling abroad and having insurance protection will safe guard from unexpected expenses.

Some people have lived through virtual travel nightmares that were caused by accidents. A travel agent who was used to making sure her clients were told extensively about obtaining travel insurance and the importance of it was recently on a cruise with her family and in all of the excitement of getting prepared to go, she forgot all about signing up for travel medical insurance.

The woman and her minor children had left the cruise ship while docked for excursions on the island. They rented scooters and during a scooter ride, the woman crashed her scooter while driving and she ended up with temporary amnesia, serious cuts to her face, as well as a broken leg. Since she did not have insurance that would cover her while in Mexico, the physicians took photos of her facial injuries and sent them to her husband back in the United States.

They essentially demanded money just as one would see in a hostage situation, from her husband. They also did not give the woman much needed fluids, pain medicine or antibiotics. She laid in a hospital bed in pain and unable to pay for proper medical care. On top of this, her minor children were essentially sent away on their own to figure out how to get back to the cruise ship. This woman’s life was turned upside down by simply not making sure that she had travel medical insurance before she left for her vacation.

Safe guard yourself & your loved ones with a travel medical insurance policy that includes air evacuation. With no restrictions on nationality, it is no longer just an option but instead, this protection is a necessity to ensure that you and your family are fully protected when you are traveling or living abroad in Mexico.

You would be surprised at how little this protection costs for the amount of financial security you will receive for your travels internationally. There are single trip policies that can be purchased or if you are a frequent traveler with multiple trips out of your home country in a year period there are the multi trip annual plans. International insurance companies looking after your best interest and safe guard your health and pocket book in the event of the unforeseen.

Editor’s note: We thank West Coast Insurance Services for writing this article and clearing up some of the questions about medical insurance for vacationers and retirees in Mexico.