Travel Insurance? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Travel Insurance! (do We?)

Tina Irasthmus

Should you have travel insurance? An interesting question. But if you question the need for travel insurance, perhaps you are the same person who questions the need for any kind of insurance. Most people have auto insurance, health insurance, homeowners’ insurance or renters’ insurance, and maybe even life insurance or disability insurance – so I ask you: Why not have travel insurance?

Insurance is for “What if’s”

Insurance is protection for that unwanted and unexpected challenge. Your auto insurance protects you from shelling out $2,000 for that unexpected fender bender that wasn’t even your fault. Travel insurance does likewise. Have you ever had luggage “misplaced” by an airline and been left with no clothes to wear on your trip? Have you ever had to cancel a trip that was fully paid due to some unforeseen incident that arose before you even had an opportunity to leave? Or have you had to cut short that cruise because of something that happened at home? Ever gotten sick on vacation?

These are all travel problems that can be covered by travel insurance. One company I reviewed will reimburse your trip cost for covered (always read the small print) cancellation, and 125% of the cost due to an interruption of the trip. They will also pay $500 for your accommodations if you missed your connecting flight and can’t get another until “tomorrow morning, at the earliest.” Ever slept in an airport on behalf of your Atlanta-based flight crew, who were very happy to serve you, but couldn’t manage to get the airplane to your connecting airport by the time they said they would? A $500 hotel room might not get you to your destination, but it sure could be a sweet wait. Can you say “honor bar?”

Here’s another swell deal: your travel insurance could pay you $1,000 for lost luggage, or $200 for delayed luggage. That’s some pricey underwear and deodorant, but I’m not arguing.

Travel insurance can also be purchased to cover emergency medical treatment or “medical evacuation and repatriation.” Or, if you prefer, you could just click your heels together three times and say, “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place…”

Yeah, but how much is it going to cost me?

The cost of travel insurance is based on the number of people traveling and the value of the trip. Time away can also be a factor if you will be gone for more than a month. For example, a family of four taking a trip valued at about $3,000 could expect to pay in the neighborhood of $250 for all of the coverage mentioned above. Is it worth it? On the website of one travel company it stated, “If you can’t afford travel insurance, you can’t afford to travel.”

Can I ask my uncle?

Sure. Uncle Sam says medical evacuation from a foreign country can cost $10,000 and up. And in his inimitable way, he warns that Social Security Medicare does not provide coverage for hospital or medical coverage outside of the US. If you have a private insurer, you might want to check on what out-of-country coverage you have if your trip will take you outside of the good ol’ USA.

OK, OK, you’ve convinced me. Any last bits of advice before I leave for Katmandu?

I am so glad you asked. Here’s a little extra for you – at no additional charge:

1. Take all your travel insurance documentation with you – DON’T put it in your luggage!

2. Put all of your policy numbers on a separate piece of paper in a separate location from the actual policies in case of loss or damage to your policies.

3. Leave a copy of your policy(s) at home with next of kin, or whomever knows your whereabouts.

4. To expedite service in case of an accident, fill in all of your vital statistics on the information page of your passport (name, address, phone number, etc.), or carry it on a card that you keep in your wallet or stuffed into the sleeve of that tag that says Hello My Name Is.

In a coconut shell…

Travel insurance can help you with:

· Reimbursement of your travel investment due to cancellation or early termination

· Reimbursement of unexpected travel expenses (delays, loss of luggage)

· Covering emergency medical assistance and medical referrals

· Obtaining medical assistance abroad

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Travel Medical Insurance: Insure Your Health During Your Travel

Getting injured or falling sick is the last thing that anyone has in mind when one is planning for a holiday. But you should keep in mind that traveling anywhere entails risk. Even in the safest of journey, there is the possibility of falling ill or getting injured. All these can cost you hundreds and thousands of pounds and you will be left with a very little money for your traveling plan. To avoid this you need to purchase a travel medical insurance and thus let your finances be taken care of by this policy.

Simply put, medical treatments outside Europe can be costly and your normal travel or medical insurance might not give you an extensive coverage for all these treatments. Sometimes, even the cost of returning home at the time of illness can be very expensive. All these will be taken care of by travel medical insurance.

There are different types of covers of travel medical insurance and they are:

• The medical costs on your trips, cost of treatments and also the cost of medicine.

• Travel medical insurance will also give you a coverage for medical evacuation to the nearest medical health facility.

• In case of death of any of the members of your group, your travel medical insurance will bear the cost of returning of the death body to one’s home country. Many a times your travel medical insurance policy will also bear the cost of another person along with the dead body.

But before buying any travel medical insurance, you need to read the policy document carefully. Many offers come attached with conditions. For example if you take unconventional medical treatments like ayurvedic and acupuncture, your travel medical insurance will not cover for the cost of these treatments.

You are also required to undertake a thorough research of the insurance market. You should compare various travel medical insurance quotes from various companies and later, on full satisfaction, you should get a policy. Nowadays, almost all insurance companies have their own websites, where the information regarding various travel medical insurance plans are available. So you can search for a suitable travel medical insurance policy from these websites at an instant. Without a travel medical insurance policy, an illness or an injury could not only ruin your vacation but also might land you up in severe financial crisis. So why wait for long? Go and get a travel medical insurance policy now.

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Life Insurance Toronto | Points To Remember Before Purchasing A Annual Travel Insurance.

I am sure everyone must have heard about travel insurance before. There are two types of travel insurance first one for those who are not frequent travelers and are called as single trip cover and second one for those who are frequent travelers and are called annual travel insurance. Single trip insurance as the name suggest covers only one single trip and hence it is cheap, where as annual travel insurance covers for any number of travel for one year. This means that if you are a regular traveler then you can make a huge saving by taking an annual travel insurance policy. Annual travel insurance allows you to make a any number of trips you may want in a year. But there may be a certain condition that it should not exceed a certain amount of time. So if you are planning to go out somewhere for a break at the last moment than at least you don’t have to worry about making arrangement for a travel insurance.

It is always recommended to do your homework before you buy anything. Similarly when you are buying a annual travel insurance you have to take note of certain points. First of all try to make a list of all the places that you plan to visit in the next twelve months. If you are confused and don’t know where you will be heading in the next twelve months then it is always a wise decision to purchase an annual travel insurance policy for North America travel. You can always expand it to Worldwide at a later date. If you are planning for winter sports then you can check the policy details as many companies providing annual insurance allows you a fix number of days of winter sports cover at no extra cost, while there are a few companies who have a minimum charge for it. Annual travel insurance policy should generally cover cost of medicines, cost of visit to a doctor or a hospital, trip cancellation, baggage insurance in case of a theft and so on. There are many companies that also gives you a discount up to 25 percent if you don’t want the coverage for lost or damaged baggage. However it is always recommended to go for a full comprehensive travel insurance.

An annual travel insurance starts from the day you purchase this policy and people usually and covers you for the next one year, so people usually try to make the first day of your travel as the first day of the travel insurance cover. But there is one point that always need to be taken care of that in case of cancellation of your trip you will not be covered under this policy till your policy begins. My suggestion is to book your policy from the day you plan and book your holiday. And if you are planning a special long holiday then you should also check out with your company that it provides cover to the cost of cancellation of the entire trip.

Last but not the least buying a complete family package covering your entire family can again save you a huge amount of money. You just need to check out a few points that if your kids are going out for a school picnic your annual travel insurance covers you for this also. Generally all the companies allow the adults to travel all alone, but not so in the case of children. Companies have a restriction to this and have a clause that the children should be accompanied by their parents. So these are some few points which you should check out before you buy a annual travel insurance.

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Will You Need Travel Insurance?

Most people book a vacation thinking that it will be a relaxing getaway. This isn’t always the case – you can end up paying incredibly overpriced medical bills or lose a significant amount of money if you lose your wallet.

1. Travel Insurance

Insurance makes sure that if you do encounter an unexpected circumstance you will be reimbursed. If you don’t have travel insurance, your trip might even be cancelled. Insurance can even be useful if you don’t end up travelling due to illness. Instead of losing a lot of money you will get a full refund for your tickets.

2. Travelling Abroad

9 times out of 10, any and all insurance that you currently have is not going to be applicable when you travel internationally. You won’t be covered on your medical expenses, in an emergency, or other dangerous situations. With the proper travel insurance you can rest assured that you will get the treatment you need if you get into things as small as a car accident or as large as a natural disaster when travelling abroad.

3. Terrorism

Terrorism isn’t limited to the US, it occurs around the globe. If a terrorist act suddenly breaks out in an area that you have booked a flight to, the airline is not required to provide you with a refund if you choose not to travel to the area because of terrorism – that is, unless you have travel insurance. These events are completely random and can’t be predicted, so it’s better to have insurance and be safe than sorry. Even if you don’t get hurt at a local cafe by someone blowing themselves to pieces, your flight can be cancelled at any time and it would be very good if you could get your money back.

4. Lost Luggage

One of the most common problems when travelling is lost luggage. You might pile thousands of dollars of goods onto a flight, especially if you are moving to a new country. Travel insurance will surely be a good investment. Travel insurance acts to insure whatever items are lost or stolen so you are able to replace your belongings.

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