The summer season is marked with big-ticket trips, vacations, and multi-city luxury tours & cruises, both domestic and international.
Often, excited travelers rush to book tickets, arrange accommodations, and pack their bags. A majority forget or underestimate the need to buy travel insurance.
So, do you really need travel insurance? In this post, we tell you how travel insurance can save you money and travel headaches.
How Travel Insurance Can Save You Money and Hassle
A travel insurance policy adds an extra layer of protection against financial losses that may arise from unforeseen travel risks. Thus, you can have peace of mind and enjoy your trip without worrying about surprise expenses.
Covered travel risks include:
Medical emergency
Your personal health insurance covers only travel-related illness or injury when traveling domestically within the U.S. But when traveling overseas, you need to buy travel insurance coverage because it won’t cover medical expenses in a foreign country.
Your travel insurance coverage pays for hospital costs if you get injured or ill while traveling. It also covers emergency medical evacuation costs or emergency medical transportation from a remote area to an appropriate health facility. Some even offer a cash allowance in case you get hospitalized.
Trip cancellation
There’re many reasons why you may consider canceling a trip. The top ones include family emergencies, civil unrest, severe weather, illness, natural disasters, and more.
Travel insurance reimburses you if your trip is canceled for a covered reason. The best insurance companies will refund between 75%-100% of “prepaid, non-refundable deposits” for airline tickets, rental cars, hotel rooms, tours & cruises, among others.
Trip delays
A trip delay may come with a huge surprise bill, especially if it extends beyond 12 hours. The top reasons why there may be trip delays include severe weather, civil unrest, airline maintenance, military deployment, and more.
Trip delay coverage provides reimbursement for expenses such as transportation, accommodation, and food incurred during the delay.
To be eligible for reimbursement, the delay must be in line with the amount of time stipulated in your policy. Again, remember to save all your receipts to justify the cost when filing a reimbursement claim.
Baggage loss
Your travel insurance policy covers the cost of replacing your check-in belongings and personal items if they are stolen, damaged, or misplaced.
So if your airline doesn’t take care of check-in luggage, travel insurance will compensate you up to the maximum shown on the Confirmation of Coverage.
Trip interruption
For some reason, you may have to cut your trip or vacation short due to work or family-related emergencies.
In that case, your travel insurance may reimburse non-refundable expenses. The best travel insurance companies may also pay for your one-way airline ticket back home.
Does Your Credit Card Offer Travel Insurance
The best travel credit cards come with built-in travel protection as a common perk. So, before you buy additional coverage, it may help to check whether your card offers travel insurance. And, the type of travel purchases tied to such benefits.
For instance, you may be required to book a flight using your card, check in a bag, activate lost luggage protection, and more. Coverage is automatic when you charge the relevant trip expenses on the card.
How to Choose the Best Travel Insurance Plan
There’re several factors that you should consider to choose the best travel insurance plan, including:
- Policy type and duration
- Claim limit
- Policy coverages and exclusions
- Additional coverage options
- Trip type and trip activities
- Compare travel insurance plans from different insurers
- Check online customer reviews
- Dont forget to read the fine print
If you’re having difficulty choosing travel insurance, consider talking to an independent insurance agent. They can help you easily and quickly find the best travel insurance plan for your trip or vacation.
They also offer you travel insurance quotes from their network of top insurance carriers so you can get the most comprehensive travel coverage at an affordable price.
