If you’re booking a holiday getaway, your travel agent will probably ask if you want to protect your purchase with insurance. Travel web-sites make this option an even easier click-to-buy question.
Planning for a trip world wide? Looking out for an insurance to protect your travel and make your experience a memorable one? The cheapest rate in a policy will hold no meaning if it doesn’t properly cover your overseas travel needs. Choose a company that does not cut on the insurance cover but on the cost of insurance.
Travel insurance is a comforting concept, but the devil is still in the details, and that creates lots of opportunity for salespeople to sell you false security.
How many choices does the seller give you? If you buy from a travel agent, you’ll probably be offered only one or two policies from one company, and “best” typically means best for the travel agent, in terms of how much of a commission he or she collects on the sale. Online travel sites also tend to limit your choice.
Medical cover: you can be covered for any medical assistance or hospitalization charges. While you are on a world tour then the mounting medical bills might cost you the earth and leave you penniless.
Concerns about your personal baggage, protect it from any kind of stealth or damage to your personal belongings. You, as a globe trotter could possibly be having such worries and may be on the lookout of a way out of this. It could be the fear of theft of cash and other ensuing problems.
Can you get a pre-existing medical condition waiver? Trip cancellation (before you leave) and trip interruption (during your trip) are key reasons for buying insurance, and 80 percent of claims are related to medical problems. Unexpected injury and illnesses are, of course, covered. But if you consulted your doctor about a problem 60 to 180 days before your trip and that problem comes home to roost after you buy your travel, that would be an excludable pre-existing condition.
You must get cover for anything that you anticipate could go wrong. So the basics would be lost luggage, delay or cancellation of your flights, needing to cancel your holiday before you go away in the case of illness or a death in close family, medical treatment while you are away, and cover for any dangerous sports or activities that you are planning on taking part in.
Getting cover for medical evacuation and repatriation, in case you cannot fly home on a commercial flight or without a medical professional, is wise. This is especially the case if you are involved in winter sports or other dangerous activities which could lead to serious injury.
What don’t you need? For example, losing some of your belongings won’t break you financially, so keep a close eye on your valuables and be ready to accept losing less valuable stuff. Too, if you’re worried about dying in a plane crash, buy term life insurance, which covers you no matter how you die as long as your policy is in force, rather than flight insurance, which only pays benefits if you die in a plane crash and covers you only for the short time you’re flying.
