Travel Insurance: Why and How Much Insurance Do You Need?

Now that you’ve planned your dream trip, one of the top priorities should be your travel insurance.

The million-dollar question that you and many other travelers are probably asking is do you need travel insurance?

If you are still on the fence wondering should you buy travel insurance or do I need travel insurance, let’s get this straight from the word go – it is not an option. Insurance to go is a must, as it offers you medical coverage in case of sudden illness or injury.

Misconceptions Concerning Travel Insurance

Being insured while traveling offers emergency care if things go wrong. It’s not a health insurance. It offers all-purpose coverage.

So you lose your luggage or you fall while hiking or you need to cancel your trip for an emergency, travel insurance has you totally covered. But you want to see your doctor to fix a new crown for your tooth – no way is the insurance going to help you here.

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Travel Insurance: All Purpose Coverage

I can hear you thinking you’re absolutely hale and hearty, so there’s no way you’re going to face medical emergencies and there’s absolutely no need to buy travel insurance.  Amen! to that and hoping you never have to use your insurance for health reasons.  But it’s not just medical coverage; when you get travel insurance it offers coverage for many other contingencies:

• Medical emergencies
• Camera breakage/loss
• Flight cancellations
• Issues back home, death of family members
• Loss of baggage
• Accidental injuries
• Theft of gear
• Emergency transportation’s
• Food poisoning

However, it doesn’t usually cover medications needed for ongoing or chronic illnesses that you knew about before buying the policy, so you may not be in luck as far as this is concerned.

No Brainer

Explaining the crucial importance of getting a good to go travel insurance for your trip is a no brainer.

The best trip insurance can be quite inexpensive and will be like manna from heaven, if the situation arises to use it, God forbid!! Your regular health programs will not offer protection when you are overseas and credit cards can only offer that much and no more.

Some credit cards do offer coverage for theft of items or even for trip cancellations, in case you booked the tickets using the card.

However, even these might not be covered with your credit card if you don’t activate it. So, getting the best holiday insurance is literally a protection against the unknown.

How Much Travel Insurance do I Need?

Now that you are convinced about taking this insurance for your trip, your next query will probably be the minimum amount of coverage you might need while selecting a top travel insurance company.

Penny Wise

Here is one situation where you just cannot afford to be a cheapie, because it could just end up with the old adage of penny-wise pound-foolish.

This is a billion dollar business with many top players having their hands in the cookie jar, offering some of the best travel insurance plans.

Nomad travel Insurance is one of the recommended travel insurance companies, which has been designed and created by travelers and for travelers.

Sometimes, it’s all rather overwhelming when trying to select the best travel insurance companies and an optimum plan.  Moreover, we don’t want you paying too much insurance either. You could consider the following guidelines for selecting a good travel insurance plan.

• Don’t be hasty – do your homework and check out the options carefully before you get travel insurance. The amount insured and the premium alone are not enough. You can compare other factors of the insurance, such as:

1. Their online services
2. The ease of claims procedure
3. Toll free number
4. Payment methods
5. Hospital network available
6. Add-ons offered, such as home insurance, important documents and valuables insurance and so on

Coverage

Now, this is trickier, as it depends on several factors, including the destination. Consider the following criteria for deciding exactly how much is safe enough for your insurance coverage:

• Cost of medical services in the destination country or city

Medical coverage is the main criterion, so here I am considering the medical expenses in the destination countries.

If the cost of medical services were on the higher side, you would naturally need more coverage and vice versa.

Countries like the United States and Canada are more expensive as far as medical treatment and health costs are concerned.

• Duration of your stay

The longer the stay, I’d say the more the coverage required.

• Holiday Activities

This could also be a deciding factor while considering how much travel insurance you need. If you are only planning to eat, go sight seeing and generally laze about, you could opt for a normal coverage.

But if you are planning an adventurous itinerary with trekking, skiing, sporting activities, water sports and so on, there’s more risk at hand here, so a premium coverage is called for. You could even opt for specific or special coverage for such activities, at an additional cost.

• Age/General Health

It goes without saying that the older you are, you are more likely to make use of this insurance, especially related to health emergencies.

Tips for Economizing in Travel Insurance

• Frequent travellers can save money on the cost by opting for an annual travel insurance policy that covers multiple trips. Such plans usually come with one-year validity and cover any number of overseas trips, with each trip having a maximum of a month or so. These plans are cheaper than single trip insurance plans.
• Senior citizens can opt for coverage related to specific health conditions and special situations related to health problems.

Round Up

So, there you have it, in a nutshell, being insured while travelling is a must and there are no two opinions on that.

How much coverage is good enough is another question however and as I said before, it depends.

However, travel insurance is not to be confused with health insurance; it’s there for emergencies and has to be treated in that context.

As a last word, take care to read the fine print on your insurance policy and find out specifically what it covers and what it doesn’t before deciding on the best travel insurance company suitable for your needs.