Travel Insurance Basics

Posted in

May 6th, 2010

Have you been thinking about taking a trip out of town or out of the country and thought you might buy travel insurance before you leave? This is not a bad thing to consider, because any type of emergency could occur on your trip and it’s good to be prepared for the worst financially.

So if you want travel insurance, how do you get your hands on it? And how much does it cost? It’s good to explore these questions and more before diving in and purchasing something that you may or may not need.

What Is Included In Travel Insurance?

Whether you purchase domestic or international travel insurance, the aim is to get you the financial protection you need in the event that something goes wrong on your trip. However, travel insurance is not like standard auto, rental car or health insurance in that it is meant to cover you only during the duration of a trip and maybe even for specific aspects of the trip.

Say for instance you lose your bags that had valuable jewelry. If you insured your trip, you may be able to recover some of the value of your luggage and what was in it. While travel insurance can’t cover all of the bases, it tries to offer a lot of benefits that make travel a little less stressful. Here are some benefits offered by travel insurance companies:

• Medical benefits: One benefit that could be good to take advantage of is medical travel insurance, which pays for doctor visits and illnesses that occur during your trip. The policy would also cover local ambulance service and emergency medical treatment. However, this travel health insurance would not cover physical exams, eyeglasses, hearing aid replacements or mental health care.
• Emergency evacuation: If you need to be evacuated from a remote location on your trip and taken to a foreign hospital, your travel trip insurance would cover your flight home and maybe even a long-term stay at the hospital.
• Trip cancellation: If your trip has to be canceled due to an unforeseen incident and you have already paid for the flight, hotel and car, your coverage could reimburse you for your expenses.
• Trip delay/trip interruption: If your trip is delayed or interrupted then most comprehensive travel insurance will cover the money you lost or pay for the expenses you’re going to incur.
• Accidental death and dismemberment: If you die or are permanently disabled on the trip, your insurance could provide compensation to you or your family.
• Collision/damage for rental cars: If you didn’t already purchase rental car insurance or can’t use yours because you are overseas, travel insurance may cover the physical damage or loss of a vehicle.
• Flight accidental death: This coverage acts as a life insurance policy and pays your beneficiary a lump sum benefit if you die in a flight accident or crash.

How Do You Acquire Travel Insurance?

There are a number of places to acquire domestic or travel insurance international right over the Internet. One of the most popular travel insurance destinations is Travel Guard. However, to make sure that you’re getting the best travel insurance out there, you want to make sure you shop around.

Some other popular options include Insure My Trip, Access America and USI Affinity. Different companies offer different packages so it’s good to make sure that you check around to see what options are out there.

What’s great about shopping with these companies is that they offer all of their policy details right on their websites, you don’t have to worry about doing a lot of work to determine what’s best for you.

How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost?

The standard travel insurance quote will likely vary depending on the coverage you want to purchase and may even depend on your age.

For instance, if you travel as a 32 year old headed to Missouri and plan to spend $1,000 for a one-week trip, you could cancel your trip for any reason, get medical travel insurance, emergency travel insurance, trip interruption/cancellation/delay, baggage delay coverage, emergency evacuation coverage, accidental dismemberment and much more with Travel Guard for only $77. Not bad, right?

As you can see, cheap travel insurance is quite easy to come by. But of course, you have to make sure that you compare travel insurance options before deciding to ensure you get the best deal for you and your family.