The Importance of Travel Insurance | Reasons to buy Travel Insurance

The other day my friend Suzie and I were talking about getting a travel insurance for her. She had a health insurance so she considered it frugal to get a travel insurance. And to my surprise, she had a lot of misconceptions about it!

Not only her, a lot of people misunderstand the importance of a travel insurance. So I am here to clear all those misconceptions and tell you why you should get one whenever you’re travelling.

For a minimal fare, travel insurance is the most important thing you’ll ever need. Just like you have car insurance, life insurance, health insurance, a travel insurance, too, is just as necessary. You need to protect yourself against the unforeseen!

So what is a travel insurance, you might ask?

It’s emergency care when things unexpectedly go wrong. It depends on the policy you buy.

You can use Travel Insurance in the following situations:

• it can be there for when your luggage is lost by the airline,
• when you fall hiking,
• pop an eardrum scuba diving,
• get a parasite overseas, or need to cancel or cut your trip short because your dad died.

It’s designed to be there for accidents (both health and non-health related) and unexpected events you never thought could happen to you.

Importance of Travel Insurance

1.Safety First

The primary benefit of travel insurance is the knowledge that should something go wrong while you are abroad. You won’t be responsible for finding the money to put it right, at a time when you are already stressed out.

2.Emergency Medical Assistance

It covers the cost of emergency medical assistance. Mainly getting someone to hospital, whether the costs of a road ambulance or where necessary an air ambulance or sea rescue. Although you must check that you are covered for the activity in which you were participating when injured or becoming ill.

3.Repatriation

Travel insurance covers the cost of returning you to your home country after receiving medical treatment. Besides that (and I don’t want to sound cold here), it covers the return of your remains in the event of your death abroad.

4.Medical Evaluation and Hospital Benefit

In case there’s no hospital in the area you’re in, a travel insurance covers the cost of transporting you to the nearest hospital that can treat you, even if its in another country.

Not only that, it even provides a small daily amount to cover incidental costs of being a hospital in-patient abroad.

5. Cancellation/Trip Interruption/Missed Departure

In case you have to cut short your flight or have to return home suddenly, a travel insurance will recover any financial loss (unrecoverable by other means). Common reasons for claiming this would be the sudden and unexpected serious illness or death of a close relative, or fire or flood.

Besides, if you miss your scheduled transport for departing your home country and the first international means of transport on the return journey, it covers additional costs as well!

Further, it also covers incidents out of your control. Such as failure of public transport or your own vehicle breaking down, although you may be required to prove that it had been maintained regularly.

6.Legal Expenses

In case you get involved in litigation there is some cover for legal costs too!

7.Personal Liability

Provides cover in the event that you injure a third party or damage their property, although there is often an exclusion for liability arising from the use of a vehicle or by an animal under your control, such as a horse or dog.

8.Personal Belongings/Baggage

Travel insurance covers for your personal belongings and money that you take with you. There is usually an overall limit that is the maximum for any claim as well as limits for individual types of property. These are the single item, pair or set of items limit. For instance a set of golf clubs is considered to be one item and you cannot claim for each club separately.

The valuables limit, valuables usually referring to jewellery and electronic devices. There will be an individual item limit as well as a total valuables limit being the maximum cover in any one claim for all items considered to be a valuable.

There will also be a limit on the amount of cash covered in a claim. In the event of theft there will also be restrictions on valid claims with regard to where the item was, if it was secure, and a requirement to report the theft to the police. If you replace any goods you will need to obtain receipts.

Hopefully I’ve cleared all your misconceptions about travel insurance and why you should get one. Please bear in mind that if you buy a travel insurance policy that doesn’t provide the cover you require, you have wasted your money. Not to mention the fact that you could be left facing a very large bill.