Many people are of the view that vacation or travel insurance is nothing but a rip-off. If you also think the same, consider this: Getaways don’t always go as you plan them, and if you have doubts about it, ask anyone waylaid by the Icelandic volcanic-ash cloud last year. You may have to suffer financial losses, but your travel coverage can soften the blow. A comprehensive package doesn’t cost you more than 4-8 percent of the total cost of the trip but reimburses you for unexpected medical emergencies, hotel stays, and charges for canceled or interrupted trips.

While it is true that getting a policy for routine or short-distance domestic travel doesn’t make a lot of sense, you should never go without it any time you need to prepay for travel services or make a big deposit of $1,000 or more.

By digging deeper into the details, you will come to know that there are different types of travel insurance policies available today. The most basic of them all is the one that you usually get with an airline policy. This is mainly for trip interruption or trip cancellation.  If due to some circumstances you have to cancel your trip, this particular policy pays you for nonrefundable, prepaid costs. There could be anything stopping you to continue with your trip. This may include death of a family member, subpoena to appear in court, jury-duty summons, layoff at work, or any other events beyond your control, like a terror attack or natural disaster. Not only this, baggage delays and travel delays are also included in this basic coverage. It is true that if you are buying a couple of plane tickets, it is quite tempting to skip paying a few extra bucks for insurance. But if you are planning more expensive trips, such as tour packages and cruises, it is worth taking out coverage for the peace of mind.

In addition to this basic coverage, there are some other types of travel insurance policies available for you to make a choice. For instance, you can get a medical/health policy to cover dental and medical expenses incurred because of some illness or injury. You don’t seem to have plans to fall into a sewer in Paris, but if you end up being there, you will be glad you had medical coverage.

It is important to point out that along with buying the basic or medical coverage, you can also put your money on medical evacuation coverage. This coverage comes in handy when you need to be transported to a hospital. If you are in a remote area and injure yourself while exploring the natural beauty, you may need a helicopter to get out of there. This could be an expensive proposition, but not really with medical evacuation coverage in place. You can include it under your basic medical coverage, or you can also purchase it as a stand-alone policy.

These are the most common types of travel insurance policies. Just spend some time to learn about all of them to make a right choice.

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When we’re booking our holidays or planning a period of extensive travelling, we all look to cut costs where possible. We can do this in many ways, such as reducing the amount of baggage we take on flights, seeking out the best deals on hotels, and booking everything as early as possible. We might also cut back on anything we see as an unnecessary purchase before travelling, but it really is vital that we don’t allow travel insurance to fall into this category.

The potential cost of not purchasing worldwide travel insurance to protect us on our travels is many, many times greater than the cost of the insurance itself. Most journeys can be fully insured for the price of a meal out at a restaurant and the cover will protect you against costs that could seriously dent your finances if you had to pay them yourself.

Here are just a few reasons to make sure travel insurance does not fall victim to the cuts made to your austerity travel budget.

Medical
The cost of medical care in other countries can be frighteningly high. If you have the misfortune of becoming ill or fall victim of an injury while abroad, you’re very unlikely to receive free medical care. Some countries, such as Australia and the UK, have reciprocal healthcare agreements that ensure citizens are provided with free emergency procedures, but even under these agreements many aspects of medical care will be carried out at the cost of the individual. To save yourself the worry, conduct a travel insurance compare with moneysupermarket. Its team of insurance experts will get you a wide range of quotes from widely differing insurers at the click of a mouse.

Luggage
We’ve all heard the horror stories of lost or damaged luggage on flights. That luggage doesn’t always reach its destination in one piece or at all is an unavoidable fact of the airline industry, and no airline is perfect. Next time you consider skipping the travel insurance on your flight, picture yourself being the last person waiting at the luggage carousel in vain for hours after everyone else has left, or imagine being the person opening their case to find their beloved possessions damaged. Don’t run the risk – insure your luggage with worldwide travel insurance.

Missed connections
Delayed and cancelled flights, buses or trains can be a real headache when you are travelling. But they needn’t be a financial headache when you can insure yourself against the cost of missed connections and cancelled journeys for a relatively tiny fee. Make sure that any unwanted extra nights in a hotel are covered by your insurer.

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The travel company, HBF just wrote a great article on tips to make your travel insurance claim easier, with some very useful information if you ever find yourself in need of making a claim. I thought they made good points with the following:

1. First, you need to be honest and upfront when you take out your policy. Some pre existing conditions can be covered by your insurance company, so check. You don’t want your policy cancelled because you didn’t mention something!
2. Make sure you read your policy. It’s a bit dry, I know, but there’s a lot of important information in there which will come in handy if you have to make a claim.
3. Keep everything! What’s to stop someone from faking an insurance claim? Insurance companies require evidence. Keep original receipts and documents related to your claim. The worst case scenario, you get home safely and make a scrap book of all your sundry expenses.
4. If you have to make a claim, be as detailed as possible. If you answer everything with enough detail, the insurance company might not have to follow up – making the payment come much faster.
5. This is probably the most annoying advice, but you have to be patient. A lot of companies have standards they have to meet, so as long as you claim is being processed within the time they specify (HBF specifies 10 days, but your insurance company might be different), try to wait.

Obviously you never want to find yourself in a situation where you need to make a travel insurance claim, but if you follow these steps your life will be much easier. I also found an article about the five most common travel insurance claims, so hopefully you can try to avoid them.

Medical claims are probably the most annoying to have to deal with. No one wants to get sick while they are on vacation. So the best thing to do is find out as much as you can about the destination before you go. Is it safe to drink the water? Any food you should avoid? Going to your destination with a little bit of research can save you a lot of grief in the long-run.

Lost, damaged, and stolen luggage is another common claim, and there are a few things you can do to help avoid it from happening to you. Some things are pretty much common sense, but you would be surprised how many people forget to put tags on their bags! Make sure you remove old destination stickers, check in your bags early, avoid flights with tight connections, and head straight to the luggage area as soon as you land. And remember, as those announcements echo around the airport “do not leave your bags unattended”.

Lost or Stolen Credit cards and money are a huge problem for travellers, but the only thing you can really do here is use common sense. Keep a photocopy of you credit cards and ID in your bags, but other than that you just need to be careful.

Finally, cancelled flights are travel delays are something that is out of your control but a huge inconvenience. Always check with the airline a few days before and the day of your flight to make sure everything is going forward. Try to fly earlier in the day, midweek, and get to the airport early.

Hopefully you are never in a position where you have to make a claim on your travel insurance, but a little common sense and thinking ahead can save you time and money in the long term!

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If you are going away, you need to get travel insurance. Travel insurance is offered by a lot of companies and your credit card company might even cover you for a lot of things. However, if they don’t, go buy travel insurance. Travel insurance will protect you if you get sick, injured, lose your stuff, get your stuff stolen, or have a tour canceled on you. In short, it covers you for everything.

You never know what might happen while you are traveling and chances are nothing will. You’ll probably be fine but you never know. Travel insurance is only a few dollars per month. It doesn’t cost a lot of money and will cover you for everything. I’ll pay 20 dollars to make sure if my laptop breaks I can get the money to buy a new one.

When you are buying travel insurance, make sure you consider a few things: 1. it covers health care 2. it covers all the countries you are going too 3. it protects against trip cancellation 4. it protects against lost or stolen items

You pay not get travel insurance for a short trip to Paris but if you are traveling long term, it is worth getting. The longer you travel, the more things will go wrong. Travel insurance can be there to protect you. Moreover, if you are doing an active holiday, you run a higher risk of accidents. Get travel insurance. Be smart. It’s only a few dollars.

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