If you’re planning your next trip, you’ll most likely think about your flight, transfers, and accommodations. However, there is one vital aspect of traveling that you might have forgotten: travel insurance.
Most people don’t think that getting travel insurance is important, but it is highly recommended to do so to mitigate travel risks.
If you choose travel insurance that suits your needs, you ensure that you and your family are protected from unprecedented incidents while traveling.
Looking for the best travel insurance can be quite daunting. But if you follow these guidelines, it’ll be easy to find the best possible policy.
How to Find the Best Travel Insurance
Look at the Amount of Coverage Per Specific Item
Travel insurance policies should be able to cover medical expenses of at least $50,000 worldwide, $1,500 for baggage and belongings, and $3,000 for cancellation.
Remember that the most important coverage is for your medical expenses. This is because when you get sick or injured while traveling abroad, you should be able to get the best professional care and be able to pay for hospital bills. Medical care for foreigners in other countries can get expensive.
Check the policy if there is a separate provision for emergency evacuation and care that is distinct from the medical policy.
Do You Travel Frequently?
For frequent travelers, choose to get annual travel insurance. This is highly recommended if you take more than three trips a year for business or pleasure.
An excellent policy also covers most countries and territories around the world. Look for a company that has world-wide reach.
Pay for Service
Make sure that the company provides 24/7 assistance. Emergencies happen any time, and 24/7 help assures the policy holder that someone will be there to help in any time zone, any time of the day.
Read reviews of other travelers to get a feeling for the overall service; how long does it take to lodge a claim, are they responsive to communication, can you speak to someone on the phone as well as email?
Is Your Coverage Extensive Enough?
Check if the travel insurance provides extensive coverage for lost, damaged or stolen valuables. Valuables include jewelry, baggage, documents, and electronic gadgets.
Check if your policy provides reimbursement if a sudden illness causes you to cancel your trip or end your trip earlier than expected.
Cancellations, trip interruptions, and delays should all be covered by your travel insurance. Some companies also offer ‘cancel for any reason coverage’ at an extra cost. This coverage ensures the customers that they can get reimbursement no matter what the reason for their cancellation is.
Check the fine print for your out-of-pocket expenses. The deductibles and the portion of the costs that the policyholder pays should be reasonable and should not overlap the actual insurance coverage.
Choosing the Best Travel Insurance
There are many things to consider in choosing the best travel insurance. Unexpected things might happen to you while you are on a trip, and if you’re thinking that it is okay not to have one, you must remember that accidents and uncertainties do happen.
It’s always better to be safe than sorry, especially when you’re far away from home. Following these guidelines will be able to help you find the best travel insurance. Getting coverage while you’re on a trip, whether short-term or long-term is a smart thing to do.
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16 Comments
I am now in the market for travel insurance for the first time, so this post is useful, thanks.
Glad we could help Scott – feel free to reach out if you have any further questions :)
This is very helpful information. In the past, I bought travel insurance when I went to Ecuador for nine weeks because I was traveling during the winter and the weather could have caused me travel problems.
Glad the information was helpful for you Alice :) And happy to hear that your time in Ecuador was incident free! But yes, always way better to be safe than sorry.
Very interesting and informative article. We always have travel insurance when we travel, luckily our policy is free as we got it when we opened a bank account, but we do keep checking that we have the correct cover for our trips.
Glad to hear you’re covered Cyril, but more importantly that you do continue to check that your cover is correct for your trip :) I’ve been caught out before in the early days of my travel, assuming the insurance included on my credit card was good enough. Turns out I didn’t read the fine print and got caught out in an exception!
It is of extreme importance to have insurance coverage when you travel, and most likely you would it the time that you are not covered. I would like to add that the coverage of each insurance company could be hugely different. For example, the number of hours of flight delay could range from 6 hours to 10 hours. I would recommend the 6 hours one because I was delayed 9.5 hours in Indonesia once and then could get my claim!! @ knycx.journeyig
Absolutely – one of those things we hope we don’t truly understand the value of, but if we have to, we don’t want to have underestimated it’s importance.
Great tip on coverage being different across companies – and sorry to hear you were delayed for so long on that trip – hate flight delays! But they happen so frequently nowadays that it’s definitely worth being insured to cover any losses.
Hopefully your future travels have no further delays!
Travel insurance is an important and vital component of travel, but most of us do not pay enough attention to it. But one should before learning the hard way. These are some really good tips for going about getting the best insurance cover. It again depends on individual requirements and objectives. I feel that an annual plan cuts down a lot of hassles for frequent travellers.
I agree that more travelers should be paying attention to insurance – glad that our tips were helpful for you. Absolutely depends on your individual requirements, and we highly recommend tailoring a policy to suit the needs of individual people / trips.
We have an annual plan since we travel so frequently, and it really does cut out a lot of the stress and hassle :)
Travel insurance is so important, and can be really confusing! Thank you so much for this :)
Glad the tips were helpful for you Ron :) Safe travels!
I am 69 and my hubby is 74. We have never traveled with insurance. On our Auckland visit, my husband collapsed on the street. Now he doesn’t want to travel without travel insurance.
So sorry to hear that your husband took a fall in Auckland Carol :( Hopefully it wasn’t too serious, but I’m glad that he’s not traveling without insurance anymore.
Stay safe out there! X
I have never actually bought travel insurance. But I can see how its better to be safe than sorry when traveling. Will look into it for future travels – very helpful information.
Can HIGHLY recommend organizing travel insurance for your next trip – it’s something you never want to know the value of, but if you have to, never want to find yourself in a situation where you regret having underestimated it’s importance.
Glad the post was helpful for you :)