Many of us think that travel insurance is an additional and unnecessary expense. Therefore, a lot of times we ask ourselves, why buy travel insurance and incur the extra cost?
In reality, travelers underestimate the significance of travel insurance. They don’t really get what’s the real purpose of such a document. Notwithstanding, many countries have made it mandatory for visitors to have a travel insurance. Specifically, the Schengen Area have stringent rules in this matter.
Today, if you’re in doubt why you need a travel insurance, then this informative article is for you. Here are 5 reasons travel insurance is important for all your travel plans.
1. Flight Cancellations or Delays
This covers you for costs if unexpectedly you find yourself unable to go on your trip for some unanticipated reason. Such reasons may include illness, accidents or death of a close relative. Your insurance will reimburse you the unused hotel cost and travel ticket.
As for the trip delay or cancellation, this is normally the airline’s responsibility. It usually happens within some sort of evading a natural hazard or a technical problem. However, in case of a delayed flight, your travel policy will cover additional expenses that the airline did not reimburse.
2. Loss of Baggage, Passport or Documents
The day you have been eagerly waiting for has arrived. However, the airline has made a mistake and sent your baggage to a different destination. Luckily, if you have a travel insurance and coverage for delayed, stolen or lost baggage, you can relax.
You will reimburse all the essential items’ costs, new clothes and personal belongings. With coverage for lost passports or documents, you’ll have help accelerating and acquiring a duplicate.
Additionally, the process of replacing and paying for a new passport or any essential document will be faster and more reliable. Therefore, an insurance provides a moral and material support in such a difficult situation.
On top of that, if you are taking your laptop, camera or any other valuables with you, all of these can be secured as well. Many travel insurance plans allow you to specify these items as a cover for high value belongings. However, please remember to bring a police report back to the insurance company from the foreign country where the incident took place.
3. Medical Emergencies
While most think that the loss of personal items is often the main reason to buy travel insurance, it is possibly the least important when compared to your health!
Your things can be replaced but your health… most probably not. When you have travel insurance with emergency medical benefits, it can pay for losses due to covered medical emergency.
Moreover dental emergencies can also occur and an insurance will cover them. Your sweet tooth should never ruin your holiday, pun intended…
Therefore, all you have to do is to go to the hospital and call the assistance number on your policy, and they will take care of the rest. But what if you require medical evacuation? This is the case of traveling back with a special procedure after breaking a limb for example.
Consequently, this can cost huge amounts, depending on the country you’re in. Therefore, when you’re wondering “Is travel insurance worth it?”, just weigh the small fee of buying the insurance against the gigantic costs of a medical emergency overseas.
4. A Political Turbulence or A Terrorist Event Occurring
Imagine this scenario, paying for a full excursion to a country in the Middle East and suddenly a terrorist attack occurs. Therefore, will you be able to digest that you lost all your travel investment? Specifically, if all the costs incurred are non-refundable?
The above is certainly a nightmare. With terrorism coverage, you can cancel your trip without losing all the money you’ve spent.
In addition, if riots and political unrest occurred during your trip, you can rest assured. You may fly back immediately to your home country with a terrorism coverage. As the latter will enable you to evacuate the country for safety reasons and be able to reimburse the cost of the ticket once your back home.
5. Evacuation Due to A Natural Disaster
Your long awaited trip to Japan has arrived. However, something else has arrived too! A major earthquake has hit the country and your hotel is significantly destroyed.
Will you lose all your money saved for the trip? After all, you worked so hard to gain them to pay for this holiday. Therefore, with travel insurance protection for natural disasters, you’ll be able to receive all the costs incurred.
On the other hand, if Japan is not your cup of tea, then what about the Caribbean? You arrived to your destination and a huge hurricane swipes the location. Correspondingly, you will have to leave the country immediately.
However, your scheduled departure is not happening before one week. So, should you pay for another return ticket? Hence, who will reimburse you for the second ticket you paid? Of course, your insurance company will.
Travel insurance is worth it when you’re traveling abroad. Moreover, not all health insurances cover medical emergencies outside of your home country. Most importantly, always check your policy benefits, conditions and policy wording carefully. Pay particular attention for the limits on this cover and all of the exclusions.
