Trust me when I say that travel insurance can cover your back for any unwanted experience during your trips, with exceptions to argument with your spouse, or kids cursing you for not having them eat ice cream, or if you didn’t liked a particular local cuisine. On a serious note, travel insurance is that finance partner which will save you from the worst that can happen in your trip. Not having one doesn’t make you invulnerable but poses a great risk. In order to have the most secure policy, you should know what all you can cover yourself from. So here we are.
1 – Medical Expenses
This one is very important. It’s rightly said, Health is Wealth, and if something messes up with your body, you are in great trouble, which could also be lifelong or life taking. Any foreign element could affect your body, you must be prepared. You must pay extra attention to what kind of medical expenses are covered in the insurance.
You must check before hand what percentage of the medical bill will be compensated by the insurance company. You must check if there are many special diseases that are not covered in the insurance. If you are travelling to a country where a specific kind of illness is widespread, then make sure its treatment is covered in the insurance.
Another important factor you must keep in mind is check for the network of hospitals that your insurance company is connected with and make sure that at least couple of them are there in the destination you are travelling to. This will ensure instant help withoit the worry of money in case of medical emergencies.
2 – Repatriation Service
Another important aspect that usually takes lots of money to accomplish. With the onset of COVID we have seen many such cases where patients are left stranded in foreign countries without the means of getting out. Imagine you being stuck in a hill without roads and with legs fractured. Your only way out is a helicopter ride, which could also cost a bit.
Repatriation services are often connected to medical emergencies, as these are the situations from where you cannot get out by yourself or you require additional help. Just think if you meet with a major accident, and the destination you are in is in dearth of doctors that can treat you. Such medical emergency evacuation can handled with repatriation service.
Look out for this service or clause in the travel insurance especially if you are travelling to some third world country and have a long stay. It can always come in handy in situations gone wrong.
3 – Cancellation of Trips
There are many unexpected situations that can lead to cancellation of your trip, and trust me it happens more than often with most of us. This clause will help you cover the expenses you might have paid in advance for Hotels, rental cars, and flights. If you have demanding commitments, it’s good to look for this one.
While choosing the travel insurance be wary of the terms and conditions about the cancellation of trip. It could be personal reasons and professional reasons both. Important thing is that how far your travel insurance is ready to cover for you. Are their any exclusions reserved for cancellation of trip, or is there any time frame within which you have to cancel the trip to be compensated.
Many travel insurance companies will not admit last moment cancellations. Some will deny compensation is the cancellation is done because of any minor illness. Make sure that you have the right policy which suits your preferences and committments.
4 – Missing your ride
This one is a lifesaver when you are already panicked due to running out of time. If you miss you flight, bus, train, or boat, this will cover your expenses of next ride and additional ones of like accommodation, etc. We all have at some time or the another missed our rides, and when things go awry we are left with guilt.
Missing the ride can happen because of traffic problems, or because of some last minute appointment that you got to attend, or it can also happen because of the miss communication between you and the flight operator. The reasons can be endless, but the point is to be prepared for any such circumstances.
If your house is near to the airport, or if you are a person of routine and strict time deadlines, then you need not to worry too much about it. For the rest of us, missing a ride can really be a problem. Before hopping on to the purchase of your travel insurance, also check what are the exclusions for missing the ride.
5 – Delay of Trip
Any industrial action, or unexpected storm, or even mechanical breakdown can interrupt your journey. But not to worry, this will cover you from the odds and pay you certain amounts in any case of such an event. Trip delays are very common, and can arise out of number of reasons. It can happen before you start your journey, or it can also happen during your journey.
Any medical reason can be a cause of the delay of the trip, so find the link between the medical cover and the cover for delay of trips. If you are enthusiastic enough for your holiday, then nob one can stop you from having a memorable time, unless you end up with a fractured leg before going on a hiking trip. But on a serious note delays in trip do happen.
When delays happen, your hotel bookings, your flight bookings, your rental car bookings, all are jeopardized. Then comes the time of rescheduling the trip and making amendments in the bookings. It can cost you a lot, but if your travel insurance company covers this, then you are in good luck and will be able to save a lot in such situation.
6 – Baggage
This must have happened to all of you least once in life (If not, we pray it doesn’t). Baggage being stolen, damaged, lost or destroyed. This is one of the most common aspects of travel, and you should always look out for this one. Without your baggage or destroyed baggage you trip will hardly take minutes before it gets ruined.
It is impossible to repair the damage, or bring back your baggage unless the police of your destination is super smart, but a compensation can always come in handy. Juts think if you have gone to some foreign luxury destination and your bag containing your pricey dresses is stolen, you will have no other choice to buy new clothes, and that is going to cost you more than little.
Make sure that before going on vacation, you have a rough estimate on how much is your baggage worth, or the total cost of the items in it. This will help you in covering your baggage for a certain amount. Some travel insurance companies will also include this for free and will compensate you with a lump sum amount.
7 – Personal Liability
This one is rather rare, especially if you are too careful about your actions. This will cover any pay out you are liable for due to accidental injury made to someone, or any damages done to someone’s property. When you are travelling you are generally more cautious, but unwanted things and accidents can happen always.
If you are planning to rent a car in some foreign destination then we assert that you look for this feature in your travel insurance. No matter how good a driver you are, no matter if you haven’t met with any road accidents in past, but accidents can always happen. It is obvious by default that you do not know the driving customs of a destination, you do not know how good or how bad the traffic is there, you do not know if the destination has a good traffic personals deputed. It can happen that you bump into a car or worse into a person.
This also applies with your accommodations, whether you are living in a rented hotel or an AirBnb or a hostel while travelling, a little accident as common as electric caused fire can happen always. In such cases, you need to have the cover, as the interiors of such establishments especially the good ones are quite pricey.
8 – Dental expenses
Being the most common medical situation, it should be watched out. This will cover your emergency expenses occurred for any dental treatment that might be needed during your trip. Mostly the cover extends only for immediate relief of pain, but if you are careful about choosing the travel insurance it could also cover any accidental dental damage.
Dental expenses in many travel insurance companies is a part of the medical expenses cover, but at the same time in many travel insurance companies it is treated as a separate entity. In some policies it might not also be included and you will live to travel in the expectation that it is obvious that dental expenses will be covered in medical expenses.
To avoid any such misunderstanding, ask for the clarification about the dental expenses before hand. The last thing you would want is a broken teeth or unbearable tooth pain while travelling without insurance to cover for it.
9 – Money
It is another common problem to which the credit goes to pickpockets and muggers that continue to exist in the world around us. You got to buy a travel insurance that covers wallet cash, traveller’s cheque, credit cards, and debit cards, in case of event when they are stolen or lost. After all you wont be able to sustain your trip is your money is gone.
These incidents happen very often especially when you are travelling to popular destinations. The chances of such incidents increase when there is lot of rush in the destination. Also keep in mind that you are also covered for any cases related to credit card scams or debit card scams. Such incidences are also very common these days with advent of newer technologies and hacks to crack them.
The thing to watch out for money cover is that how much compensation will you receive in any such event. For cards and traveller’s cheque the the theft can be tracked but for cash it becomes a little tricky when it comes for compensation.
10 – Terrorism
World has become unsafe and the credit goes to those extremist radicals that use violence to spread their evil message. This will cover you from such an act for the medical expenses occurred, or damage to baggage, or even loss for your life. You got to admit it that radicals are out there everywhere, and no place is hundred percent safe.
You must watch out for the cover from terrorism especially in cases when you are travelling to countries most affected by it. If you are travelling to countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, or say Syria, then this cover must be the first thing that you should watch for. Many travel insurance companies will have exclusion list for many countries,m so you have to ensure your safety with right insurance.
This cover most of the times doesn’t gets applied unless you land up in a wrong country, but do check for it, many travel insurance companies do not even cover such accidental covers.
11 – Loss of Passport
It is another event that happens quite frequently though not to same people. Any expenses occurred due to loss of passport, like travelling extra miles to get back home or embassy or additional accommodation will all be covered by this feature of the travel insurance. If you are travelling abroad then you got to be cautious about any such circumstances.
In many events, loss of passport can also be related to loss of baggage. This happens when you loose your baggage and the passport was inside that. In fact this is the most common reason why your passport got lost. To be prepared for any such cases do not be relaxed that your loss baggage is already covered so why to worry. Do check with your travel insurance company.
Loss of the passport while travelling abroad could also cause you to miss the flight. Check with your travel insurance company if any such incident falls in the cover of the policy.
12 – Airline Failure
With number of Airlines opening every now and then, number of airlines going out of operation are also increasing. In case you have bookings with an airline going out of business, this will cover your expenses from going to drain. Yes airline failure is a thing, and it happens more frequently than you probably think.
In western countries and even in the European countries there are lots of airlines, especially the budget airlines that often are not able to sustain their business. If you have booked a flight ticket with any such airlines whose news is making headlines about failures to sustain, then be cautious already, and check in your policy if you are covered.
The chances are that this incident will not happen in your life. But still many insurance companies keep the cover of any such incident in their policies. Note that if you are flying with a very reputed airline and your policy needs a la carte payment for this feature, then probably there would be no need of spending extra bucks.
13 – Winter Sports
If you have knack for winter adventure sports like skiing or snowboarding this coverage will save you from expenses occurred during any mishap of these sports. There are also many other adventure sports not covered by policy until made to do. You got to admit that adventure sports involves lots of risk and to be prepared for any accident is a proactive thing.
Many travel insurance companies will have an additional feature for any such cover. Especially if you are about to do sky diving, and are ready to spend that much amount of money along with risking your life, then you should even do this bit of travel insurance check. Sports like bungee jumping, and skiing are also risky, so be cautious.
Any adventure sport which takes you to the extreme should make you also consider buying that additional cover iof you are going on any such adventurous vacation.
Watch out for all things that matter!
