What is Travel Insurance?
Many of us take out holiday Travel Insurance, but few know really what it is and how it can be defined. If you know what is included, you will be able to make the most of your protection.
In general terms, holiday insurance protects a traveler holiday costs against adverse events such as cancellation and interruption and also reimburses medical expenses, the loss or damage of property and transit delays. Travelers are compensated if they have to cancel or interrupt their travel, they will also be covered should they need emergency medical treatment, medical evacuation and other situations.
The main categories of holiday Travel Insurance:
Delays and cancellation – including curtailment
Delay: This reimburses travelers for hotel, food or clothing expenses in the event of a flight delay. Some plans also cover costs associated with catching up with a cruise should another delay cause the traveler to miss embarkation.
Cancellation: Reimbursement comes into effect if travelers have booked and paid for a holiday, but are unable to embark because of personal illness or injury, death (of the individual or of a family member), adverse weather conditions, airline strikes, terrorism, bankruptcy, sudden unemployment, jury duty or by sustaining serious damage to their home causing it to be uninhabitable due to fire or flooding.
Interruption: Travel Insurance companies pay money to policy holders abroad if they have to cut short their trip due to illness, death (of the traveller or a family member), weather, airline strikes, terrorism, bankruptcy, becoming unemployed, and other adverse conditions which mean that, due to events outside the control of the holiday-maker, a trip has to be curtailed.
Medical reasons
Medical and health reasons: Reimburses medical and emergency dental costs. Almost all holiday Travel Insurance plans work by reimbursing the traveler after they have paid locally for treatment. Claims are usually paid within 7 – 10 days. Pre-existing conditions are covered by most policies if the policy is purchased within (at the most) 21 days from the date the traveler made the first payment or deposit.
Medical evacuation: This provides emergency transportation to either a local hospital in the event that the traveler is unable to get there by themselves or back to a hospital near the traveler’s place of residence. If family members are covered on the same policy they can return home also.
Death of traveler
Air Flight accident – this covers death or dismemberment during an air flight only. Usually provides the highest amount of coverage due to fairly low likelihood of this occurring.
Common carrier – Covers death or dismemberment while travelling on public transport such as a plane, ferry, train bus or taxi.
Accidental death – covers death or dismemberment at any time of your trip. Usually provides the lowest amount of coverage due to a higher risk
Loss or damage of personal effects
Baggage loss – reimburses travelers for lost, stolen or damaged personal items. This coverage is usually restricted to the duration of the trip and not confined to baggage damaged or lost by the airline. There are two policy limits, total claim and per item maximum. Some policies also place limits on the type of items that can be claimed for – such as precious jewellery, laptops and sporting goods
Rental Car damage – Reimburses travelers for damage or loss to a rental vehicle. It is designed to allow the traveler to decline collision damage waiver (CDW) coverage offered by the car rental companies. Liability coverage should still be purchased through the car rental company. Rental Car Damage coverage is also often included with the credit card used to pay for the car rental which is often matches the coverage provided in the policy.
Assistance services – provides a 24-hour collect telephone advice and assistance service to travelers. This service can be used anytime a traveler needs advice. Make sure you don’t leave home without it.
In conclusion
holiday Travel Insurance is the one product in the modern Travel Insurance saturated world that really is essential. You will not regret taking it out, but not being insured for your travel mishaps is a source of huge regret for far too many holiday-makers every year
Travel Insurance rates
Probably the biggest factors when calculating travel insurance rates premiums is the length of the cover required. If you are taking a two-week vacation, there is a much lower risk than if you are making a yearlong voyage around the world. That said, there are many annual travel insurance rates policies that cover all the trips you make in a single year and if you make more than a couple of separate trips, annual protection may work out cheaper. Often family protection policies are not too much more expensive than a single person’s policy so if you get the whole family insured together you are also likely to save.
Another big factor is where you are traveling. While some countries represent more health risks, as they are more dangerous, it is also a fact that poorer countries often have far lower medical costs so travel insurance rates tends to be highest for travelers in North America and Europe, with the US specifically recognized as having high health care costs. If you plan special high-risk activities such as skiing or mountain climbing you will either need separate travel insurance for this occasion, or to have the activity specifically added to your policy, as there is a good chance it will be excluded.
travel insurance rates premiums are calculated according to several risk factors. These are the factors identified by the travel insurance rates company as most likely to have an impact on the insured against risk occurring. travel insurance rates is a significant cost associated with the item insured and should not be rushed into. It is always a good idea to shop around for the best price available. travel insurance premiums will vary considerably from insurer to insurer so do your homework.
Look up the various travel insurance rates companies you are interested in and ask them for a quote. They can usually give you a rough estimate fairly quickly and even more exact quotes should also be possible if you provide more details and wait. You should also look up insurers online and get instant quotes from their website. This is a very fast and effective way of shopping around. You will get a good idea of what prices to expect. You can also experiment with the quotation websites to see what effect it makes to your premium price if you select different options. With all travel insurance policies you will have a number of options that affect the price of the policy. Therefore you should think about these options and if there are risks that you do not wish to cover then let the insurer know as your premium should become cheaper.
You should also try to make sure you do not double insure. It is a principle of travel insurance rates that you cannot benefit from the insured event’s occurrence. So you cannot get paid twice even if you have two travel insurance rates policies. So if a risk is already covered by one policy, again let your insurer know so they can remove it from their calculation.