What You Need to Know about Travel Insurance

Travelling tips

There is a variety of travel insurance that is available for you. Your personal insurance carrier, your credit card company, travel agents and specialists all offer different forms of travel insurance. Sometimes your auto or health insurance or your credits already cover travel insurance related to your vacation. Now, this poses question of when should you ensure and which should you choose.

There are three major types of travel insurance. The first type is the medical coverage. For medical insurance, make sure you check their rules and conditions for age limits. Some insurance policies charge higher for seniors. The medical coverage includes medical and dental expenses incurred because of injury or illness.

A medical evacuation, which covers your transportation to a hospital in case you are injured in a remote area and need a helicopter, is typically included your medical coverage. You may however choose to purchase on a stand-alone policy.

Meanwhile, an accidental death and dismemberment policy acts like any life insurance policy paying your beneficiary a certain amount in the event of death.

The second type of travel insurance is trip protection. It can be purchased for a single or annual multi-trip basis. This insurance has three main parts: cancellation coverage, delay coverage, and trip interruption protection.

The first one covers insurance—prepaid expenses will be reimbursed—in case you need to cancel your trip due to illness or if a family member is sick or dies. The second one deals with transportation delays. In the event that your flight is delayed due to snow, your prepaid hotel expenses are covered. The last type is used in the event that you get sick while away and you want an interruption policy.

The third type of insurance is the luggage or car rental protection. It covers your rental car in case of an accident and your baggage and personal items are lost, damaged, or stolen. Take note however that most policies of this type do not cover loss or damage in flight and too expensive items.

With this type of travel insurance, make sure you read the rules and conditions. Sometimes your personal auto insurance might cover such. Further, look for policies that offer not only monetary coverage but also travel assistance.

Once you know all the types of insurance offered and what you need, the next question is how to buy one that you can maximize the benefits.

The first thing you should do is determine all the rules and conditions that are covered in your current insurance policies and credit cards. Check strictly all your policies if they still cover foreign countries in the event that you are traveling abroad.

Make sure that your expenses are covered up front and you get reimbursed later. Be sure that you understand very well the deductible and coverage limits. In addition, beware of travel insurance bundled with your trip by a travel agent. Most of the time, these are more expensive.

More importantly, if plan to avail a travel insurance, you should shop around and check and compare prices and coverage.

For further reading:  What is a Travel Agency?

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