Travel Insurance

Are you planning an expensive trip? Then, you might want to consider investing in travel insurance.

What is Travel Insurance?

Travel insurance is an insurance policy that you can purchase that will cover certain costs should you have problems during your trip. The costs covered might include replacing lost luggage to reimbursement for trips canceled due to threats of terrorism.

Types of Travel Insurance

There are many types of travel insurance, including insurance covering:

• Trip Cancellation
• Trip Delays
• Lost or Delayed Luggage
• Emergency Medical and Transportation
• Rental Car Damage or Loss

Many insurance companies package benefits so that you can pick a policy that more closely meets your individual requirements.

Travel Insurance Tips

Before buying travel insurance, check your other insurance policies to see what kind of coverage you already have. For example, if you are traveling domestically, your personal car insurance may cover any rental car accidents that you might have. However, your insurance policy may not cover rental cars when you travel internationally. Or, if you have homeowner’s or rental insurance, your lost luggage may already be partially covered under your policy. The additional costs that you may incur with travel insurance coverage might not be worth it.

Can you buy travel insurance benefits separately? The discounts offered by packaged insurance policies may not offset the additional costs of insurance that you do not really need.

Make sure that you understand the medical terminology that your travel insurance uses. If you do not understand what your policy’s definition of “pre-existing condition” or “look back period” is, you may end up without coverage should you become ill overseas. For that matter, make sure that you understand the difference between “trip cancellation” and “trip interruption” before you sign your policy.

Read your policy, including the fine print, completely and carefully. This should be automatic for any type of contract that you are going to sign. Remember, you will be signing for what the policy states, not what the agent says.

Not all states require travel insurance companies to be licensed. Make sure that your travel insurance company is licensed, or you may have trouble collecting.

Check to see if your travel insurance reimburses you for any costs that you incur or if your insurance company can be billed directly. Most travel insurance companies operate on reimbursement, so you will have to pay your bills and submit the appropriate paperwork to your insurance company.

Travel Insurance Costs

What will your travel insurance cost? Generally speaking, travel insurance starts at around five percent of your trip’s costs. The longer that you stay, the more your policy will cost. And, the older you are, the more expensive your policy might be.

Travel Insurance – The Bottom Line

• Make sure that you comparison shop before buying.
• Make sure that you understand exactly what your policy covers.
• If you are traveling to a country that is troubled, make sure that you understand what might or might not be covered in case of undeclared war or terrorist attacks.
• READ THE POLICY COMPLETELY BEFORE PURCHASING IT.

~Laura Evans Staff Editor

Laura Evans is a freelance writer living in Southern California.

More On This Subject

Travel Europe- Your European Traveling Guide
First Class Travel Europe Vacations
Visit Alaska - American's Last Frontier