Travel Insurance – Understanding the Importance

Traveling is a word that can excite anybody. A trip to a foreign country or anywhere inside the country is really exciting, especially when it is your first one. Traveling to holiday soothes our body and mind. When it comes to traveling, the attention is solely on making the trip more fun. We all want our holiday to make memorable and want to leave all the worries and stress behind and enjoy it like never before. In India, most people usually underestimate external forces and avoid buying travel insurance. But One does not pay much heed to safety.

Why is it important to have travel insurance?
Travel insurance is very important which we all must know. It’s one of those things that few travelers consider and then regret not taking when it’s too late. Planning and Research play a vital role before traveling. Travel insurance offers you peace of mind. It covers oneself against travel risks which include lost or stolen luggage, cancellation cover due to unexpected medical reasons, unexpected medical costs etc.

We don’t leave any stone unturned for our trip. We spend a lot of time shopping, packing for the entire trip. But what if when instead of having fun we get into unforeseen circumstances. These things could happen to anyone. Nothing can be worse than leading towards this mishap on a holiday. Amidst this excitement, we must not overlook these consequences such as meeting with an accident or falling sick. It’s definitely an unfortunate mishap that we can’t control but we surely can precautions. Hence, one must stay prepared to brave the unforeseen circumstances.

The Basics of Travel Insurance
As the name suggests, travel insurance covers all your losses which may occur while traveling. Insurance is the best available option to manage all your risks while traveling. An insurance policy protects you against unseen threats and sudden happenings. An insurance policy is always useful no matter how safe the situation seems to be. It covers things like evacuations, medical expenses, cancellations, flight delays, loss or theft etc. You just need to spend a small amount to transfer the cost of your probable loss to the insurance company. But the coverage of losses depends upon the travel insurance policy you have. Most travel insurance policies usually include the following things such as Emergency medical assistance, Trip cancellation coverage, Medicines, and hospital costs, Emergency Evacuations, Surgery, and dental treatments, Medical emergencies, Urgent medical treatment for accidents, Lost baggage or passport, delayed flights etc.

What does a travel insurance policy cover?
Every insurance company has their own policy, but there are few policy they all have in common. They include Lost baggage or passport, delayed flights, Medical emergencies, Emergency Evacuations, Trip cancellation coverage etc. Let’s discuss in detail.

1. Lost baggage or passport, delayed flights etc:
This Travel Insurance provides a kind of protection to us while our traveling. As it covers you against loss of our passport or baggage. It aids you in making arrangements for a temporary passport and enables you to have a stress-free vacation. You also get a travel insurance coverage in case your flight has been canceled or delayed.

2. Medical emergencies:
The medical costs in countries such as the U.S. or U.K. are a bit rather thick. The protection against such financial risks are provided by these Travel Insurance offers via their policies and covers all of your medical expenses.or any death in the family.

3. Emergency Evacuations:
Your Insurance Company will pay the cost if you need to be evacuated in an emergency. It includes your return flights home or directly to a place you want.

4. Trip cancellation coverage:
This is the most widely used coverage in travel insurance. The travel insurance company provides rescue to us in our difficult situation during our trip by their policy. As in booking your trip, you risk your money by paying a considerable amount and If for any reason you had to cancel your trip. Then it will be really a big loss for us. These cancellations terms are generally considered for injury, sickness or any death in the family.

Things to know before travel insurance

It is advised to everyone to read the entire coverage details of a policy given by the Insurance Provider. Hence, it is important to read the policy wording carefully before buying your policy. As the coverage of losses depends upon the travel insurance policy you have. And to know that well, you have to go through the entire policy. Because your this ignorance to the coverage details may lead to the failure of a claim.

Some important things about travel insurance are,

• Choosing a good travel agent is very important who can guide you:
  There are many travel agents who can guide you and gives you good plans. But there also many agents who mislead. you can also take advice from your family or friends regarding this. And once you have experience, based on your own experience you can enable others to make a good decision regarding travel insurance for themselves. You could also provide them with valuable insight into their destinations.

• Travel Insurance is completely different from health insurance. The only difference is that health insurance is specifically designed to cater to health reasons.

• A travel insurance policy includes cover for lost baggage, delayed flights, medical expenses and so on.
• Travel insurance does not cover pre-existing health issues.
• Comparing travel insurance policy is a smart move.

Types of  Travel Insurances
There are various types of travel insurance policies available today. Let’s discuss the most important ones.
First one is a single trip which means that the insurance policy is valid for one trip only.
The multi-trip policy means that the policy is valid for multiple trips throughout the year.
The family travel insurance policy is the one that covers all your family members under one policy.

Let’s discuss in brief.
There are various types of travel insurance policies that you all can have :
1. Individual Travel Insurance
Individual travel insurance provides coverage for a single traveler covers the risks for a single traveler.
2. Family Travel Insurance
Family travel insurance provides coverage for a family. The family travel insurance covers the risks for all family members traveling with you. This type of plan provides comprehensive coverage to the entire family who is traveling on the trip. One needs to pay a certain premium for a policy that covers all family members on the journey. The sum insured is shared amongst all family members.
3. Student Travel Insurance
Student Travel Insurance is travel insurance specifically designed for students relocating abroad for further studies or just for a trip for studies, work or for any other reason.
4. Annual Multi Trip Travel Insurance :
It is like a combo offer. As the name suggests, this Annual multi-trip travel insurance policy is designed specifically for those who travel frequently throughout the year. This policy is valid for a period of one year. It depends on you, how periodically you want to set that. You can set your per-trip duration from various options available starting from one month. This type of policy also saves a lot of premium as compared to a single trip policy. The policyholder need not arrange to buy a travel insurance policy every time he goes on a trip.
5. Single Trip Travel Insurance
There are various subtypes in this policy type which is designed as per the need of the traveler. Single trip travel insurance is ideal for those who are not sure when they are going to travel in a year. They travel occasionally or according to a prior commitment. The most common inclusions in this type of policy are costs related to accidental death, emergency transport to the nearest medical centre, medical expenditure, disability benefit and loss of baggage or trip cancellation.

Whenever you book your next trip and ask for a quote, always include travel insurance. Most travelers think that travel insurance will increase the cost of traveling, hence they don’t take any travel insurance. But now you know the importance of travel insurance.
Book your trip with travel insurance, travel tensionless.