Travel Insurance

Travel insurance is a policy for your safety when traveling to a domestic or foreign destination. It’s essential to secure your journey by buying the best travel policy. A travel insurance policy can certainly be a savior in times of various emergencies while you travel overseas.

Several travel insurance plans come with packaged features that comprise various types of coverage like a trip interruption, trip delay, trip cancellation, medical coverage, medical evacuation, and many more.

Types of Travel Insurance

Individual Travel Insurance Plan

As the name suggests, individual travel insurance is meant for individuals who wish to opt for single or multi-trips cover. This is apt for solo travelers and if you frequently travel for work.

Family Travel Insurance Plan

Family travel insurance covers your spouse, kids, and parents while traveling abroad. This, too, can be opted for single or multi-trip purposes. If you wish to know which travel insurance is best in India, then pick a travel plan that can cover your entire family for the whole of the travel duration.

Group Travel Insurance

Consider a group of employees traveling abroad to participate in a business conclave. In such a situation, it would not make sense for every individual in the group to purchase their travel insurance policy – for the simple reason that it could considerably compound premiums. A group travel insurance policy is of much help here – considering it can help you save plenty on premiums without compromising the safety net against any unanticipated and adverse development that might take shape throughout the trip.

Senior Citizen Travel Insurance

Besides the usual advantages of purchasing travel insurance, a policy directed at senior citizens (generally 61-70 years) offers hospitalization coverage and may provide cashless hospitalization benefits.

Single and Multi Trip Travel Insurance

As the name suggests, a single-trip travel insurance policy retains its validity throughout the time you are on a trip. It covers medical and non-medical expenses (such as baggage loss, flight delays, etc.). On the other hand, a multi-trip travel insurance policy provides extended coverage (usually a year in most cases) so that frequent flyers don’t have to go through the entire process of availing of insurance every time they prepare for travel.

Overseas Education Travel Plan

For higher education, if you wish to study in an overseas nation, you would require travel insurance for a prolonged period to cover costs related to medical emergencies, loss of documents, loss or delay of checked baggage, and so on. 

MEDICAL TRAVEL INSURANCE

This type of policy is designed to cover expenses emanating from medical emergencies and other healthcare-related concerns. However, the exact inclusions and exclusions will vary across insurance providers.

It’s essential to compare various travel insurance quotes to acquire a travel plan at the best affordable price. Therefore, a comparison of travel policy quotes should be made to avail of the best travel insurance online at the lowest price.

Benefits of Travel Insurance

Some of the essential benefits of travel insurance are: –

Personal Accidents

There could be unfortunate situations that might happen when you are traveling abroad. For example, emergencies can happen unannounced, and so can accidents. When traveling to a new location, you might not know what to do in such cases. That is where travel insurance could be helpful. A travel insurance policy will cover the expenses incurred in such situations.

Loss of Baggage

There are chances that your baggage may get lost in transit or at an airport, and it is not uncommon to hear. Travel insurance would be able to tackle such a situation. A travel insurance plan can help provide cash benefits or reimbursement in baggage loss subject to fulfillment of certain conditions. However, if baggage is lost at an airport or due to the airline’s fault, the airport or the airline may entirely or partially make up the loss. So check the travel tickets and associate insurance for such events.

Passport Loss

A very terrible event that might occur is the loss of your passport. Because it is such an important document, you must be willing to keep it safe with you. Because the loss of your visa might hamper your travel plans in its entirety, it is an essential aspect of a travel insurance plan. Specific costs and procedures involve getting your passport back or making a new one in a different country. In most cases, you will be issued a temporary pass, with the help of which you can pass through immigration conditionally. The travel insurance policy covers the costs involved. This allows you to be much more relaxed in the process and, at the same time,e have no worries about the finances associated with losing your passport.

Emergency Medical Expenses and Repatriation

Injury or illness may occur anytime unannounced. However, imagine needing emergency medical attention abroad. It could be costly as you may need to pay medical expenses in an overseas location in their currency. It could be huge in some advanced nations, mainly Europe, the USA, and other countries. This is where an overseas medical policy would come to the rescue.

Trip Cancellation insurance

This type of policy or rider in the leading travel insurance plan reimburses you when specific circumstances prevent you from taking your trips; such as if your airline or tour operator goes out of business or if you have to cancel the trip due to sickness, a death in the family or another calamity listed in the policy. In addition, if you or an immediate family member becomes seriously ill or is injured during the trip, most policies would reimburse you for the unused portion of the vacation.

Difference Between Travel Insurance and Travel Medical Insurance?

Travel Insurance serves to insure a financial investment in a trip. The core benefit of travel insurance is the trip cancellation benefit, which provides reimbursement for nonrefundable, prepaid expenses if you must cancel your trip due to a covered reason. Many travel insurance plans also provide additional benefits related to other travel expenses. Depending on the travel plan and cost,  medical expenses may or may not be included.

Travel Medical Insurance provides coverage for unexpected health expenses you might incur outside your home country. Your regular health insurance may not cover you abroad, and there’s always a chance you could get injured or fall sick and need medical care during your trip. Travel medical insurance typically provides additional coverage for various travel scenarios but does not include a trip cancellation benefit.

Should You add Riders to Your Travel Insurance Policy?

Buying travel insurance can be tricky. You may want to ensure that you have good coverage in an emergency, but because you are only planning for emergencies, specific policies may seem like too much coverage for too much money. So, how do you decide which travel insurance would be the right fit for your travel plan?

You may need to check if any riders are available in addition to the base policy or if you need to take a comprehensive travel policy.

Riders are optional because they aren’t necessary, but if you are going to a place with certain risks or you have health conditions with certain risks, riders can help you with claims outside the standard insurance coverage.

Choose the riders that make sense for your trip. For example, a trip to a European country or the USA may need additional travel insurance as the cost of medical and other emergencies could be higher than in ASEAN countries. Riders could help in optimizing travel insurance costs and associated benefits.

Is Travel Insurance Compulsory?

More and more countries require proof of travel insurance from travelers as a requisite entry.

Negative, painful experiences of unpaid medical bills by foreigners have caused hospitals and healthcare organizations to push for insurance requirements so that these incidents are less likely to happen.

Many countries have also implemented testing requirements, quarantines, and mandated proof of health insurance, including COVID-19 treatment coverage.

Many countries have added travel health insurance as part of their visa requirements, and the list is increasing gradually. You should check the travel requirements of the country or countries you plan to visit.

Conclusion: Let Travel Insurance be Your Companion

Vacation travel can be revitalizing and can open you up to new experiences. However, it can also be expensive, and just because you’re off from work doesn’t mean that others would take care of you while abroad.

Different unforeseen circumstances could spoil your travel plans and may often lead to financial loss and mental agony.

Fortunately, the right travel insurance can help protect against these unforeseen losses. So before booking your trip, check the best available travel insurance and the required features and coverages. It would make your travel memorable.