Why You Should Purchase Travel Insurance
So the question of the day is should I purchase travel insurance or not? I will try to answer this as best as possible and share our experiences with you. Typically, we do purchase travel insurance when it involves any travel outside of the country such as our previous trip to Reykjavik, Iceland and several of our cruises in the Caribbean.
For a day trip or weekend getaways within the United States, we do not purchase travel insurance. The big thing to think about is the cost of your trip. For example, are you driving to a local campground and spending the weekend in a tent or are you flying somewhere far away and paying for accommodations and transportation once you get there? I do not know about you, but the thought of losing money on a more expensive trip if something happened and you couldn’t go makes me feel very unnerved.
Ultimately travel insurance is still insurance and paying for something you may or may not need is always difficult, especially when travelling on a budget. That is why it is ultimately up to you to decide whether it fits your specific travel plans or not. As always, hopefully this post will help provide you with some of the reasons to consider travel insurance. Please let us know below in the comment section if you have used travel insurance in the past and if you have ever had to make a claim under your travel insurance policy!
Table of Contents
Trip Cancellation
There are a variety of travel insurance plans and options out there and it can be very overwhelming. Typically, you can choose from a basic, middle of the road, or deluxe travel insurance plan and within each plan they company will specify what is covered for trip cancellation. The most expensive plans include an option referred to as Cancel for any reason (CFAR). CFAR travel insurance packages are more costly because they give you the ability to literally cancel for any reason whereas a standard travel insurance package will specify what exactly “qualifies” for a valid reason for trip cancellation.
Most people will find that a standard package without CFAR is much more affordable and will cover some additional factors that I will discuss below. We have traveled in the past without travel insurance, but more recently we have decided to pick up travel insurance on our out of country trips, or on trips which we would not want the possibility of missing due to an unforeseen issue, and have no chance at getting some or all of our money back.
Medical Emergencies and Evacuation
This is probably the main reason why someone should consider purchasing travel insurance. Hospital costs in the United States can easily exceed $10,000 per day. If you think that sounds bad, consider the fact that medical evacuation, where you have to be flown out of a foreign country or island back to the United States, can easily exceed $100,000. I do not know about you, but most people do not have the resources to easily pay for either of those options!
One thing to note, every plan varies a bit as far as coverage. It’s a lot like auto insurance in that they have maximum amounts they will cover, so you may want to research your options to make sure you are purchasing something that will cover you if needed. One thing to consider is to examine the level of activities while on your trip. Are you going to be backpacking and hiking in the mountains, or relaxing in the sun on the beach sipping a tropical drink? Obviously an active trip has much more opportunity for an injury to happen due to level of activity and stress you are putting on your body.
Baggage and Personal Belongings
Anyone who has travelled extensively, knows that misplaced or lost bags and personal items can be a fairly common occurrence and can add a ton of stress to travelling. This coverage can be used for clothing and other personal items, but is very essential for someone bringing expensive camera equipment or a tablet or laptop with them as these items can be quite costly! Make sure prior to bringing these items on a trip, that you photograph them and mark down any serial numbers to aid you in case you need to make a claim down the road. As I mentioned above, it is worth noting the limit on the policy as some travelers bring more costly items with them while others travel with the bare essentials. One note of caution, make sure that you check the limits of coverage as they may not be high enough to cover more expensive equipment!
Pre-Existing Conditions
This piece is something to consider, especially if you are travelling with someone that has medical issues or has experienced frequent health issues. Not everything qualifies as a pre- existing condition, so you will need to read the fine print on your travel insurance plan to see what exactly qualifies. A pre-existing condition is any illness, injury, disease, or other medical condition that occurs prior to the travel plans effective date and for which you had symptoms and sought a diagnosis, medical treatment, and or new prescription medications or a change in your current prescription. Travel can be stressful for some people, so if you have a pre-existing condition and are concerned with your ability to travel this piece of a package would be very important purchase prior to travelling.
Travel Delay
Any time that Brian and I are flying somewhere, we always shudder at the memory of spending the night at The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport! We will save that story for another post! If you elect to purchase travel insurance and they have travel delay coverage, and your trip is delayed for six or more consecutive hours for a covered reason, then you can be reimbursed for travel delay. This includes meals, accommodations, and transportation up to the specified policy limit. Although nobody wants to deal with the hassle of travel delays, they can happen and it does help to be able to be reimbursed for their inconvenience.
Why Buy Travel Insurance from WorldNomads.com?
- Backed by specialist insurers and global assistance partners
- Buy Online, even if you’ve already left home
- Buy more cover and claim online while travelling
- Covers a range of adventure sports and activities
- Give a little back and support a community development project
You can buy and claim online, even after you’ve left home. Travel insurance from WorldNomads.com is available to people from 140 countries. It’s designed for adventurous travellers with cover for overseas medical, evacuation, baggage and a range of adventure sports and activities.
We hope this post helped you in deciding whether or not to purchase travel insurance. Even though we love saving money, we will always recommend buying travel insurance for more expensive trips where you stand to lose much more money than the cost of a travel insurance plan!
