Travel insurance covers unexpected and accidental financial loss that may happen when you are travelling. This includes emergency medical bills, trip cancellation, lost or stolen items, travel delays, etc.
For this reason, it usually does not include medical coverage for any pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes or pregnancy. On the same note, if you purchase travel insurance after an incident has happened, it goes without saying that the insurance company will not cover it.
How to Purchase Travel Insurance?
You can purchase travel insurance through:
- Global travel insurance providers. Many large and reputable companies such as Allianz, AXA, World Nomads offer coverage that covers the entire world. If you will be travelling frequently and to multiple destinations, these companies are a respectable solution.
- Comparison marketplaces. You can get travel insurance online, through brokers, or comparison marketplaces, who are sort of middle-men, such as Insubuy that work directly with travel insurance companies.
- Local Companies. Local companies usually offer coverage only for one destination country or region. They usually operate offline.
How to Choose Travel Insurance for International Travel?
When looking for the best travel insurance policy for your needs, you have to look for the following features:
Research About the Company
Make sure that you’re purchasing your policy from a reputable company. There are a ton of travel insurance comparison websites, such as Insubuy, who only work with reputable insurance companies and make it extremely easy to compare between different insurance policies.
Decide How Much Coverage You Need
When deciding how much coverage you need, you have to think of where you are going, what activities you will do, how long you are staying, and what you’re taking with you. So, you should always choose a policy which covers at least medical assistance, cancellation, and lost/stolen luggage.
- Is everything you consider important covered? For example, do you have coverage for medical expenses? How much will you have to pay from your own pocket before the insurance company steps in?
- What holiday activities are covered by your insurance?
- Is repatriation covered?
- Is there reimbursement for trip interruption or cancellation, and if yes, what’s the nature of it?
- Will you be covered if someone steals your belongings?
Find out If There Is Coverage for Where You Are Going
Before you purchase your travel insurance policy, you have to make sure that it covers your country of destination.
-
- Travel insurance for US Visa
- Travel insurance for Schengen Visa
Not all policies are valid for all destinations, and it is rare that a company will offer coverage for a country for which there is a travel warning in place.
Here is a list of countries where travel insurance is a mandatory requirement.
Read the Fine Print Carefully
It is very important that you read the fine print before you actually buy the policy. There can be a lot of confusing or misleading claims, which make you think you have more coverage than you actually do.
Likewise, you may not know you’re entitled to make a claim unless you carefully read the fine print, tiresome as it may be.
How Does International Travel Insurance Work?
Once you purchase a travel insurance plan, if any of the unfortunate incidents covered under the plan happen, you can file a claim with the insurance company and they will reimburse part or all of the costs, depending on the policy rules.
For example, if you fall ill while you are abroad, you can get the doctor’s note and medical bill and submit them to the insurance company to file a claim for re-reimbursement.
Although most people believe travel insurance only covers travel health insurance, there’s so much more to it. It also covers any expenses that you may suffer if you have to abruptly cancel your trip, if your luggage or any other personal belongings are stolen or lost, as well as repatriation of remains in case of loss of life.
How to File a Travel Insurance Claim?
You have to file the claim with your travel insurance company as soon as possible. For this, you need all the supporting documents you can get, if you want the company to actually consider your claim legitimate and cover it. Examples include:
- If you need medical assistance. If you get into an accident or become ill during your trip abroad, you have to save the medical bills, doctor notes, and any other documents that prove you require medical assistance. Once you submit your claim, the insurance company will reimburse the costs of your treatment. In countries like the US, if you have travel health insurance with a reputable health insurance company, the hospital may be able to bill the costs directly to the insurance company.
- Stolen possessions or a car accident. If your personal belongings are stolen or you get into a car accident while you are on your trip, you have to contact your travel insurance provider as soon as possible to learn how to proceed. You must also file a police report, and save the proof for when you make the insurance claim.
- Trip cancellation. If you have to cancel your trip, you must give a reason for it to the insurance company. For example, if the reason was work-related, include a letter from your employer. If the reason was health-related, include a doctor’s note, etc.
Remember:
- Make sure to contact your travel insurance providers before you depart the country you are visiting so you know what documents you need when making the claim.
- In some cases, travel insurance providers require that you contact them immediately in case something happens.
- Most importantly, read the insurance policy carefully to find out the exact steps your travel insurance company requires you to take to make a claim.
- Make copies of any documents that prove you are eligible for reimbursement.
How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost?
As a general rule, the cost of your travel insurance plan is between 4% to 12% of the overall cost of your trip. More expensive trips will usually cost more to insure simply because if the trip is canceled for some reason, the amount of money that the travel insurance company will have to reimburse is higher. However, the cost also changes depending on the following factors:
- The coverage you need. Plans with just basic health coverage will cost less than plans that include other factors as well, such as trip cancellation, theft of possessions, etc. Even on just basic health insurance, there are different levels of coverage, which can affect the cost of the insurance plan.
- The duration of your trip. The same plan, with the same amount of coverage, will cost more for a trip of 30 days than it will if you are only traveling for only one week or a couple of days.
- How many people are included in your plan. Similarly, if you only need to cover yourself in the plan, it will be less expensive than if you are purchasing health insurance for your entire family.
- Your age. Prices of travel insurance plans increase along with the age of the traveler. People over the age of 65 usually pay more for plans because they are more likely to make a claim, whereas if you have young children, you may be able to add them to your plan with no extra costs.
- Your destination. Some travel insurance companies also look at where you are traveling to when pricing your plan since some destinations have a higher level of risk than others.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Best Way to Purchase Travel Insurance?
A comparison marketplace, or a broker, is usually the best way because they only work with reputable companies and can offer travel insurance plans customized to your needs, meaning you don’t have to go hunt down insurance companies yourself.
When is the Best Time to Get Insurance?
The recommended time to purchase travel insurance is within 15 days from the day you booked your trip or started paying for it/made your first deposit. As the departure date nears, and you make more deposits, you can include them on your coverage as well.
If you purchase your insurance last minute or after 15 days have passed from the day you booked the trip, you may not be able to get full coverage.
Additionally, if a natural disaster such as a hurricane happens or is expected to happen on your intended destination, and you buy insurance after it has been warned, trip cancellation will not be covered in this case.
Is Medical Insurance for Traveling Worth It?
Whether or not travel insurance is worth it comes down to how much you stand to lose if the trip is canceled. If you have prepaid your hotel room, flight ticket, and other activities which add up to a hefty amount, then getting travel insurance which is a fraction of that price may be worth it.
However, if you are traveling to stay with family, and have purchased a cheap round-trip ticket, you do not risk losing that much, so travel insurance, in this case, may just be a waste of money.
Another instance when travel insurance is necessary is if you are traveling to a country with high costs of health care, such as the US. If you get sick or in an accident in a country with high costs of health care, the medical bill can easily shoot up to tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, so the insurance cost is just a fraction of it.
Ultimately, it is up to you to judge the odds and decide whether your trip requires insurance or not.
How to Save Money on Travel Insurance?
Although it is a known fact that travel insurance policies with lower prices have less coverage and may end up costing more if you need to make a claim, you can still make smart purchases and save money on your travel insurance:
- Do not buy from your travel agency or airline. If you book a trip or flight, the tour agencies or airlines will sometimes offer complimentary travel insurance as a package deal. Although it is convenient, in many cases, they have additional fees, and you will end up paying more for travel insurance than you need or what you are actually getting.
- See if you can get it online. This is not only better because it allows you to compare more policies through comparison websites, but a lot of travel insurers offer discounts for online purchases.
- Buy it early. Try to buy travel insurance as soon as you book a trip because it will cover for any costs that happen between then and the time the trip actually takes place.
- Know what you are insuring. The term “better safe than sorry” may be true, but there is also such a thing as too safe. For example, if you have a refundable trip, don’t get reimbursement coverage, since travel insurance companies will only cover non-refundable trips either way.
- Don’t get high premiums on baggage loss/theft if you’re not taking valuable items with you.
- Get group insurance. If you are travelling as a family, getting group travel insurance is cheaper than getting it for each member individually.
- If you travel frequently, get an annual, multi-trip policy rather than a new policy each time you travel. Usually, with an annual policy, there is a limited period of time you are covered for each time you leave the country.
- Check if you already have travel insurance via your credit card.
Note: You shouldn’t try to save money on travel insurance by getting a policy with inadequate coverage or high deductible/excess (the amount you have to pay from your own pocket before the insurance company covers the rest). If you choose a travel insurance plan with a high deductible, the plan itself will be less costly, but if you have to make a claim, you’ll be losing more money in the end.
Credit Card Travel Insurance. What Is It?
Many credit cards have their own “build-in” travel insurance if you use the card to make purchases. It will offer coverage for the usual things, like medical emergencies, cancellation, and loss/theft of personal belongings.
Things to know about credit card travel insurance:
- You have to pay an annual fee for it, which is about $100 to $400 per year, depending on the bank.
- The card offers coverage for trip cancellation, interruption, or delay, lost or delayed baggage, rental car insurance, travel accident insurance, and insurance for emergency evacuation.
- Medical travel insurance is secondary, which means it usually only covers the part that your regular travel insurance policy doesn’t.
- It will activate after you buy a flight ticket or, in some cases, book a hotel.
- There is usually a minimum amount you have to pay for the ticket (say, $400) in order for you to be eligible for travel insurance. If you pay less, your card travel insurance won’t activate.
- Credit card travel insurance has a higher deductible/excess than regular travel insurance. That means you have to pay more from your pocket before the insurance takes over.
- There is usually no age or location limit.
- You may have to notify the bank beforehand if you want to use travel insurance from your credit card.
- You have to pay for your expenses with your card. If you pay by any other means, you won’t be covered.
How to Complain About an Insurer?
If you encounter problems with your travel insurance provider and believe you’re being treated unjustly, then you have the right to file a complaint. Normally, all travel insurance companies have their own internal complaint procedures. If you cannot reach a solution with your travel insurance provider, then you have the option of turning to an external dispute resolution scheme.
But first, make sure that you have a right to complain in the first place.
- Read over the policy rules carefully. Check for any small print that will explain or put into perspective your situation. Check the “exclusions” list – the activities the insurance policy does not provide coverage for.
- Think of your situation. Are you making the claim because you had an accident due to “recklessness”, or did you leave your luggage unattended, so it was stolen? Most insurance policies do not cover injuries related to extreme sports and reckless behaviour. Even skiing is sometimes off limits if it happens during the off season.
- Do you have all the documents which prove your right to a claim? For example, hospital bills, police reports in case of stolen luggage, receipts and unused tickets for trip cancellation, etc.
However, if you have read over all the fine print, have all the supporting documentation, and you strongly believe you have been wronged, the first thing you can do is make a written complaint to the travel insurance company directly. There should be a section of the company which deals with customer complaints, with the right procedure.
You should give it a few weeks for them to respond to your complaint.
If a resolution is not reached with the company directly, then you can turn to a financial dispute resolution authority. Depending on your country, there are different organizations or institutions you can turn to when you have to reach a resolution to a financial dispute, such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK or the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) in Australia.
Should I Get Travel or Health Insurance?
Keep in mind, that travel insurance is not the same as international health insurance, which is intended for expats and students who are not technically just visiting. However, expats may also purchase travel insurance if they want to travel abroad from their country of residence.