When is Travel Insurance Necessary?


Travel Insurance
When you’re planning for a trip abroad, one thing often overlooked- or left till the last-minute- is travel insurance. No matter how careful you are, there are various factors and circumstances out of your control that can really put a dent in your travel plans. 

Travel insurance doesn’t come cheap and sometimes it just adds unnecessary financial weight on top of the other expenses already accumulated for your trip. 

This begs the question - when should you get travel insurance?

Geographical instability 
Do some research on your destination. Keep an ear and an eye out for any news report pertinent to the destination. News that might not directly involve the country in question would still be worth noting especially if there is trouble brewing in the region that might spill into the country you’re travelling into - trouble that might put you in harm’s way. Trouble might come in the form of terrorism or even natural disasters

Geo Instability

Apart from getting insured for any sort of physical injury or even death, travel insurance will cover you if the tumult in the country or region results in cancellation of your flight. This also applies if you’re travelling into a country that is known for its high-presence of criminal activities. You can never be too careful and falling victim to crime usually results in loss of valuables and physical harm.

Travel insurance will cover you and provide compensation for such maladies - this is especially crucial if it requires emergency evacuation due to a lack of proper medical facilities in that location.

Value of your baggage
If you’re travelling light with only carry-on baggage then there is practically no worries of your luggage being misplaced there is little need for you to apply for travel insurance. Even if you do have to engage the checked baggage service of an airline, whether or not travel insurance is necessary should be considered based upon the value of items in said baggage. It is not worth paying the often high prices of travel insurance premiums for losses of small or negligible value. Also in most cases, the airline will provide compensation for lost or damaged luggage which sufficiently covers any losses. Only apply for travel insurance if the loss of luggage causes significant financial grief.

Value of the trip
Consider what is at stake. It’s probably not worth investing in travel insurance if you’re flying on a really cheap budget air ticket - the price of the premium more than outweighs the price of the cheap ticket anyways. However, the same cannot be said if you’re planning an expensive trip.

If your credit card doesn’t already offer you coverage
Some credit card companies provide coverage when you book your trip using their card for free. Most credit card companies however, only provide basic and sometimes unnecessary coverage. It is generally a good idea to do a check on the extent of coverage the credit card company provides and coming to a conclusion on its sufficiency. If the coverage doesn’t provide you with a peace of mind perhaps you might want to supplement that with a proper travel insurance plan.

Your trip involves extreme or adventurous activities
Whilst most travel insurance excludes coverage on certain types of adventure travels, there are certain companies that do provide coverage for such trips involving extreme or adventurous activities - at a price. Very careful consideration is needed in this case to determine the worth of getting such expensive coverage. What is the likelihood of something undesirable happening to you whilst carrying out such dangerous activity - is that likelihood worth paying such high premiums?

Adventures

Ultimately, whether a travel insurance is necessary or not should be based on how much it can work for you. Will it provide you with additional peace of mind and serve as something to fall back on if the undesirable happens? Or will it just be a needless financial burden?

If you do decide to get travel insurance, it is generally a good idea to snoop around for the proper insurance providers that allows you to cherry-pick the type of coverage that best suits the nature of your trip. Finally and most importantly, never leave it till the last minute because you don’t want to ever have to find out that you could actually minimize the financial impact from the unforeseen cancellation of your expensive trip by having a travel insurance policy.

This is a guest post.
 

Sharizzat is an avid traveller who loves adventure sports. He is mindful about how he spends his money. He writes for online shopping deals site ShopBack Philippines to fund his travels.

PisoandBeyond


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