Travel Insurance - Buying Peace of Mind

Do you need travel insurance when travelling? The answer is yes, you do.

You might be willing to take the risk that nothing happens to you while travelling (which luckily is more likely than not). You could without a doubt use the money on something else.

However, saving money by not buying travel insurance is not real money saving, if something goes wrong you could end up with a big financial loss... taking the risk is just not worth it.

Why Do You Need Travel Insurance?

Your insurance does not only protect your investment in the trip, it does also protect you and your family.

Sometimes people have to cancel or interrupt their plans because of some unforeseen circumstances, say because of an accident or illness. If this happens before the trip, you might only lose your nonrefundable down payment (which can be substantial in some cases).

Medical expenses if you become ill or have an accident while you are travelling can on the other hand result in major financial loss if you do not have adequate international travel insurance.

Comprehensive insurance does cover you for all kinds of unforeseen incidents while travelling, e.g. if you become sick, injure yourself, lose your luggage, have to cancel your trip, if you miss your connection flight, etc.

That is why you need travel insurance... you are buying piece of mind.

What Should Your Travel Insurance Include?

Your personal circumstances and your travel agenda determine what the right insurance policy is for you and your trip. Your policy should at least cover you for the following possible incidents:

Protection for covering the loss of prepaid trip cost if you have to cancel before travellingProtection for covering medical expenses and emergencies while travellingProtection from loss of property while travelling (i.e. for loss or theft)

It is crucial to read the conditions / small print carefully to make sure you are fully covered for everything that you want to be covered for.

What To Have In Mind When Buying Travel Insurance?

Not all insurance policies offer the same coverage. They are often tailored towards the needs of certain types of travelers. There are special insurances aimed for students, business travelers, adventure travelers, cruise travelers, etc. Specialized travel insurance is usually a good option.

You can take out single travel insurance that covers you for the exact duration of your trip or you can take out more extensive continuous insurance policy that covers all your travels within a certain period of time, usually a year. The latter is a great option for frequent travelers.

You can buy insurance from most travel agents, travel suppliers or directly from an insurance company. Just make sure you are comparing apple and apple. You can't look at the price only, you must also compare what cover is included in the price and what the excess is.

Some credit cards offer travel insurance if you pay your trip with their credit card. Credit card insurance can be perfectly satisfying for some people or for some trips, but not for everyone all the time. Do check carefully what the credit card travel insurance covers. If it does not cover adequately what you want to be covered then get more comprehensive insurance policy.

It is always better to be safe than sorry where travel insurance is concerned.

Best Travel Insurance offers more detailed information about what your travel policy should include, what optional extras you might want to include and which extras are usually excluded.

Asa Gislason and her husband are the founders of http://www.top-travel-tips.com/. Top Travel Tips is a travel advice website that offers practical and unbiased international travel tips and advice. Their focus is to provide you with detailed travel advice that can save you both time and money when planning your next trip. They also provide information about products and services that can enrich your travel experience even further.

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