TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums World Wide Travel Why should buy travel insurance?

Give me a few advice for why buy to travel insurance to every traveler.

Insuremytrip

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Many plans - many options - illness, weather, loss of property, other factors...go over the fine print carefully before you purchase....

Extremely simple explanation. You buy trip insurance to cover any trip costs that you will not recover should you be unable to start or complete your trip. Look at Insuremytrip as suggested as each policy covers things a bit differently.

In addition to costs you can't recover, there are the costs you might incur if you are stuck somewhere you didn't plan on. Many trip costs are refundable if something like a hurricane messes up your trip, but if you have to stay someplace other than home longer than expected, you're on your own. Most of my claims have been for hotels/meals/car rental when I've been stuck en route due to my home airport being closed due to something like a blizzard.

If you travel somewhere that has medical care that is not up to your standards, you will likely want to get someplace that does meet your standards. Here is an example, you are on a cruise ship and you have a neurological emergency. You are put off in a port that does not have a neurosurgeon. If you have medical evacuation insurance, you may be able to get the help you need. If you don't, and you don't have a $50,000 credit line, you may not get the help you need. It is pretty simple.

My opinion is, Travel Insurance is necessary in order to provide protection to you and your loved ones at every critical mishappening during the journey. It is therefore, whether you're embarking on an trip to a foreign country or visiting to a nearby city, it is strongly advised to take out a travel insurance policy before your trip. For example in case of delay of flight, loss of baggage, stolen documents, medical emergency, evacuation to the home country, reimbursement of staying cost, lost or stolen possessions.etc

Medical insurance, especially evacuation to a trusted facility, makes some sense to me. You have to understand the details about pre-existing conditions, though.

I am going to take a different view of trip cancellation insurance. For an upcoming trip to Europe, my non-refundable expenses will be about $15,000 (one very expensive package, train tickets, prepaid hotels). A fairly basic insurance plan is $1k. So about 7% of the amount they would pay if I had to cancel. Obviously the insurance covers a bunch of extremely unlikely events but family illness is by far the most common.

Is that a good value? I'm not so sure. The insurance company has actuaries that know selling insurance like that makes financial sense for them. If they are pretty much guaranteed to come out ahead in the long run, the chances are pretty good that most individuals won't.

To me, insurance should cover expenses I cannot reasonably afford - that's where the medical evacuation coverage makes sense. If I can afford to spend $15k on a vacation, it would be very unfortunate if something happened and I lost that money, but I obviously have it to lose. Same principal as buying an extended warranty on my TV: in the unlikely event it breaks I can afford to replace it if I want to.


Feel free to explain to me where I am wrong.

The best reason has got to be for health care. If you have an accident and need emergency assistance the cost for your treatment (and even a rescue if you're in a remote place). I heard of one British guy who fell ill in the US and ended up incurring over $500k of costs. I guess some places won't treat you unless you're insured - although again that might only apply in places like the US. So even if you have millions in the bank, that might not be good enough for the healthcare provider and might lead to delays while they check you can fund the treatment. And if you have millions in the bank why skimp on travel insurance?

Certainly, many travel companies, tours etc won't let you even start a trip unless you have insurance.

Insurance can also cover you with personal liability - again all fine if you're Bill Gates and can write a cheque. For everyone else that's a potential life saver.

We were just given insurance info to consider for an upcoming trip and it covers a lot more than 1K. Our problem is age because rates soar the older you are.

I believe seeitall said 1k was the premium. ~ 7% is about the industry standard