9 Things You Should Know About Travel Insurance

People are unaware of the risk they bear when they travel. Every single travellers should ask themselves, "Should I buy travel insurance?" in the first place. Generally, you should really consider the necessity for travel insurance before travel or when travel. Insurance is not only for yourself but for your loved one when emergency happened. You should ask yourself these few questions before buying travel insurance.

Are you well covered?

Sometimes you are covered under several insurances that you don't even know that. Company insurance of yours might take place if you are traveling for business. Government personal coverage might varies in this case. Sometimes your life or medical insurance policies might be temporarily voided if you are travelled over a longer period of time. Furthermore, you should always compare your policy limit with your expected coverage, always make allowance between them to cover your trip 100%.

Is your travel insurance companies reachable?

Are they able to come to your support when you need them? Is there any 24 hours emergency helpline for you? Sometimes, travel insurance doesn't do all of that while it might leave you helpless in facing unexpected emergency.

Compare between several travel insurance companies

Price comparison, insurance items covered are essential for us to know what can be claimed when we travel. Excess amount is the amount we have to bear by ourselves in order to claim from them. Travel insurance companies are often reviewed by those who had claimed from them. It's kinda hard to do the research in this part but listen to people that learnt from their lessons, it helps. 

Aware of the claim procedure

There are several cases where travel insurance company failed to justify according to your claim because your claim is lack of relevant documents. In this case, you have to be reminded to keep all the proof of purchase, police report and other necessary documents to proof that you are eligible to claim. Otherwise, your travel insurance might just be a waste.

Knowing what is covered

There are few common items that are often being included in the travel insurance, but you have to be aware of the amount and limit you are bounded to. For example, travel curtailment whereby you have to cancel your trip half way while you were there, it doesn't cover all the amount you have spent since the first day of your travel. Even you had to return because of emergency cases, you still have to bear the losses of your flight ticket due to the fact that you already utilized it! So, travel insurance is only for assisting your travel emergencies, it doesn't compensate your trip disappointment.

Type of travel

If you are an adventure goer, you should find out what are the extreme type of travel insurance available. Even though the premium will be higher, it does worth it if accident happens. There are certain categories of high risk sport activities included but not all of them, you have to be cautious about it. Besides, there are annual premium or single trip premium for different occasions travel.

Continuity of Insurance

Knowing the fact that you might be out for journey and the travel insurance that you bought might be expired before you end your journey. So, additional option that you have is extend the travel insurance with the same company. You should check with them whether they provide such a convenience for you. As for myself, I like to use World Nomads because they provide this feature and it's all done online!

Travel Package For Family or Partner

There are more package covered for those traveling with family members. Package will be a better option for people with family as they offer a cheaper premium with same amount of coverage.

Understand Their Policy and Read Through Fine Print

You have to really study through or have them explain it to you before you purchase any travel insurance. It is crucial as it is the key for you to protect your journey. Most of the travel insurance does require your responsibilities in taking care of your belongings, otherwise, your lost belonging claims will be rejected. Most of the buyers do not read the fine print carefully, when incident happened, they regretted it.

Common Frequently Asked Questions:

1. If I have pre-existing medical condition before purchasing travel insurance, do I entitled for the medical coverage for that treatment?
   • The answer is NO. Travel insurance only covers for injuries or medical conditions during your trip. If you going to extend your travel insurance, your previous existing medical conditions will not be covered in next premium but you can make a medical claim for your current premium.
2. If my belongings were stolen when I was sleeping, do I get a claim for my lost?
   • It depends on what are the conditions and the safety measure taken to protect your belongings. It’s always your responsibilities to take care of your belongings. You can inquire with customer service support before purchase your travel insurance. Always remember to read your travel insurance policy wording.
3. I bought my travel insurance right before the start of my trip, do I get covered immediately?
   • The answer is NO. There will be at least few days before the insurance takes effect. You always have to buy early. So that you are covered for the full length of your trip.
4. If I encountered an incident during my trip, what should I do?
   • Always remember to make a call as your priority to let them acknowledged with your condition before take action. For World Nomads, they standby 24 hours to assist you and let you know what you should do and don’t to ensure your future claim is valid.

These are the facts that you should make more researches on before you buy your travel insurance. Personally, I made my choice according to the type of travel, for example, diving which I took the higher premium to cover the risks. I would appreciate if anyone can provide more information to be listed as references.