Posted: December 15th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Travel Insurance | Tags: Annual Travel Insurance, Business Professionals, Car Accident, Couple Of Times A Year, Holiday Homes, Holidays, Insurance, Insurance Cost, Insurance Cover, Insurance Travel, Luggage, Policy Students, Pros And Cons, Time Fee, Travels, Trip Insurance, Trip Policies, Trip Travel Insurance, Unforeseen Circumstances, Weather | Comments Off
Travelling and taking holidays can be a lot of fun, but it can also be scary. If something goes wrong, you may find yourself in a foreign land amongst foreign people with no idea where to turn for help. Travel insurance prevents this from happening by helping you through all of the unforeseen circumstances that may befall you on a trip. Travel insurance can help cover expenses if you become ill or injured, lose your luggage, have a car accident or have to change your plans due to weather or illness.
There are two basic types of travel insurance: annual travel insurance and single trip travel insurance. Annual travel insurance is purchased annually and covers all of your travels for the entire year. Single trip travel insurance is purchased at the beginning of each trip and is only good for that trip.
There are benefits and drawbacks associated with each type of travel insurance. The following two sections will address the pros and cons of each.
Pros and Cons of Annual Travel Insurance
When you purchase annual travel insurance, you pay a one-time fee. This fee covers the cost of the insurance for the whole year. If you travel a lot, this price is almost always less than you would pay for multiple single-trip policies. But the price for annual travel insurance is also more than you would pay for one or two single-trip policies. So you need to have a clear idea of how often you will use the insurance before you spend the money for it.
Annual travel insurance is ideal for people who travel a lot. Business professionals, people with family living abroad, and families with holiday homes usually benefit the most from such a policy. Students who have to travel back and forth from school may also benefit from this type of policy.
Pros and Cons of Single Trip Travel Insurance
Single trip travel insurance is the most cost effective way to purchase travel insurance if you only have need of it a couple of times a year. It is spontaneous. You can purchase travel insurance prior to any trip even if it is spur of the moment. It is also inexpensive. Single trip travel insurance normally costs about four to seven percent of the entire cost of any prepaid trip.
If you make a lot of spontaneous trips, however, you could end up spending more than you bargained for if you purchase a separate policy each time you leave town.
Both annual and single trip travel insurances offer the same coverage. The only real discrepancy between them is cost. Therefore, you need to choose the most cost effective way to purchase the insurance that best meets your needs. If you have any doubts, talk to a travel agent. They will be able to help you compare prices and coverage options. The most important thing is that you always travel while insured. You need to be prepared for everything that may happen.
Posted: October 31st, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Travel Insurance | Tags: Accidents, Car Accident, Cheap Travel Insurance, Costly Disaster, Days Travel, Disastrous Consequences, Extra Insurance, Family Holidays, Health Insurance, Health Insurance Plans, Illnes, Luggage, Medical Bills, Medical Crisis, Medical Expenses, Mishap, Passport, Prescription Medications, Private Health Insurance, Transportation Fees, Unforeseen Circumstances | 1 Comment »
If you travel often or book family holidays, you’ll have been offered travel insurance. Maybe you didn’t see the need at the time to pay for the extra insurance, and maybe you made a good call. Unfortunately, however, many have made the same decision but with disastrous consequences. The truth is that unforeseen circumstances can occur at any time. You may not be able to see into the future. But you can plan for it.
If you travel without cheap travel insurance, you are only setting yourself up for a potential, costly disaster. At its most basic, travel insurance financially protects you from everything that can befall you on your holiday. If you get sick or injured, cheap travel insurance will pay your bills. If you lose your luggage, travel insurance will buy you new clothes. If you get stranded, travel insurance will pay for any additional lodging and transportation fees.
There are many reasons why you need travel insurance. Cheap travel insurance can give you coverage for the following events:
? Medical crisis – Most private health insurance plans do not cover medical expenses charged abroad. If you become ill on a holiday, you can rack up quite a bill in just a few short days. Travel insurance will pay hospital and emergency medical bills that you incur while travelling.
? Accident/mishap – Accidents happen. There is no end to the number of things that could happen to you while on holiday. You could fall and become injured. You could have a car accident. If you have travel insurance, you are covered for anything that happens.
? Misplaced luggage – How much would it cost you to replace everything in one bag of your luggage? What if you lost your prescription medications or your passport? The truth is that it could be quite costly if you were separated from your luggage. Cheap travel insurance will help you replace everything quickly and at no cost to you.
? Altered plans – If your plans were to change due to an illness, natural disaster or some other calamity, you would lose the cost of your trip. Travel insurance will reimburse you the cost of your unused trip if you are unable to continue. Insurance will also pay for any additional expenses involved with change of plans.
Cheap travel insurance offers so much coverage at such a low price, it is almost impossible to pass up. For a fraction of the cost of your holiday, you could be completely covered. Coverage can also include everyone going on your trip if you purchase a holiday package.
There simply is no reason to travel without insurance. The cost of travelling without insurance is much higher than the cost of cheap travel insurance. In fact, it could cost more to treat a sprained ankle or minor cut abroad than it does to purchase cheap travel insurance. So, why not travel prepared for anything that may come your way while on holiday?
Posted: September 5th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Travel Insurance | Tags: Air Tickets, Airfare, Airlines, Bacteria, Business Insurance, Cancellation, Economic Times, Efficiency, Flights Airline, Inconvenience, Instances, Jewelery, Likelihood, Luggage, Medical Problems, Money Loss, Perfect Health, Principle, Travel Insurance, Viruses | Comments Off
Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure, purchasing travel insurance can help save you money. It is the same principle that applies when you buy something of value like a car or a classic piece of jewelery. Should anything happen, you do not want to lose your investment in one day. Most likely, you would want that car or ring replaced at full purchase value. If you have purchased air tickets, you would want to protect that investment as well. Who wants to lose money especially in these dire economic times?
Ways that Travel Insurance Can Help You Save Money
There are at least three situations where purchasing travel insurance can help you save money:
• Cancellation of flights – If you or the airline decides to cancel the flights you are booked in, your airfare will be partially covered by travel insurance. Say if you spent $4,500.00 worth of air tickets for you and your family, and suddenly the airline closes down for business or cancels a flight for any reason, you do not lose all of the $4,500.00 because travel insurance will reimburse that amount. Of course the airline will probably refund you the money if it is their fault, but having travel insurance will compensate you for the inconvenience and trouble. Also, if you cancel the flight yourself, travel insurance will get you back your money.
• Loss of luggage – When you purchase travel insurance, make sure it covers lost luggage as well. Imagine landing in some foreign country with none of your luggage! While most airlines are efficient about recovering lost luggage and delivering them to your door, don’t rely on that efficiency. There have been instances where luggage was never recovered.
• Medical problems – You may be in perfect health when you leave for vacation but you increase the likelihood of getting exposed to viruses or bacteria either in the plane or in your country of destination. There’s also the chance that you could accidentally drink the local drinking water or eat contaminated food. Medical visits in some foreign countries can cost an arm and a leg so you wouldn’t want to spend all your vacation money on doctor’s visits! If you have travel insurance that covers expenses for brief hospitalizations, medicine and emergency situations, think about how much all these could add up if you didn’t have travel insurance.
Tips for Purchasing Travel Insurance
• Ask your insurance provider – If you have an insurance company that insures your car, house and other property, they may also offer travel insurance or they may work with a partner or affiliate who does. Because you are an established customer, they may offer you travel insurance at lower rates. It doesn’t hurt to ask. In fact, in some instances, you may be better off going with your existing insurer than purchase separate insurance from the travel agent who books your flight.
• Go for the whole nine yards – What this means is if you are traveling with the family, you might be better off buying family travel insurance instead of separate insurance policies. It also means that because traveling with children entails more risk than traveling alone, you may want to consider travel insurance that offers comprehensive coverage; that is, plane fares, luggage, and health and medical visits.
• Multi-trip travel insurance – If you make more than one trip every year, you might be better off purchasing an annual multi-trip travel insurance policy. This would save you the hassle of purchasing travel insurance several times during the year. Some travel insurance companies will usually sell you a 12-month package that is renewable yearly and this is a huge convenience if you travel a lot during any given 12-month period. The single biggest advantage of buying an annual policy is that you don’t need to worry about arranging for emergency medical coverage.
• Compare packages and prices – As for most major ticket items, it pays to shop around for insurance. If you know you will be travelling six months from now, don’t wait until the month before your travel date to do some bargain hunting. Start now so that you are not rushed about reading the fine print and you can make a more informed decision about the kind of travel insurance that is ideal for your situation.
Remember to do the cost analysis if you are ever tempted to skip travel insurance. Even if your ticket is discounted, say you paid $600.00 to go to the Caribbean. Travel insurance will cost about $85.00 to $100.00. If you are forced to cancel your trip, you lose $600.00 (restricted and discounted tickets are usually non-refundable or non-transferrable) versus the $100.00 you paid if you had purchased travel insurance. If you want to save money, put travel insurance on the top of your list.