What is Travel Protection Insurance and Do I Need It?
July 11, 2022
Travel insurance can minimize the financial risks associated with traveling. From accidents to illness to lost luggage, travel insurance has you covered.
Vacations are usually an exciting time, filled with anticipation and activity planning. What travelers seldom plan for, however, are events that are a little less sun-and-fun and a little more doom-and-gloom.
Interruptions, cancellations, and complications always seem to pick up around the same time, which is, of course, the end of the season and very inconvenient.
Where health insurance shoulders financial burdens in the event of an illness, travel protection insurance offers the same protection for your trip. Even more uniquely, it does so both before and during travel, because mistakes, accidents, and acts of god won’t wait until you’re safely back home.
Make it Right, Right Away
Although most travel methods will offer some sort of assurance or coverage for your belongings and itinerary, often it’s opt-in, expensive, or difficult to navigate. In addition, if you’re traveling via one airline for one leg of the journey, but a different airline’s connecting flight, a single lost suitcase can cause multiple issues.
Travel protection insurance guards you and your belongings so that you have a single point of contact for financial remedy. Rather than playing “phone tag” with several different forms, companies, and claims, your policy will give you a single well-defined route to submit a claim.
With too many “moving parts,” paperwork often gets misplaced, which is why a central point makes the entire process run more smoothly.
Expecting the Unexpected
Imagine you’re rushing to get to a museum tour on time and stumble, knocking a tooth out, or breaking a wrist. What now? With the right travel protection insurance, you won’t need to waste time worrying about incurring overseas medical costs.
With coverage available to address everything from missing or destroyed belongings up to and including bodily injury or harm, you’ll enjoy peace of mind even in the most unfamiliar of locales.
It’s important to openly discuss your planned trip itinerary and needs with your insurance agent, as this will ensure you’re well-covered by a comprehensive policy before taking your trip.
Do I Really Need Travel Insurance?
While it’s true that you could fly or travel to a vacation spot without insurance coverage, it’s a big risk. That means the lack of coverage can be particularly concerning if your friends or family will be traveling with you.
The longer your planned travel itinerary, and the larger the area you plan to visit, the more important a solid policy will be.
If you plan on traveling outside of the country, the need for travel insurance ratchets up a few notches, as you’ll be in an unfamiliar place and exposed to scams and schemes in addition to more mundane delays.
If you’re still on the fence about getting travel insurance for your next journey out into the world, consider this: the cost of obtaining your travel insurance is, and always will be, cheaper than the worst-case scenario. While it’s admittedly a very targeted variety of insurance, it’s an extremely hardworking one as well, and one that will help keep you and your loved ones safe, even when abroad.