Travel insurance provides an easy way to insure against trip cancellations, trip interruptions, emergency evacuation, accidental death and loss or damage to baggage or personal effects. Millions of dollars are wasted each year by travelers who purchase unnecessary travel insurance or travel assistance policies. Taking care in purchasing any travel insurance or travel assistance policies is a prerequisite although these products may be valuable to some travelers only in limited circumstances.
Buy only the insurance you need. Frequently, several types of insurance are bundled together and sold as comprehensive travel insurance. Make sure you purchase what you need only after reviewing this chapter and doing comparison shopping among several travel insurance policies
Decide on the type of travel insurance after analyzing the type of coverage you already possess. Specific consideration of following facts is required. While you are traveling, provision of liability and personal property protection can be provided by home owner’s or rental’s insurance policy.
Do check the specific limitations and exclusions of the policy even if there is a probability of your health insurance providing you with some coverage. Your automobile insurance policy can also provide cover for a car on rent which is being used by you. In some cases your credit card can offer some protection when you rent a car or if you want to cancel or change your flight.
You can opt for excess or secondary coverage through many travel insurance policies. If any other coverage can be applied to the loss first, such as homeowner’s insurance in case of theft of your personal property, then it means that the travel insurance will provide coverage only for amounts which are not paid by the primary insurance like deductibles. Few of the travel insurance policies offer primary coverage, which is most useful when your own coverage is insufficient or has a very high deductible. Premium for excess coverage is generally low as compared to premium for primary coverage.
A major problem with travel insurance is that most policies contain a number of exclusions and travelers often don’t learn about the exclusions until they try to use the coverage. At the time of reviewing a travel insurance policy you should check the exclusions and definitions carefully to determine how much protection your policy is really offering. Since there are losses which are not covered by any other insurance which you may already have, therefore trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance are probably considered the most important types of travel insurance
