Things to Consider While Buying Travel Insurance with Repatriation Cover

What is Repatriation in Travel Insurance?

For most of us, visiting some place new comes with a lot of hope and anticipation. While we prepare our itineraries, budget for the trip, and pack our essentials, how many of us are truly ready for what’s to come?

Anyone can handle losing their baggage or getting hospitalised abroad, but what do you do when you get the news of a loved one’s death in an alien country?

Don’t get the wrong idea - we’re not trying to ruin the mood. However, there is enough news about trips gone wrong.

What’s worse, the grieving family can’t possibly go through the excruciating process of contacting the authorities and arranging for significant funds to retrieve the body. Travel insurance lends a helping hand to grieving families in case of fatal eventualities.

Most travel insurance companies in India offer evacuation and repatriation coverage. Under this feature, in case of a person’s unfortunate demise, the travel insurance company will cover the transportation costs of retrieving the insured person’s remains.

Why is Repatriation Coverage Important in Trip Insurance?

What is possibly worse than the death of a loved one abroad? The situation can however worsen if you’re the only person they were travelling with or if they were on a solo trip.

Among emergencies, death is usually the last thing that comes to anybody’s mind. As sad as it seems, we still need to safeguard everyone’s interests. Here are a few reasons why repatriation coverage is very important for international travellers:

• Repatriation often costs lakhs of rupees and can be a huge burden on the grieving family
• Many countries have made it mandatory to include repatriation coverage in insurance before issuing the visa
• Travel insurance providers also offer help related to formalities and doubts that the insured person’s family may be facing

While several travel insurance plans in India offer evacuation and repatriation coverage, many do not. Most comprehensive travel insurance plans include repatriation coverage. However, there are a few things to watch out for before buying any trip insurance plan.

4 Factors to Weigh-in Before Repatriation Cover Purchase

Comprehensive trip insurance often comes with repatriation benefits. If not, most insurers offer optional repatriation coverage at an extra premium. This will cost you more than you planned so it becomes all the more important to make the right choice.

Over to You,

Life can be unpredictable, capable of throwing all our careful planning down the drain. No one can predict the situation we will be in or how our lives can come to an end. It is an absolutely heart breaking feeling to lose a loved one; it is worse to not be near them during their final goodbye. While we can do our best to stay safe during our journeys abroad, we can be practically prepared for such grim eventualities. We hope these factors will make sense to you