Why You Need Travel Insurance Policy

Obviously, you don’t want to bump into any trouble while visiting a new place, away from familiar surroundings. However, you can’t predict misfortune and should be prepared for them. During your trip, accidents or ailments, theft, flight delays or loss of any important documents might disrupt your cautiously planned trip. Here’s why you need a travel insurance plan with variants like medical travel insurance, students travel insurance, personal liability or accidental cover etc.

Situations When You Need Travel Insurance

Are you planning your next trip abroad? Well, you’ll expect the time spent away from your hometown to be filled with excitement and fun. You don’t want to encounter any trouble. Travel insurance, at this point in time, becomes handy, which takes care of all your travel related issues. Now that you're convinced with the indispensability of an insurance plan, you should know in which situations you will require a travel health insurance plan. In this article, we write about various conditions where travel insurance appears as your utmost saviour.

Accidents or Ailments

Accidents or illness is unpredictable.  A single hospitalisation due to illness or in extreme cases, if you meet with an accident could wipe off your savings. You might not be able to bear those hefty medical bills, as medical treatments are exponentially more expensive in some foreign nations, especially in Europe. For such contingencies, you will require a travel medical insurance plan that bears the medical expenses or hospitalisation costs on behalf of you.  With good travel insurance, you wouldn’t feel unaided in an untried country.

In the case of Hijacking

In case you come across such a circumstance during your trip, travel insurance with hijack cover affords a bit of relief. Your policy pays distress assistance for the days you’re trapped in a hijacked flight. The insured is compensated for an extremely stressful situation, where your family members are anxious about your safe return to your hometown.

Financial Assistance

You will be glad to know that your travel policy covers you in case your hotel is burglarised or your wallet is stolen. Travel assistance is allotted for the situations when you’re left out of money. Loss of travel fund is a major issue for a traveller when you don’t know anyone out there. In such situations, your insurance policy rescues you by providing financial assistance.

Personal Liability

Accidents are sudden and sometimes, you may not be the victim but the one at fault. You can be the sole reason for damage or injury or might be involved in a disaster that caused injury or damage to someone else’s property. Your kiddo might unintentionally break a valuable item and you could be liable to compensate the owner the worth of that valuable item. With a personal liability cover, you can remain stress-free and breathe a sigh of relief as your insurer compensates the amount to the third party on your behalf. You will be benefited with monetary assistance while such circumstances arise.

Trip Insurance

This cover helps you when due to any unforeseen event; you cancel your planned trip at the eleventh hour. Without travel insurance, you end up paying for the flight cancellation charges or other charges associated with your planned trip. These expenses are enough to give you hiccups and affect your budget to a large extent. So, it’s better to buy a travel insurance plan before planning a trip.

Types of Travel Insurance in India

Here are different types of Travel insurance in India:

Domestic Travel Insurance

Domestic Travel Insurance is extremely helpful in case you cancel your planned trip, loss of luggage or important documents. If you cancel the trip due to illness, without an adequate travel cover, you won’t be compensated for the incurred expenses. Also, possibilities are there, you lose your luggage or any important document during the trip which can be compensated with a domestic travel insurance plan. Moreover, most of the time travel insurance companies offer medical treatment cover under medical travel insurance, emergency evacuation, personal accidental cover etc. However, very less covers dental or personal liability cover.

International Travel Insurance

International or Overseas Travel Insurance covers you during your international trip by offering assistance for medical emergencies, trip cancellation, flight delay, theft and so on to ensure that no unforeseen event ruins your foreign trip. The coverage includes:

• Emergency medical assistance with pre and post hospitalisation expenses
• Expenses for trip cancellation and interruption
• Loss of baggage or important documents
• Legal liability coverage
• Hospital cash in case of accident or sickness
• Repatriation covers for the expenses incurred in moving the policy owner to his/her country
• Hijack cover
• Personal accidental cover
• Emergency financial cover in case the insured lost required travel fund due to theft or robbery

Student Travel Insurance

If studying abroad is your dream or you already have planned for the trip, we advise that you consider having a travel insurance plan. Though foreign studies are appealing, it involves risk elements as well. Being medical treatments more expensive in foreign countries, it is a wise decision if you buy student travel insurance before heading towards an unfamiliar country. The benefits are:

• Your travel insurance covers the costs incurred during medical emergencies such as sudden sickness, injury or death.
• Expenses required for emergency medical evacuation to India.
• Transportation costs for sending insured mortal body to homeland or cost incurred for bury the body abroad owing to sudden death.
• It covers dental surgery cost.
• Compensate the expenses in case of permanent disability or death caused by an accident
• Loss of Passport or incurred costs for availing the new one.
• Loss of checked-in baggage.
• Interruption in education due to an illness.
• When family members visit the insured due to emergency hospitalisation, the return ticket cost is borne by the insurer.
• Reimburse the tuition fee in case of death of the insured due to an injury.
• In the case of bailable offence, the paid amount to the concerned authority will be reimbursed.

Family Travel Insurance

Family travel insurance refers to a single plan that covers your entire family. When referring to a family it means two adults below 60 years of age and two children below 21 years age. The best part is that it covers all four persons on an individual basis and that’s why it is cheaper than buying four individual plans separately for each. The coverage includes:

• Expenses incurred due to flight or train cancellations
• Flight delay
• In case you cancel hotel bookings
• Medical treatment expenses
• Hospitalisation costs
• Theft, loss of important documents like Passport, identity papers, debit cards, credit cards etc.
• Risk due to strike, riot, civil commotion etc.
• Cancellation due to bad weather

Senior Citizen Travel Insurance

Considering the risk factor associated with their age, Senior citizen travel insurance is becoming popular gradually. Travel companies have introduced this travel plan to provide health coverage to senior citizens so that they can travel the world without worrying about burning holes in their pockets

Perks of Senior Citizen Policy:

• Coverage for pre-existing ailments
• Emergency medical expense cover
• Dental treatment cover
• Flight cancellation, delay or missed flight costs
• Loss of checked-in luggage
• Trip cancellation, interruption or delay
• Home burglary coverage

Conclusion

Life goes through lots of contingencies when you require an adequate insurance plan and if you are a traveller you should definitely consider buying a travel insurance plan. With a travel insurance plan, you can enjoy the trip without stressing out during an emergency. Whether you meet with an accident, miss your flight or loss your baggage, face dire circumstances like terrorist attack or hijacking, with a travel plan you need not worry about the incurred expenses.

However, before signing over the dotted lines, you should consider going through all the mentioned clauses, benefits offered and don’t forget to compare the plans online. The online comparison is the best way to find out the best deals that meet your requirements. Ensure you do your research and confer other peoples while taking a decision. Be insured, travel safe and enjoy your trip!