Travel Insurance: What You Need to Know

Travel insurance is one of those things that I don’t leave home without. It always amazes me when I talk to people who don’t use travel insurance when they travel. I think in light of what has happened with the pandemic and seeing first hand what people did lose, or could have lost is a real eye opener to everyone who didn’t have insurance.

My sister bought travel insurance not too long after she booked her trip to Europe this year and this saved her big time. Since all the flights she had booked were not giving any refunds, just a travel credit and some hotels were not returning all of the money she was able to claim this on her Trip Cancellation portion of her travel insurance. She was lucky to have bought the insurance when she did, as it was before Covid-19 became a pandemic so she was covered. I recommend purchasing your travel insurance (that includes trip cancellation) as soon as you book your flights for the most coverage.

I see travel insurance as peace of mind incase something goes wrong. You can go to the best hospitals, not have to worry about paying out of pocket as well as claim for things that are an inconvenience, like having your bags show up days late where you can claim on your baggage delay insurance.

With the USA being know to have extremely costly medical I think people look at other countries like Thailand who has relatively inexpensive medical and think it will be cheaper to just pay out of pocket instead of paying for the “just in case” travel insurance.

This can backfire though. Yes, for small and minor things that can happen it will be cheaper, but the thing is, you never know what may happen and where. You may have something serious happen like a heart attack or a stroke where you need to be transferred to a major city, or need to get home, this is not going to be cheaper than your medical insurance.

I got dengue fever in Thailand and ended up being in hospital for 10 days. I was lucky that Thailand has a really good medical system and I had insurance to go any hospital. If I had to pay for it out of pocket it would have cost around  $3000, which in the grand scheme of things in not an enormous about but if you don’t have an extra $3000 lying around this could shorten your trip and force you to go home early.

There are two big things that I really want to make sure people know about, there are many, but these one’s I see a lot of.

1. Know who the first payer is on your travel insurance. The first payer is the one that pays out on a claim first and then the secondary one pays out what the first payer didn’t finish paying.
   
   This is important because if you have extended benefits at home through your work or purchased, and the first payer is your own medical, it could drain your benefits as some benefits have maximums per year. If you are retired you may only have a total benefit maximum for life.
   
   You don’t want to have the travel insurance you paid for drain your medical at home you will need for your future.
   
   
   2. Know what you are covered for. Did you know that if you rent a moped or scooter on your trip that you are not covered under your medical travel insurance if you do not have a motorcycle license? You have to have the proper licensing to drive what you are renting. And no, companies that rent you these bikes will not tell you this.
   
   The amount of times I have seen Go Fund Me pages go up for people who have been in major accidents while driving a moped and don’t have a license to drive one is massive. So make sure you read that fine print and know what you are covered for.

There are so many things that can become confusing about travel insurance and now with Covid-19 it is more important than ever to know if and what you are covered for. I read this great article recently that goes through a lot of detail about travel insurance that I don’t go into here by Consumers Advocate and I think you will get a lot of great information from it. You can read it here.

It is also not always worth it to save some money on a cheaper insurance company. Not all insurance companies are the same…some are great and will pay out on legitimate claims and some look for the loopholes to not pay out your claim.

For international travel I always go with World Nomads and I have never had a problem with the few claims I have had to make.

I met one couple that was in the middle of a nightmare claim with the insurance company they went with. They were on a workaway portion of their trip, where they work for free in exchange for room and board. They were on a dairy farm. The girl was in the barn while the cows were being milked and she ended up getting kicked in the face by one of the cows, knocking her unconscious and having her front teeth kicked in among other things.

Their insurance company was refusing to cover any medical expenses and finding all sorts of loopholes. They were in the process of fighting it, and that really is the last thing you want to be doing is fighting with your insurance company when you are in the middle of a crisis. After this event, they immediately switched over to World Nomads at a higher cost as they now saw first hand the benefits of paying a bit more for reliable companies.

I hope this article gives you some things to think about and teaches you some key items to be aware of when you are deciding on travel insurance. If you have any questions please leave a comment below or get in touch with me to discuss.