Why Travel Insurance Is Important and What You Need to Know

There are things that can void your claim plus all sorts of complications if you need to claim for something and find out that you’re not qualified after the fact totally sucks. 

I have seen first hand in travel forums people not understanding their policy and when something does happen they set up Go Fund Me pages and post them everywhere. They are now looking to get others to help pay for their expenses that their insurance would have paid for if they had read and followed the policy, or actually purchased travel insurance in the first place. Once someone gets “stung” by their policy or even not having travel insurance, they then change their tune and realize travel insurance is important.

Pre-existing Conditions

The first thing you want to be aware of is pre-existing conditions. You want to make sure that you do put down the truth because that travel insurance company will look once you try to claim on something. They are looking to see if you have used medication for from your doctor or if you have any record of you discussing this condition that happened to reoccur on your trip. Your claim will be excluded from your travel insurance even if you didn’t disclose this in your initial review. 

What is not covered

You want to know what the exclusions are. I’ve been caught up in these a couple of times. I knew about it in one instance, but another instance I didn’t realize, but it worked out in my favor on a technicality. When you need to do something that you’ll be claiming on your insurance, you want to call your insurance company to make sure you find out what the parameters are if you don’t remember.

In the end the technicality helped me win my claim since I was told there were no restrictions, and all their phone calls were recorded. Initially they told me there was nothing on the calls saying I was covered, but I reminded them that there was an earlier call and to check those out. They did, and they ended up covering my claim. 

Next you want to know how much you are able to claim. This happened to me when I got my bag stolen. In Canada there are a lot more restrictions than there is in America for travel insurance, especially on expensive items like computers, cameras and electronics. So when I got my bag stolen and camera gear taken, I was only covered for a portion of that. I understood this, so it wasn’t a big shock.

But if you didn’t understand this going into it, losing a bunch of camera gear or your computer and only realizing you’re going to get a few $100 per piece of equipment will be a shock. Knowing what and how much is covered is something you wanna be really aware of so you can judge for yourself what your risk analysis is of what you’re bringing with you. 

Renting Scooters

This one I see a lot. With most people being first-time riders, they don’t realize the things that could happen. Renting scooters and motorbikes while you’re away is super popular in most places around the world. Loads of locations will offer you to rent scooters. They’ll usually give you a little bit of insurance for an extra cost, and they don’t necessarily check what type of license you have.

All you need to do is to show up, show them a driver’s license and off you go. What most people don’t know is if you get into an accident or if you get injured, you are not covered on your travel insurance if you do not hold a driver’s license of the type of vehicle you are driving. Even if it’s just a small scooter, if you do not have a motorcycle license, you are excluded from having your insurance cover you for any injuries. This is where knowing your travel insurance is important because I see a lot of Go Fund Me pages pop up. 

Make sure you are covered for the activities you are planning on doing, or determine if you are covered before doing spur of the moment activities because it could be a very costly and possibly life-threatening mistake. So yes, I fully think that travel insurance is important and it is crucial that you understand your policy.