Travel Insurance – Is It Really A Good Idea For The Traveler?

Trips abroad cost a lot of money. There is just no getting around that. Oh, one can defray the expenses some by booking well ahead, using whatever discounts may be offered, and taking flights at off times, rather than during peak periods. Even so, despite every method of shaving costs I know of, by the time I’ve booked flights, any necessary ground transportation, hotels, pay for meals, souvenirs, etc., the price of traveling to other countries is never really “cheap” for me, except perhaps, in the comparative sense. After all, it could be much more expensive if I didn’t do all those cost-saving measures, like booking my flights five months in advance!

For instance, my trips to the United Kingdom, even under the best conditions, cost around $6,000 for several weeks. There seems to be no lowering that amount. And if anything, that price is going up, despite some experts saying air flights are now cheaper. If they are, I can’t find them, at least not for international flights. So for me, the cost of a trip abroad is not cheap. In fact, it’s quite sizable. Now what happens if something goes wrong and that trip has major problems?

Travel Insurance Vending Machine - Image taken on 2005-08-23 21:19:48 by nonrev.

If you don’t think that can happen, think again! Airlines frequently have to cancel plane flights. Sometimes, this is due to bad weather and this can cause travel delays for up to several days. Missing a connecting flight as a result, not showing up for your hotels in time to keep the reservations, or missing that cruise ship that just left port before you managed to finally get there – well, it all costs time and more money. And this isn’t the only bad scenario for trips. How about if you have a nasty fall? It happened to my 79-year-old father on our trip this last April to Eastbourne, England. We spent three hours in the emergency section of the local hospital there. Luckily, his cuts and bruises were superficial, but he could just as easily have broken a limb or a hip. And that would have been the end of that vacation!

So what can you do to protect yourself from being hit with the costs for these things, losing all that money you’ve spent for the perfect vacation? Well, the answer is to purchase travel insurance. Yes, most of us just try to slide by without it. We would rather use that money for extra souvenirs and such then spend it to protect our vacation and ourselves. But think about it; if I have to spend around $500 to insure myself and my father for each trip abroad, that isn’t bad compared to what I could lose, which is around $6,000 or more! And remember, many health insurance plans don’t cover us when we are in another country, so one could rack up huge medical bills, besides being out the cost of the trip.

Travel insurance can go a long way to protecting you against such things. There are numerous plans available through many companies. This means that not only can you pick the company you want for travel insurance, but also you can pick how much coverage you think you need, and exactly what it is you want to cover. This is important, because the less coverage you want, usually, the less it will cost you.

Another factor in this regard is your country of destination. Some countries are going to mean higher insurance costs for you than others. Also, the amount of time you are on your trip is a factor. Certain companies won’t insure you if your trip is over a month in duration. Some companies won’t insure you if you are over 60, 70, or 80 years of age, depending on the particular company and its particular policies. Others won’t insure you if you are from certain states. I’m in North Carolina, for example, and HTH Worldwide TravelGap Voyager won’t insure me after January 1, 2010. So there are many factors to deal with here. Finally, you can insure yourself just for the cost of the flights, flight accidents, medical only, business, multi medical, trip cancellation – lots of things, so again, we have many factors at play here that will determine what your ultimate costs of travel insurance might be.

Because of such plentiful variables, to give you quotes for different companies for different types of coverage would simply take up far more space here than we have. But let’s use just one example to illustrate possible costs.

I asked for quotes at http://www.insuremytrip.com/quote/quoteresults/all.html, (Insuremytrip.com), for a total cost of $6,000, for just under a month’s travel time, and using the “All” selection, meaning I wanted coverage for everything. Below, you will see their quotes based on these criteria. Now there seem to be large price disparities between some of the companies listed, but remember, different plans include different types of coverage and to varying degrees and amounts. SO YOU MUST READ THE DETAILS OF THE POLICIES TO MAKE SURE YOU GET THE COVERAGE YOU FEEL YOU NEED! But let’s look at what a $6,000 trip, just about one month long, and with all the normal coverage, would cost:

The above list doesn’t include all the available quotes, but these are sufficient for our purposes here, since these give a good range for them. Is it a lot of money? Well, that depends on what you think a “lot of money” is. I don’t think it’s so bad personally; the insurance does protect the cost of my trip, give me flight insurance of up to $500,000, and medical coverage, as well as other items, such as lost baggage, and canceled flights, among other things.

Should you have travel insurance? Well, each of us has to decide that question for ourselves. And, the criteria you use should at least involve such things as your age, where you are going (how safe is your destination), how long you will be gone, and the current state of your health, how important is the trip (business?), plus any other things you feel may be important, or critical. I’ve always favored fight insurance as the bare minimum, just in case of an accident to the plane, simply because it was a quick, easy, and relatively cheap way to leave my loved ones a good-sized parcel of extra money in the event of such a tragedy.

Whatever your decision with regard to travel insurance, just remember that it is there for you, available for you, should you want or need it. And when it comes to currency matters, another and simpler form of insurance for your trip is to use Currate.com, because not knowing the current currency exchange rates for your destination countries can also cost you, and big time!

Currate.com is an all-in-one website, which includes a Google-Style Earth map where you can just point and click to see your destination’s currency. Currate.com has regularly updated exchange rates for currencies, and actual images of over 180 of the world’s currencies. This means you will be familiar with what the money looks like before you get there, so no costly mistakes, and what the most current exchange rates for that currency are. And with Currate.com’s convenient currency calculator, you can quickly determine the price of things from hotel rooms, to taxi fares, to a trip up the Eiffel Tower. What’s more, if you have a mobile phone with Internet browser capability, you can have all this right readily available any time! Just go to http://currate.com/m.php. If your mobile phone has enhanced features, then try http://currate.com/e.php, instead. So, when it comes to being “insured” when having to deal with variable currency exchange rates, Currate.com is the way to go. And the price is cheap – it’s free!

Gambling with your trip? Public Domain, Courtesy Wikimedia Common

Finally, whether you choose to use travel insurance or not is ultimately your own choice, of course. As with most things in life, it is a gamble. And although we may not want our trips to be disasters, at least with travel insurance, the costs of such can be covered. This may not make up for a ruined trip, but it could go a long way to helping you pay for that next and hopefully better vacation. And remember Currate.com, because if you are cost conscious, knowing exchange rates, being able to quickly and accurately calculate costs in them, is a must!

Rob Shelsky, Currate.com Contributing Editor
Robert Rademacher, Currate.com Editor-in-Chief

References:

Insuremytrip.com
http://www.insuremytrip.com/quote/all.html

Travel Guard
http://www.travelguard.com/

AccessAmerica.com, Travel Insurance For Leisure And Business Travel
http://www.accessamerica.com/

Travel Insurance Services
http://www.travelinsure.com/

Is Travel Insurance Worth The Cost, by Dan Haneveer
http://ezinearticles.com/?Is-Travel-Insurance-Worth-the-Cost?&id=3388390

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