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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Travel Insurance - Why Do You Need It?

By Jimi S. George


A lot of money is being invested today in traveling; cruise lines, resort package deals, and air travel can easily run into thousands of dollars and if you have invested some of that money on a trip and can risk losing it all. It is surprising therefore how so many people still refuse to take out travel insurance as they feel it is unnecessary.

Many hundreds of things can stop you from going on your vacation or interrupt it and whilst insurance money is not the answer to everything, it does help if you are away from your home in a foreign country and for less than ten percent of the total cost, can you afford not too? An illness, accident or other unforeseen circumstance can force a traveler to cancel or interrupt their plans and that instance they face two major losses: nonrefundable deposits and medical expenses not covered by insurance.

Other situations that can occur are when you cannot actually keep your reservation and of course the entire amount you have paid on the vacation will be lost. However, most travel insurance policies will take this situation and many others like emergency medical help, including airlifts, missing luggage, airline delays plus others into account and cover the costs incurred.

There are occasions where a situation prevents us from taking our holidays right at the last minute where normally all money paid to that point can be forfeit but travel insurance can prevent this happening. A good travel insurance plan should provide trip cancellation coverage for the traveler's vacation investment and the insurance company should reimburse the traveler for all pre-paid, nonrefundable expenses.

Most trip cancellation plans also include refunds when a trip is interrupted and will include other trips that deposits have been made for. With terrorism on the increase, this is a section of travel insurance to watch out for as some policies will only cover for acts of terrorism when you are in a foreign country.

Although it has been mentioned that the cost of travel insurance is usually under 10 percent, this can vary and the biggest factor to this s the age of the traveler. Always a fear with people is whether the person they have booked the vacation with will still be operating when they travel but if you have arranged your travel insurance within 15 days of paying the deposit you should be able to claim back all costs if they cease trading.

You may often find that your credit card will cover the user for certain areas of their travel which will therefore not be needed as part of the travel insurance. There is nothing strange in this situation but is surprising just how many people do not even check their insurance plans to see what they are insured for.

Always check the small print on any documentation before you sign, especially the section on exemptions or exclusions as you may believe you are covered for something when you read about it but are not in fact.

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