Travel insurance is a risk management scheme, by which one has to pay a certain amount of premium. Once any loss is incurred during traveling, this insurance scheme will cover all the medical charges, financial expenses like non-refundable payments or any other type of loss incurred while traveling within the country or even abroad.
A temporary form of travel insurance can be arranged while booking for tickets, so that the duration of the trip is covered under the scheme.
However, for a more extensive coverage, insurance schemes have to be bought from insurance companies, tour operators, travel agents or even travel suppliers.
Options available:
Travel insurance schemes offer a wide variety of choice to the customers and they can choose accordingly to their own requirement.
Options available are:
* Student travel
* Cruise travel
* Business travel
* Adventure travel
* Leisure travel
* International travel
Risks covered under travel insurance:
Travel insurance schemes will cover the following:
* Medicinal expense
* Departure delays
* Loss, damage or stolen documents, money and any other personal belonging
* Funeral charges overseas
* Cancellation charges
* Accident resulting in injury or death
* Legal aid
* Baggage delays and replacement of essential requirements
* Damage costs of rental car
Some other insurers provide some additional benefits, which will vary from company to company.
Travel insurance scams:
While buying travel insurance schemes from a company however, be very careful. Many scams over the years have been reported about phony schemes being sold to unsuspecting travelers. 2 states Colorado and Florida have already started investigating the travel companies as well as the many agents involved in selling these policies.
Matters worsened even more when Florida issued warnings to 3 of the travel agencies. These travel agencies were believed to sell unlicensed insurance policies. These companies promise to pay four times the commission to the agents who in turn the mold the unlicensed product into something real and sell it to retirees, who prefer the affordable schemes. This scam is very clever, since these retirees will not have the necessary resources to file a case against the company, once they realize that they have been deceived.
Tips to protect against scam:
Even though there are so many scams, insurance still is a necessity. One cannot do without it. However what you can do is be a bit careful. Be extremely cautious before agreeing to a particular scheme.
- Check the plan name. If it’s a protection scheme, don’t opt for it. Only insurance schemes are state regulated.
- Check if the company is a member of US travel insurance association. They have very strict ethical standards.
- Don’t choose the first thing offered to you. Look through all the options and then make an educated decision. Consult someone whom you trust.
- Read through the policy very carefully. Don’t make a decision based on verbal assurances.
- Check to ensure that your policy doesn’t have any tricky clause. The biggest hitch is medical expenses. In case, you have a medical problem, make sure that it is insured.
