Image via Flickr user Giorgio Montersino

Travelling is an important and regular event in everyone’s life whether it is for leisure or work. Travelling creates memories which we cherish all through our life.

What You Need? A good travel insurance plan will take care of any unforeseen situation during transit. Situations like loss or theft of baggage, delay of flights leading to financial loss, loss of passport and other important documents and medical emergency are quite common.

Big Mistake: Buy the lowest premium insurance or tick off any box the agent or airline asks you to.

Result: Just not enough when the actual need arises. Either it won’t cover that situation or the reimbursement will be a measly amount.

Solution: Buy the coverage for travel insurance keeping in mind the country you are traveling to and the purpose of your travel.

Not Convinced Yet? Consider these situations and statistics:

High Cost To Meet Medical Emergency: If you are travelling to United States, Singapore, Egypt, Turkey or Greece (the most popular tourist countries) and you fall sick even with a basic problem of gastritis you are up for big trouble.

Student Travelling Abroad for Education: If you are studying abroad in Australia, US, UK or Canada (countries that see highest influx of Indian students) you would definitely need a higher coverage travel plan to cover any unforeseen situation.

Adventure Travel: If your travel plan includes indulgence in adventure or extreme sport activities like mountain climbing, sky diving, paragliding, rafting, etc you may want to go for a higher travel insurance coverage.

Acts of Terrorism: Are you planning to travel to Thailand, Egypt, Turkey or Philippines without a good insurance plan? My advice: Don’t.

Airlines – The Soft Targets: Hijacking, accidents, terrorist attack, and flight delay – we have heard about these situations innumerable times. Airlines are, undoubtedly, the soft targets.

When you are travelling then only good preparation can save you and buying a travel insurance plan that covers you adequately is an important preparatory tool.

Recommended Minimum Travel Insurance Coverage (USD):

• US or Canada—$50,000
• Europe excluding UK—$30,000
• UK—$50,000
• Entire Asia Excluding Japan—$15,000
• Anywhere Else—$50,000

by Yashish Dahiya

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