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Travel insurance: 5 scenarios why you should opt for higher cover

8 May 2015 By Digital Curator Leave a Comment

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

See Full Story on deccanchronicle.com

Things you need to know about travel insurance before you head off

6 May 2015 By Digital Curator Leave a Comment

Image via Flickr user Jurien Minke

It is imperative that business travellers ensure their travel insurance is up to scratch before embarking on a business trip. According to Corporate Traveller South Africa, in 2014, 40% of business trips from South Africa were into the rest of the continent, and of these, 65% of travel insurance claims were medical, compared to only 25% for cancellation and 15% for baggage loss or damage.

According to data from Travel Insurance Consultants (TIC), which works closely with Corporate Traveller, travellers aged 40 years and above tend to be at the greatest risk of cardiac emergencies, and diabetes is the most common pre-existing illness claim. Further to this, 50% of medical claims are accident or injury related, but the most common claim was food poisoning or gastroenteritis, resulting in travellers forking out anywhere between R3 000 – R30 000 for medical bills due to insurance policies that were insufficient.

Typically, travellers do not think it is necessary to take out additional travel insurance as a certain amount of cover is provided by their banks when purchasing an air ticket on a credit card. However, what travellers are not aware of is that this provides only limited medical cover and makes no provision for pre-existing conditions. By opting to top up this cover with an additional policy, a much greater level of cover can be secured at an affordable cost and obviously minimise the risks of incurring unnecessary costs.

When it comes to serious illness, although most people are worried about Ebola, it is malaria that dominates travel risks. Annually, there are about 200 million cases of malaria, of which 600 000 result in death. As a lot of hospitals and clinics in Africa lack basic medication and equipment; it is therefore important to know the risks and ask the right questions before heading overseas.

“Travel insurance is in part about the importance of being able to react quickly and having all the necessary agreements in place to provide a comprehensive insurance plan that can cover unplanned incidents such as these,” explains Michelle Jolley, Marketing Manager, Corporate Traveller.

Most serious medical cases on the continent such as these often require a patient to be moved to an appropriate facility, usually in another country. As such, TIC employs the services of Europ Assistance to manage all medical emergencies.

One of the latest provisions is an unconditional tropical disease cover, which is designed to provide full cover upon contracting malaria – even if the traveller did not take preventative medicines. To highlight the benefit of this insurance, a traveller who recently contracted malaria in Sierra Leone could not be treated there and was transferred to the nearest centre of medical excellence, Accra, Ghana. The total cost of which, including medical care, amounted to more than R950 000.

An alternative solution which provides great peace of mind for business travellers is an annual travel insurance policy, which can be taken out in the company’s name and provides cover for all travellers over an annual period. The policy is purchased in bulk based on the estimated number of travel days employees are likely to undertake over one year, and then adjusted at the end of the period based on actual travel dates. This represents a highly cost-effective and hassle free-solution against any unplanned medical needs while abroad.

“It’s natural to think ‘it will never happen to me’, but the reality of being unprepared is significant, from both a financial and health perspective. The cost of medical aid on the continent can be enormous, especially when the patient may need to be transferred across borders for treatment. ,Therefore it is more important than ever that travellers know what is covered in their travel insurance,” says Jolley.

by GGi Communications

See Full Story on pressoffice.mg.co.za

Travel Insurance is Now a Prerequisite for a Worry Free Vacation

4 May 2015 By Digital Curator Leave a Comment

Image via Flickr user bass_nroll

Every traveler begins her journey with a complex web of connections, coupled with dreams of blue skies, unlimited horizons, fair weather and unlimited upgrades.

But, as in everything in life, risk and reward live together and in this complex fine print driven world, we all live and travel while the “devil truly is in the details.”

Practical Drivers for Taking the Plunge and Buying Travel Insurance

Most travelers have a tendency to buy insurance if they believe their may or could have a problem out there on the road that’s unforeseen and significant.

For many of you it’s the smart thing to do — your dropping some serious money on a trip and spending $100-$200 in travel insurance is really not a significant cost vs. the level of protection you will receive.

Critical Option You Should Weigh Prior to Boarding

As above, dear traveler, the devil is in the details. So, don’t multitask this with a carrier on a land line and your smartphone logged in to Instagram.

Go Deep and Long if You are out there on the Frontier: You can get unlimited medical coverage from some providers and a lower cost policy might just cover up to $1M.

Know if you are Covered with Reciprocal Healthcare: Some countries have agreements with other countries, you may be entitled to free or reciprocal coverage if their is reciprocity between the countries.

Are All or Some of Your Belongings Covered? If your iPad falls into the Thames, are you covered? Is your luggage covered for theft and damage of any kind, are electronic devices covered — get the details from your provider, they are obligated to walk you through the fine print.

What does “Cancellation” Mean? With many providers you can define the amount of coverage based on a specific event that prevents you from traveling — look for a policy that covers the full cost of your trip and any incremental costs. Like all things in business, a higher amount triggers a more costly premium.

Provider Insolvency: If your provider goes out of business while you are traveling make sure you have a minimum of $250K in coverage and this can be an exotic clause for some providers and your airline should be factored into this coverage.

Car Rental Coverage: In most cases mainstream coverage bundled with the car rental may not cover all of your costs if you are involved in an accident.

Personal Liability Coverage: This should be $2-$3 million at a minimum and you want blanket coverage that prevents someone from suing you for any type of exotic or weird happenstance.

Be Prepared for Challenges: Travel with emergency numbers and contacts and keep a copy of these on you physically in case you are injured and unconscious and don’t rely on information backed up on a device, paper is better.

Keep Your Paperwork: If you have a problem be diligent in keeping all receipts, police reports, hotel records, whatever else you need to substantiate a claim.

Be safe, have a great time and shop around for travel insurance and make sure you get localized comprehensive coverage that fits your travel plans.

See Full Story on huffingtonpost.com

Do I Really Need to Buy Travel Insurance?

18 February 2015 By Digital Curator 1 Comment

What Travel Insurance Covers and How Much It Costs

You can get travel insurance from a number of sources: The airline or cruise carrier directly, an independent travel insurance agency, and, sometimes, your credit card. In general, travel insurance costs around 5 percent of your total trip. For a $4,300 trip, for example, I paid $158 for standard travel insurance with Allianz.

Trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance: This reimburses you non-refundable travel costs if your trip is cancelled or seriously delayed due to a natural disaster, illness, or the carrier goes out of business.

Baggage and personal items coverage: If someone steals something from your bag or your luggage is lost or delayed, travel insurance will pay you for your trouble, usually up to about $500 per lost baggage and $100-$300 per baggage delay.

Emergency medical insurance: Just as you wouldn’t want to go without medical insurance in everyday life, when you’re traveling abroad it’s important to stay covered in case of accidents.

Accidental death or dismemberment insurance: If you or a loved one dies on the trip or suffers a life-impairing accident (e.g., losing eyesight), this insurance feature pays out up to about $500,000, depending on the situation.

So Is It Worth It?

As with other insurance policies, buying travel insurance (or not buying it) is a gamble. You don’t want to ever regret not buying the insurance, but you also don’t want to pay for something you don’t need—and, looking at the list above, you might already be covered for some of these items elsewhere (e.g., you already have life insurance that covers death or dismemberment or health insurance that covers emergencies abroad).

Step One: Decide how much is at stake if something goes amiss on your trip. You probably don’t need travel insurance if you got one of those cheap $99 last-minute flights.

Step Two: Figure out if your credit card offers travel insurance. If it does, read the fine print to see if it would cover your insurance needs.

Step Three: Find out how much travel insurance costs for your trip. Use comparison site InsureMyTrip to compare independent agency policies available to you.

Finally, remember that you have to get insurance before your trip starts; it won’t protect you if you get the insurance after an accident happens or your trip is cancelled (that’s like trying to get home insurance after your house has already burned down).

by Melanie Pinola

See Full Story on lifehacker.com

10 things to look out for on your travel insurance

16 February 2015 By Digital Curator Leave a Comment

Image via Flickr user Moyan Brenn

Packing to go on holiday can be a bit of a slog, but the only items you essentially need are your passport (if you’re going overseas), money, travel documents – and your travel insurance.

1. Limits on trip duration

When selecting which travel insurance policy to go for, it’s important to check how many consecutive days abroad you’ll be covered for.

2. Destinations that might be excluded

Also check that your policy covers you for the destination you’re going to before you apply. It sounds obvious, but policies vary and if you don’t know what you’re looking for, they can be confusing.

3. Pre-existing conditions

It’s important that you are honest when it comes to any pre-existing medical conditions you have.

4. Action-packed holidays

Planning to take part in activities such as scuba diving, horse riding or bungee jumping on your holiday? Then you need to check that your travel insurance will cover you in the event you had an accident.

5. Limits on claims

Checking exactly how much you’ll be able to claim back in the event that you lost your wallet or had to cancel your holiday is also important.

6. How your belongings should be treated

Your insurer will expect you to take reasonable care of your belongings. If you’re found to be negligent, it could refuse to pay out.

7. How you should report a theft

Should you fall victim to theft, you’ll need to report it to the police as soon as possible.

8. If you miss a flight

We’ve all been there – stuck in traffic or caught up on a delayed train on the way to the airport, frantic with worry that we won’t catch the flight in time.

9. Alcohol and drugs policies

It’s easy to let your hair down when you’re on holiday, but most insurers won’t cover you if you’re involved in an accident when you’re under the influence of alcohol or non-prescription drugs.

10. Cancellations

Although you can buy your travel insurance policy on the day you are jetting off, it can pay to buy it at the same time as booking your holiday.

by Rachel Wait

See Full Story on moneysupermarket.com

Not Covered: Seven Caveats on Travel Insurance

13 February 2015 By Digital Curator Leave a Comment

Singaporeans are among the most avid travellers in Asia and travel insurance are commonly available. However, travellers would do well to know about some common sticky situations in which insurance claims may be refused.

1) Valuables and loss due to personal negligence

Travel insurance policies often explicitly state that the loss of personal valuables due to negligence is not covered.

Furthermore, some basic schemes also exclude the loss of jewelry in overseas trips, whether or not it is the result of negligence.

2) “Known Events”

Some insurers, such as NTUC Income, have a specific exclusion with regard to “Known Events”.

Claims arising out of such “known events” may thus not be admissible under the policy coverage.

3) Mode of transport

If you are going on packaged tours, you should be aware that occasionally, deaths and disabilities resulting only from travelling via public transportation (a.k.a. “public conveyance or common carrier”) are covered under the most basic of travel insurance packages.

4) Disease outbreaks

Although medical claims for illnesses contracted overseas are covered, insurers may stop short on compensating for losses from travel delay or air travel reschedule as a result of disease outbreaks.

5) Trip cancellations

In certain insurance policies, trip cancellations are valid for a small list of events which occur 30 to 60 days prior to departure. Such events may for example be limited to deaths or serious injuries to immediate family members or civil unrest at the destination countries.

6) Reporting of loss

As in the terms and conditions of most other forms of insurance, for travel insurance claims to be admitted, insurers generally require reports to be filed either with the police (or with parties such as airlines in the case of loss luggage) within 24 hours of the occurrence of the incident or accident.

7) Length of trips

For frequent travelers, insurers often offer a multi-trip “one-year plan” in which a travel insurance policy is in effect over a year and activation is not required for each trip. Despite the nature of such plans, such policies do provide not long term coverage.

See Full Story on singwealth.com

Insurance Agency Singapore | Commercial Insurance and Personal Insurance