When is travel insurance necessary?

You’ve booked your flights, reserved your hotels, and rented a car for your next trip — but what about travel insurance? Your initial thoughts might be, “What is travel insurance?” or “Is it worth my money?” Let’s break it down.

“There are times when travel insurance may not be necessary,” says Terry Boynton, president of Yonder Travel Insurance. “Consider the investment you’ve made toward your trip. If it’s a small investment and you’ll be gone for only a weekend, your trip may not need travel insurance.”

Here are a few scenarios when you might not need to purchase travel insurance.

• Domestic trips: Domestic trips are usually less expensive than international trips so you’ll probably be able to skip the extra coverage. Your current health insurance might cover medical emergencies that come up, but check with your provider first (especially if you have a high deductible).
• Cheap trips: If you can afford to lose the prepaid and nonrefundable deposits, which travel insurance can cover, then you can most likely go without travel insurance.
• Refundable trips: If you used flexible and refundable miles to book your airfare and most of your hotels have a free cancellation policy, you may not need a travel insurance policy.

So when should you buy travel insurance?

“We always recommend travel insurance for international travel,” says Boynton. “Most health insurance policies won’t cover you outside the U.S. Even if they do, you most likely won’t have access to a 24/7 travel and medical emergency assistance line if something really bad happens during your trip.”

A comprehensive travel insurance policy will provide a wide array of coverage if something goes wrong before or during your trip, notes the insurer. Assess the medical and financial risk your trip involves and choose a policy that fits your needs. Even if you’ve been lucky in the past, it’s always a good idea to get travel insurance when there’s more risk involved in your trip.

Canadian Insurance Top Broker is now on Facebook (facebook.com/TopBrokerMag) as well as LinkedIn (linkedin.com/company/citopbroker) and Twitter (twitter.com/CITopBroker). Follow us for easy access to the top P&C news you need to know. 

This story was originally published by Canadian Insurance Top Broker.