Importance of Travel Insurance for International Travel

Traveling helps to unplug from every day pushes and pulls of life. It also enables one to explore new cultures, traditions, cuisines, and ways of living. Especially when planning for an international trip, the excitement is on some other level. While making an itinerary for international travel, one thing that we come across is to have travel insurance. Many of us wonder that is travel insurance important. Life is full of uncertainties. Whether you are a solo traveler or traveling with friends and family, you are open to risks. The risks could be related to your health, important documents, or even your luggage. Having comprehensive overseas insurance coverage takes care of every travel-related worry. First things first!

Why Travel Insurance?

Travel insurance offers cover against any unforeseen losses that may incur while traveling both domestically and internationally. You may lose all your cash or miss the connecting flight or even encounter a medical emergency. In cases like these, a travel insurance policy will protect you from unexpected monetary losses. There are times when people simply find excuses to not buy the insurance policy. While you may put it under not-so-important, there are countries where travel insurance is a mandate before you apply for a visa. So if you are planning to visit the USA, the UAE, or any of the Schengen countries travel insurance is required. Regardless of whether travel insurance is a mandate or not, a smart choice is to have one before you arrive in a foreign land.

Benefits of Travel Insurance You Must Know

To understand the importance of travel insurance, it becomes to know its benefits of it. Here’s a rundown of the benefits of overseas insurance:

1. Loss/Delay of Checked-in Baggage

Imagine you have just landed and you don’t receive your checked-in luggage or it perhaps gets lost in transit. Well, a travel insurance cover becomes helpful under any such contingency. The airlines have a standard and usual timeline to respond. Or they would ask you to wait for a minimum of 24 hours. Under a situation like this having suitable insurance coverage would be a big savior.

2. Loss of Passport

There cannot be a worse situation than losing your passport in a foreign country. Suppose your bag gets stolen that has the passport. Travel insurance will offer a cover-up to a certain sum insured. It will cover the expenses of getting a new passport from the insurer.

3. Trip Cancelation

There are chances that you may cancel your trip due to unavoidable circumstances such as sickness of you or a family member, inclement weather conditions, etc. This cover offers compensation for the expenses that have either been paid as per the policy schedule.

4. Missed Connection

It also offers compensation for the costs related to missing a connecting flight. An amount is paid in case the insured misses a connecting flight upon the delayed arrival of the previous flight.

5. Medical Evacuation

A travel insurance plan also offers cover for the expenses incurred for emergency medical evacuation. A cover is offered to the insured to evacuate the insured from an overseas medical facility to an Indian medical facility. You may also be compensated for a medical treatment commenced outside India for up to 90 days from the incident date. This may vary from insurer to insurer.

The Bottom Line

Before you zero down insurance, ensure to understand the benefits of travel insurance to make a wise choice. The travel requirements differ not only from person to person but also from place to place. Compare travel insurance policies online and choose a plan that fulfills your international travel requirements. You may also use our travel insurance premium calculator to have an idea of the premium amount that you would end up paying.   *Standard T&C apply Insurance is the subject matter of solicitation. For more details on benefits, exclusions, limitations, terms, and conditions, please read the sales brochure/policy wording carefully before concluding a sale.