Travel Insurance Options
Travel can be expensive and often there are nonrefundable deposits on cruises, car rentals, hotels and flights. If you have to cancel at the last minute, all that money goes down the drain unless you have travel insurance. However, not all travel insurance is the same, and not all policies cover every eventuality. Choosing the right policy means anticipating your own needs and knowing what's covered and what's not.
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Single-Trip Policies
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These policies are meant to cover one specific trip and are ideal for annual vacations. If you don't travel, or don't travel a lot, the low price of single-trip travel insurance may make it practical to insure your trips individually. It also allows you a lot of flexibility. You can choose whichever options are most useful for your particular journey. Adding on options like medical expense or evacuation coverage, flight coverage or baggage coverage is easy and relatively inexpensive. However, different single-trip policies have different maximum trip lengths. Some will cover you only if you're not gone for more than 30 days, for instance.
Annual Multi-Trip Policies
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These policies cover a year of travel, no matter how much travelling you do. They are suitable if you are a business traveler or if you often travel to visit family and friends. If you travel enough that single-trip policies don't provide you with value for your money, it's time to consider annual, multi-trip insurance. However, these policies are less flexible in that they cover a given set of circumstances agreed upon at the start of the policy. It can be difficult to add policy options if you want the options to cover only a particular trip. If your policy doesn't cover medical expense or evacuation, but you want that kind of coverage on a given trip, it can be difficult to add it on to your policy.
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Specialized Policies
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Many policies will not require a specialized policy if you're going on a trip that includes dangerous activities outside the usual. For instance, if you plan on climbing a mountain, kayaking vicious rapids, base jumping or sky diving, you may have to take out specialized travel insurance to cover any possible accidents or events.
Policy Options
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When choosing a policy, consider what exactly is being covered. Most travel insurance will include cancellation insurance and trip delay or missed connection insurance --- although the amount of coverage may vary --- but not all will cover lost or delayed baggage. Many basic plans won't cover medical expenses, and you may need to upgrade if you have a pre-existing condition and know you'll need that kind of coverage. Research what each policy covers and what it doesn't before making your final decision.
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