Warning! Are you travelling without Travel Insurance?

We recently recovered from pandemic and it is almost the right time to realize the importance of getting a covered by travel insurance during your trip. Mishaps can happen anytime and it is better to stay covered.

While some people are cautious and who take a necessary step before planning their travel, There are people like me who learn the hard way.

During our trip to Singapore I met with an accident for which I had get immediate treatment from Hospital and since I wasn’t covered under any form of travel health insurance it costed me fortune to just get some basic medical help from the hospital.

And this was all because of some stupid thought, that it is just a week trip and what would happen to me?

I always had this thing in back in my mind that I am already covered under the health insurance in my home country for most of the time available. Then what is the point of spending around 10$ for a week trip to Singapore.

Well, I was wrong and I learnt it the hard way and ended up spending around 500$ more. With the intent of saving 10$ it costed me 500$ in case of emergency event.

And to be honest you have no control on Emergencies so it is always to get yourself covered under the travel health insurance for whatever time your travelling to a country outside your home country.

It gives you a sense of security and you can enjoy your trip in a much better way.

Is travel Insurance Worth it?

Travel Health Insurance to some seems like a waste of money since they have never hurt themselves during their trip.

The answer to questions like these would be, Just because you have never hurt yourself that doesn’t mean you never will.

Do you realize what will happen if you hurt yourself during your trip while you are abroad and you don’t have health insurance?

Your family would have to spend a fortune to get you back home. Going abroad without travel insurance is an absolute NO-NO. In some countries, even for a minor health problem, it could be really expensive for you to survive.

Also, a good quality travel insurance will also provide for losses and thefts, holiday curtailment, and legal fees and advice.

Let us know about the different kind of travel insurance which you can get in market.

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What are the different type of Travel Insurance?

Even I was not aware about the different type of Travel Insurance available in market before buying my first insurance after the Singapore incident.

After my trip to Singapore I promised myself that I will always get a travel insurance before going on any trip abroad but then later realized that travel insurance is an umbrella term which house different kind of insurance under it which covers you in multiple ways.

To break down the different types of Travel Insurance, Let us read about the categories –

Trip Cancellation Insurance

You always tend to book things in advance whenever you are planning your trip. I personally like my trips planned an sorted for which I book the events and things to do tickets in advance.

So let say you are going on a cruise for which you booked the ticket in advance. You have payed a substantial amount of money for your trip which you could loose if you are unable to go to that trip. You can buy a trip cancellation Insurance to cover the non refundable prepaid trip cost.

Emergency Medical Evacuation Insurance

A must have insurance for people who like to go on long road trip or adventures such as hiking.

People love to travel to different part. These places may not have the best medical arrangement to support the need. The medical institution may not have the resources or technologies to treat the patient. Therefore, emergency medical evacuation is critical.

Emergency medical evacuation is just the transfer from one hospital to another in case of serious illness or injuries that requires urgent treatment. It occurs in case when local hospital is not able to provide adequate medical support.

In other word this is just for medical transportation but doesn’t cover medical coverage.

Travel Health Insurance

Which brings us to the most important category of travel insurance. Travel Health Insurance also is known as the medical insurance provides you with emergency medical coverage in case of unforeseen illness, injuries or accident which occurs after the date of buying the medical insurance.

Additionally it would also provide coverage for Emergency Medical Evacuation Insurance and repatriation of remains.

Most of the travel insurance also provides trip interruption coverage in case of emergency sickness if you have travel back to your home country.

In case you have pre-existing condition you may want to buy travel insurance which covers acute-onset of pre-existing condition.

Flight Insurance

One of the cheapest travel insurance to get is your flight insurance. It could be around your flight delays trip cancellation, Loss or theft of baggage.

Gear Insurance

For travel bloggers and vloggers like us, We use to carry a lot of instruments and gears with us for vlogging and camera gears which are costly and would cost us fortune if you loose them during your travel.

It happened during our trip to Malaysia when we lost our baggage during the security scan and my flight was about to take off and I was the last one to get on board. The security person asked me to leave and I lost my mobile phone during this facade.

Gear insurance comes in play in cases like this a lot.

Repatriation of Remain Insurance

We really don’t want this to happen but yes we have to get ourselves covered for cases like this. Repatriation Insurance is going to cover the transport of your dead body in case you passed away during your trip.

This is also called as the Return of Mortal Remains.

Well, these are a couple of types of travel insurance on brief, Now that you know about travel insurance let us find out about the Insurance Cost?

How much Travel Insurance Cost?

There isn’t a perfect answer for this question that “How much travel Insurance Cost?” However, there are factors on which the cost of travel insurance is dependent.

Travel Insurance typically costs 5 to 10 percent of your total trip cost but it is dependent on couple of factors –

• Your Age
• How much you are spending on your trip.
• The amount of coverage you are choosing.
• The number of people who are covered under your policy.

And Some plans are even dependent on this –

• Where you are travelling?
• For How many days you are travelling.

So in short your cost depends on the element of risk

When figuring out how much travel insurance costs, remember the price you pay depends in large part on how large of a trip investment you are making – your trip cost!

Age, trip cost, plan type, number of travellers, and for some plans destination and trip length: all these factors can help determine risk, and often determine the cost of your policy.

THE VALUE MORE THAN JUSTIFIES THE COST

Regardless of how much a trip insurance plan costs, its value to you will be determined when you need it.

When a travel emergency strikes and travel insurance helps pay your medical bills, evacuate you, or deal with the myriad of hassles involved with interrupting a trip and getting you back home, it can more than justify its cost.

We have got the cost covered further down the post under the segment of the two travel insurance companies we trust the most i.e. Safetywing and World Nomads.

But before that, let us find out what you should know before buying a travel Insurance?

What you should know before buying a travel Insurance?

Claim Rule

The first thing which I personally like knowing before buying any insurance policy is about how to claim the policy ?

What is the claiming rate of the insurance and it needs to be of good rate, Since there are many insurance provider in the market it is always good to research about the ease of claiming the insurance in case of need arise.

One such incident happen when our luggage was delayed by the flight for about 3 days and neither we got the compensation amount from the Insurance provider, AXA Travel Insurance nor we got compensated by the Air Astana Flight.

Adventure Sport

Many travel insurance back off in case of medical emergency out of Adventure sports. So it is better to research as per your travel plan around whether your policy is going to cover the Adventure sport which you are going to try during your trip.

It may get hectic to find and research about what all adventure sport is covered by the travel insurance provider, because when I tried to find out it was pretty hectic for me.

Good thing is that both the insurance provider which I am suggesting SafetyWing and World Nomads not only cover a major range of Adventure sport under their travel insurance program but also list them down in an accurate manner to help your research before planning your trip.

Global Pandemic

The only reason why we are talking about this is because of the recent condition out of the Coronavirus which has shooked the entire world.

This pandemic has spoiled many plans and hit on pockets of many travelers, While there is no clause about the pandemic under buying travel insurance it is wise to know research about it that whether your travel insurance will bear the cost of trip cancellation in case of pandemics.

Pre-Existing Medical Condition

If you have any pre-existing medical condition then it is wise to research about whether your travel health insurance is going to cover you in case of medical emergencies or not.

Now if you read inside most of the travel insurance policy you will find this term acute-onset of pre-existing condition which I also referred in above post.

SafetyWing one of the insurance providers which I am suggesting do cover the acute-onset of a pre-existing medical condition

What does acute-onset of the pre-existing medical condition mean?

It means a sudden and unexpected outbreak or recurrence of a preexisting condition(s) which occurs spontaneously and without advance warning either in the form of physician recommendations or symptoms, is of short duration, is rapidly progressive, and requires urgent care.

The Acute Onset of a Pre-existing Condition(s) must occur after the certificate effective date.

Treatment must be obtained within 24 hours of the sudden and unexpected outbreak or recurrence. A preexisting condition that is a chronic or congenital condition or that gradually becomes worse over time will
not be considered Acute Onset.

This benefit does not include coverage for known, scheduled, required, or expected medical care, drugs or treatments existent or necessary prior to the certificate effective date.

War or Act of Terrorism

Well the world is a risky place so it is wise to know whether your travel insurance covers War or Act of Terrorism. One of insurance provider which we are going to share in the post below do covers the War or Act of Terrorism under it.

You’ll want to research this policy if you’re planning to travel to a place with political unrest or where a terrorist act or mass shooting is likely.

Any Country Specific Rules for Insurance

One last thing is that you should also consider finding out any specific requirement from the country you are travelling in case with the travel insurance.

Like in case if you want to travel to Europe – Below are the things which you should keep in mind

Your Insurance should provide below things –

• Minimum coverage of at least 30,000 EUR (equivalent to 34,000 USD).
• It should cover all member states of the Schengen Area.
• Cover any expenses which might arise in connection with repatriation for medical reasons, urgent health attention and/or emergency hospital treatment or death.

If you are from America and you are wondering about what all things do the Medicare covers while you are travelling outside America then you can read about all this information from Retireguide.

How to get a travel Insurance?

Now that you have researched all the things around the policies and made up your mind about buying travel insurance.

We have got you covered around this point, You can get the quote for your insurance from our two suggested Insurance provider i.e. SafetyWing and World Nomads from our Travel Resource page for Insurance.

You can continue reading further to know more about the two Insurance Provider which we suggest for travel Insurance and How much it is going to cost you to get yourself insured for your trip?

Where to buy Travel Insurance?

You can buy your travel insurance from either SafetyWing which is one of Best Travel Insurance providers currently in the market.

What are the factors to evaluate the best insurance provider?

In order to summarize and identify the best insurance providers in market. The first thing which I validate is the company and the insurance provider whether they are legit or not.

There are couple of more things which I check –

• They are covering the basic things i.e. the medical insurance in case of emergencies, the flight insurance in case of cancellation, delay of baggage or baggage loss or theft.
• In order to research about what all things are covered under the policy and their rules, I like the insurance provider which have these things listed out in straight away manner without complicating stuffs to hide information.
• Easy to find pricing information for all age group.
• Easy Claim policy around because if I am struggling around the claim then it is no use for me to getting the insurance.
• Good user experience, Customers are God and they are the one which makes or breaks the market. So a good reviews are always the best guiding factor for me before buying any product or services.

I think that is pretty much all which I check before comparing any new insurance provider and I personally like how SafetyWing and World Nomads both have their policy and information sorted.

Let us dive straight on reading more about the Insurance providers which you can consider for your next travel Insurance.

SafetyWing Travel Insurance

A relatively new one in the market and an interesting one which has become my favorite and quiet popular in the travelling industry. Their insurance policy is backed by Tokio Marine, one of the most solid insurance companies in the world. So in the unlikely event that something were to happen to SafetyWing, you would still be taken care of by Tokio Marine.

The best thing about this is that it is subscription based and has buying an insurance is as easy as buying your Netflix subscription.

With plans starting at just $45.08 per month, SafetyWing coverage offers the easiest to use and most affordable long-term travel insurance plan I’ve ever seen.

SafetyWing offers two kind of Plans –

• Nomad Insurance is a travel medical insurance and was built for Digital Nomads who have health insurance coverage in their home country but need coverage abroad while travelling. Coronavirus is also covered under the Nomad Insurance now.
  
• Remote Health is comprehensive health insurance for travelling nomads and remote workers AND also for people who still stay in one spot as ex-pats or are in their home country. 

Who is Nomad Insurance for?

This is best for People who are location independent fall between the cracks, without proper access to insurance or national safety nets.

What all things are covered under SafetyWing Nomad Insurance?

• Travel medical – Access a qualified global network of hospitals and doctors for unexpected medical problems and accidents. Includes coverage for: Doctors, Hospitals, Emergency medical evacuation.
• Travel – Includes coverage for: Travel delay, Lost checked luggage, Emergency response & natural disasters, Personal liability.

Some highlights and things which you should know about Nomad Health Insurance

• Great value – At only $37 per 4 weeks gives a worldwide travel medical coverage (Ages 18-39, other ages available. Travel to US adds $31 per 4 weeks). ​This is 1/3rd price compared to biggest competitor for similar coverage.
• Buy abroad, stay abroad – It is available for purchase in 180 countries and can be purchased when already traveling. There is no cap on the duration of a travel.
• Automatic monthly payments – From your chosen start date, your insurance automatically extends every 28 days until you pick an end-date. Extremely flexible, just like a subscription.
• Visits to home country are covered – For every 90 days, you can use your medical coverage for 30 days in your home country if something happens while there. (you can’t start in your home country, 15 days if your home country is the US)
• Young children included – 1 young child per adult, up to 2 per family, age between 14 days and 10 years old, can be included on your insurance without added cost.
• Completely reliable – SafetyWing is a Y-Combinator company and the policy is administered by Tokio Marine which is one of the largest insurance companies in the world. The Policy is underwritten by certain underwriters at Lloyds.
• Get with a group – You can purchase on behalf of the whole group traveling with you.

Who is Remote Health for?

• full-time nomads who are looking for comprehensive
  coverage
• part-time nomads who would like one plan to cover
  them whether they are at home or abroad
• part-time nomads who prefer the efficiency of private health care when they are home
• full time or part-time nomads in need coverage for COVID-19

Key Benefits from the Remote Health Policy

• Coverage up to 1mil USD per year.
• Worldwide coverage: 175 + country full coverage and emergency coverage for planned trips in every country in the world.
• You can choose between different add-ons and tailor your coverage plan.
• Visit any public or private hospital in the world.
• Fast signup and easy to use dashboard.
• Highly rated customer service.

Full comprehensive coverage includes:

• hospital charges, medical practitioner and specialists fees
• cancer treatment
• day-patient and out-patient surgery
• drugs and dressings
• in-patient emergency dental treatment
• diagnostic procedures
• rehabilitation
• emergency ambulances
• evacuation and repatriation
• newborn coverage.

Addons ( you can choose and customize your final coverage!)

• Out-patient and prescriptions
• Dental
• $0 deductible & 0% co-pay
• Screenings & Vaccines
• USA, HK and SG coverage

Covid 19 Coverage ( Coronavirus Coverage )

• Treatment
  There is no exclusion on pandemics, so treatment of coronavirus in
  a hospital is covered
  
• Isolation
  Covers treatment in an isolation ward if this is deemed necessary by your
  medical practitioner

• Hospital cash benefit
  Even if coronavirus is already covered for you, you may be eligible for a cash payout. If you stay in a free-of-charge hospital (example: a public hospital in your home country), you are eligible for a cash payout of up to $125 per night, for up to 30 nights

• Claims
  Extra fast turnaround times for treatment pre-authorisations and claims for members diagnosed with COVID-19, so you can rest assured you will get access to fast treatment

Use below Safety Wing tool to check which Insurance is suitable for you and what will be the cost for you.

How much will it cost you for Travel Insurance?

Now that we have read about both the Insurance provider let us find out How much it is going to cost you for your policy.

SafetyWing Nomad Insurance policy starts with as low as 37$ per month i.e just around 6.60 $ for 5 days.

That price increases depending on age and whether your travels include the US, but isn’t affected by which countries you’ll be visiting. 

SafetyWing is an excellent budget travel Insurance option.

So the best thing is to get the quote for the insurance from our Travel Insurance page.

Thank you for reading our post of travel insurance, Is there any other Insurance company which you have tried and feel that their services are top-notch then do suggest us in our comment box below, We will try to research about them and will try to buy travel insurance from them during our future trips.

Want to read more then you can check our Travel Resource Insurance Page.

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