Choosing the Right Travel Insurance
From Financial Literacy Wiki
Choosing the Right Travel Insurance is very important as it can minimize the consequences of accidents during your holidays or business travels.
Choosing the right travel insurance, besides the normal terms and conditions plus coverage, you should also review your needs and the country you are visiting. It might be helpful to read up news about a particular country or city that you are visiting before deciding what coverage you need.
Here are some pointers in choosing the 'right' travel insurance:
Contents |
Superior or Non-superior
Usually there are two types of plan offered. One offers better benefits compared to the other and it usually commands a higher premium. As such you need to assess your risk in the country you are going and see if applying for the better benefit is more beneficial. There are even plans that can cover the costs of TCM (traditional chinese medicine) medical fees
Plans and Coverage
Make sure that you are covered for the whole period of travel and the country you are in. You might want to explore if there is an option to extend your coverage before the plan expires.
Frequent travelers can explore annual plans to avoid the hassle of arranging travel insurance and also enjoy savings on premiums.
Some plans have automatic extension of coverage if your trip is extended due to "circumstances beyond your control", other plans have automatic extension for up to 30 days if you are quarantined or hospitalised. It is also wise to explore how much of your overseas hospitalisation and evacuation fees is covered by insurance.
If you are bringing a lot of baggage for travel, you must check out the benefits for delayed, damaged or lost baggage. Some plans insures the loss of laptops up to a certain amount, usually $1000.
In the event that you die during the trip, travel insurance may cover the costs of returning your remains back to Singapore. Some travel insurance even pays for the travelling expenses of a kin when needed to see to the arrangements.
Terrorism Cover
With the September 11th incident, most insurance companies have now offered terrorism coverage. If the country you are visiting have a high risk of terrorist attacks, it is better to see if your insurance covers terrorist attacks and other unrest.
Trip Cancellation
Some travel insurance plans cover the loss of non-refundable deposits or other charges paid in advance, in the event the travel operator face financial collapse.
