Everybody eagerly looks forward to his or her next vacation. From choosing the destination to selecting the hotels, planning for the next vacation seems to be a favorite pastime for most people. After all, a trip once a year rejuvenates you physically and mentally and prepares you to withstand the stress of everyday life through the whole year ahead.
But all your excitement and all the meticulous planning can go astray if something unpleasant and unexpected happens during your vacation.
Just imagine the shock and panic if one member of your family or travel group suddenly needs emergency medical attention. Or what if your luggage and all your important documents get lost? What happens if natural calamity leaves you stranded in the middle of nowhere? How will you cope if all flights are cancelled indefinitely following natural, political or other kinds of disturbances?
All these situations are extremely difficult to manage, at home let alone in a foreign country. But you can better cope with these emergency situations without letting all the money that went into paying the air tickets, hotels etc. go to waste by purchasing a travel insurance policy. If you are under the protective coverage of travel insurance, you do not have to stress about the unexpected. Once you are armed with travel insurance you can be rest assured of 24-hour emergency assistance services.
Here are some situations where a travel insurance plan can come to your rescue:
Medical emergency – You will not be covered by your usual health insurance beyond a certain territorial limit. So a medical emergency outside your coverage area means a huge expenditure. International travel insurance usually provides coverage for medical and dental expenses and emergency medical transportation.
Natural calamity – You have invested a considerable amount of money in your vacation and now every thing seems to be going to waste, now that your vacation is spoilt due to a natural calamity or very harsh weather conditions. Though the vacation is ruined does not mean you have to suffer monetarily too as the travel insurance will take cover all your financial losses.
Loss of belongings – You may find yourself in an unfortunate situation where you fall prey to muggers in a foreign city. You lose all your identity documents and you have not a penny in your pocket. In such cases international travel insurance provides you with an Identity Theft Protection that includes recovery services, lost ticket and passport assistance, translation services and emergency and cash transfer assistance.
So as soon as you have decided on your next vacation, purchase your travel insurance too right away. It will allow you to enjoy your vacation with peace of mind because you know the insurance company will take care of everything else for you.
You are about to travel. You have a lot to cover. You must pay for a ticket, your housing, food, your travel, being away, the cultural experience, and the list goes on. Do you want to save money
so you decide not to bother with travel insurance. You are about to journey into the lives of so nothing goes wrong. This unnecessary costs, so you do not need. Wrong. Very wrong. Traveling without insurance may be the biggest mistake when you make your business trip and very expensive.
What is travel insurance? Well, there are two types of insurance to consider when traveling.
1. Travel insurance, (sometimes referred to as travel insurance), which covers cancellation, delay, lost baggage and emergency situations.
2. Travel medical insurance protects you against any medical expenses during the trip.
Ideally, you should mix the two when traveling.
Imagine these scenarios:
You are in Darwin, Australia, when a cyclone hits the area. The city, devastated by the cyclone, and all services shut down. You have to be evacuated and sent home. Your travel insurance will cover you for that. Do you have travel insurance is not it?
Your luggage is missing in India. You need to buy new clothes and quickly. Can you afford it in your budget? Of course you can, you took out a road insurance – do not you?
Or, if you go surfing in Hawaii and take a big wipeout? You are so seriously injured you need major surgery and medical care, and then airlifted home. But that’s OK – your travel medical insurance covers all this. You got it, do not you?
Travel insurance to protect you in case of bad will happen on your journey. He is one of the necessary funds. Overseas medical costs can be astronomical, if you are not insured. And if you were injured in developing countries, medical care may not be as good as at home. If you are insured, you can get a flight home and attended a pro bono basis.
Each year, the government considers the thousands of cases of travelers being injury, illness or death abroad. This is an alarming situation for all involved, but even worse, when travelers are not insured, often leaving them with huge bills to pay. Inpatient care in other countries may cost more than a thousand dollars a day. Medical evacuation can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and if you die in Europe, it can cost more than ten thousand dollars to bring her body back home. If you do not need travel insurance to cover these costs yourself (or your family will find the money).
Travel insurance should be budgeted. If you do not take it, your medical expenses could cost much more. Hedge and a safe trip.
You may be mistaken for thinking that the life of an insurance claims handler could be a pretty boring one. Under that dusty and rather boring exterior beats the heart of a sometimes altogether more interesting career. Joking aside, the insurance industry does have its more entertaining points and if you know where to look you can find claims with a surprising amount of hilarity.
Take the story of the digital radio that fancied a “dip” in the pond. I came across the story whilst researching this article and found it to be quite amusing. Picture the scene; a blissful, warm summer’s day, the radio playing nearby and quite suddenly “splash”. Did the radio fancy a cooling dip in the pond you ask? Not quite. It was revealed during the course of the phone call to the claims advisor that the policy holder’s granddaughter had decided the fish in the pond were missing out on the music. Wouldn’t it be nice to share it with them? Oh dear….
Whilst reading this story I find another detailing the Labrador who it seems had a penchant for modern art. You can probably guess where this one is “leading”, if you pardon the pun. Well the unfortunate home owners were to have their liking of modern art put to the test when they returned home. Upon doing so they found their dog had dipped his tail in a tray of white emulsion and proceeded to wag it all over the carpet, sofa, walls and so on.
If you find yourself becoming the victim of this type of “accident” I would highly recommend ensuring you have a home insurance policy, believe me, you need it.
I thought I’d make a foray into the world of car insurance claims next to see what amusing tales could be found there also. Well I certainly wasn’t disappointed. I found a list of some of the strange explanations given by claimants, here are a couple; a customer collided with a cow and was asked; “what warning was given by you?” to which the customer replied; “my horn”. When asked what warning the other party had given, he replied; “Moo”. Imagine trying to keep the conversation serious after that one.
How about the claimant who gave the following description of events; “I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in- law and headed over the embankment.” Somehow I doubt he realised just how humerous that sounded at the time.
As my final note I’d like to tell you of the gentleman who rang to claim on his travel insurance for a stolen camera. Quite a normal and serious happening you may think and not one that should be given as an example of a strange or funny claim. The thing is, you haven’t asked who, or “what” stole the camera yet. The answer is more unusual than you may think. There he was minding his own business, whilst visiting Gibraltar, when a monkey (which I presume would have been a Barbary ape) harassed him and proceeded to steal his camera. Even the most hardened claims advisor would struggle not to find that one funny.
So there you have it, next time you take out an insurance policy of any kind remember that one day you too might find yourself fishing for a radio or grappling with a monkey for your belongings and relax, safe in the knowledge that however strange you claim is you will be covered.