Is Travel Insurance Worth It?

After booking flights and the first couple of nights of accommodation for your journey, you might be asking yourself: Is travel insurance worth it? When you’ve just spent so much money on other things, it can be hard to then part with another chunk of cash on something you might not even need.

Travel insurance is an annoying expense but it is worth it. It can save your butt and your wallet when you least expect it. Not convinced? Let’s break it down and look at why travel insurance is worth it and why you really do need it because who knows what might happen.

What Does Travel Insurance Cover?

Let’s take a look at exactly what you will be paying for if you decide to buy travel insurance. Most insurance policies cover at least the following:

• Trip Cancellation or Interruption
• Lost and Stolen Baggage and Belongings
• Medical Emergencies and Death

No matter how invincible you might feel, any of these things could happen to you. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that you will die or be seriously injured on your trip. However, if you aren’t covered by a decent insurance policy you could face medical or repatriation costs that run up into the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. For example, an air ambulance from the US East Coast to the UK will cost you around $50,000 if you don’t have insurance.

How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost?

Travel insurance doesn’t cost as much as you probably think it does. Obviously, it depends on who you buy with and what it covers but overall it shouldn’t deplete your budget too much. Generally people spend around 5% of the total cost of their holiday on travel insurance.

A decent policy should have the following included:

• Up to £10m in medical expenses
• £200 towards replacing necessities in delayed baggage
• £5,000 of cancellation reimbursements
• £1,500 for trip interruptions – so that you can continue your trip if an emergency happens and you have to go home
• £25,000 pay out for personal accidents
• £500 for loss or theft of money
• £600 to replace lost or stolen travel documents and to cover expenses of travel or accommodation you need in the process

How Do You Choose Travel Insurance?

There are hundreds of different insurance companies that will offer you all kinds of policies. This can make choosing travel insurance quite tough. You want to make sure it is comprehensive but you also don’t want to pay through the roof for it. World Nomads is a popular provider because they cover virtually everything and have a good reputation for pay-outs.

If you want to do some research yourself before you choose who to go with then there are plenty of comparison websites like Money Supermarket that will help you out.

What you should be looking for primarily with your travel insurance is good medical cover. It is a good rule of thumb to opt for a policy that will pay for medical expenses up to £5,000,000, including repatriation costs. The more you can get on this front the better. Bear in mind that if you are buying travel insurance for high risk destinations or activities, your premium is likely to be much higher.

Basically, the more dangerous your holiday, the more your travel insurance will cost. Unfortunately, your need for travel insurance will also be higher. It’s a pain but that’s just how it is. Insurance companies are businesses after all and profit is everything.

To conclude: buy travel insurance. Once you know you’re covered, you can relax and enjoy your trip. It really makes traveling so much easier. If you can’t afford to buy travel insurance then you cannot afford to travel.