Going somewhere? Here’s 5 must-know facts when buying travel insurance

When you plan to travel abroad, everyone around you will have their two cents to give: the places you must visit, the things you must carry (or not carry) in the plane, where all you should be extra cautious, and so on. If no one in your circle has already recommended you to buy a travel insurance for your foreign trip, here’s what all you must keep in mind about it.

Things to know about travel insurance before you buy one:

1. The sum assured of your travel insurance plan matters

You have the choice to customize the sum assured of your travel insurance plan, because ultimately that affects the amount of premium you would have pay.

However, an insurance plan offers coverage features on the basis of the sum assured of your choice.

A travel plan with sum assured of $25,000 will have basic coverages like for loss of passport, medical treatment etc. However, a higher sum assured (say of $500,000) would have features like trip delay cover, total loss of check-in baggage etc.

Choose the amount of sum assured as per the country you are travelling to and the nature of your trip: a 90-day trip to Europe will require different coverage from a 7-day business trip to Singapore.

In most travel insurance plans, the medical compensation offered is as much as the sum assured. This means that a lower sum assured may not be sufficient for countries like US and Schengen countries.

2. There are limits to coverage features of a travel insurance plan

One travel insurance plan may have an edge over the others because of the number of coverage features that it offers. But you must note the limits and sub-limits specific to each feature.

This table should help you understand the concept of limits on coverage features:

Further sub-limits are applied on the coverage available under the medical expense feature. Therefore, there is capping hospital room rent, surgery costs, doctor’s fee, anesthesia fee etc.

3. All travel insurance plans have exclusions

All coverage features offered in a travel insurance plan have specific exclusions that you must be careful about. One exclusion that most of you may be aware of is that pre-existing diseases are not covered in the medical expense feature of the travel plan.

In case of loss of checked baggage coverage,some insurance companies have a benefit cover, where in you are required only submit a certificate from your airlines testifying the loss of baggage. Other insurers may insist on actual invoices of the claimed to be lost clothing and toiletries. Other than exclusions, keep an eye for deductibles as well. For example, a 12-hours delay deductible on the baggage delay feature would imply that you can claim for such a loss if the delay was for more than 12 hours.

4. Include every family member in the plan

It is important to include every traveling member of your family in a travel insurance plan. Since most travel insurance companies restrict the entry age to 60 or 70 years, make sure that your parents, if travelling along, are not left out. Most insurers offer separate travel insurance plans for senior citizen.

5. Be aware of the claim settlement process of your insurer

We particularly insure our international travel to ensure that assistance is available when you would need it the most. Therefore, it is best to not ignore the process of initiating a claim with your insurer. Inform your insurer immediately in the occurrence of an event that you may want to claim for, once you’ve returned. If your insurer has claim assistance center in the city you are travelling to, then keep their contact details handy. Otherwise, you may end up paying hefty international call changes to get in touch with the insurer during Indian working hours.

Unless it is a country that makes it compulsory to have a travel insurance at the time of applying of a visa, most individuals tend to ignore the importance of this product. So, buy a travel insurance plan for an assured peace of mind, but stay safe at all times.