Travelling soon? Make sure you take out travel insurance

Travel insurance is something I highly recommend taking out before going abroad. Yes its an added cost, and hopefully nothing will happen for you to need it - but if something does happen, it can help save you thousands of dollars.

Many people don't realise how many things can actually be covered by their travel insurance, and often don't claim things they could have. So in the event of anything going wrong while you're away, you should always check if the associated costs will be covered by your insurance. 

The most common reason for taking out travel insurance would have to be to cover the risk of emergency medical costs if something bad happens, like you end up in hospital. This is certainly a good reason, because even if you think you're pretty risk-adverse, unexpected things can happen and costs can really escalate.

For example, my friend recently got appendicitis while in the United States and had to have her appendix removed. We've all heard how expensive medical costs are in the US, but thankfully she had insurance to cover it all. Another friend of mine fell on a tree with spikes on it in a remote part of the rainforest in Costa Rica, and ended up with about 15 of the spines stuck deep in her hand. For months she had to have repeated visits to the hospital and medical centre in Costa Rica with the bills adding up (plus the costs of travel between there and her remote jungle home) - all covered by her insurance. I've spent three nights in a Thai hospital with Salmonella, amongst other minor illnesses in various countries also requiring medical treatment (read more here) - all of which has been covered by my insurance. 

There are countless other stories out there for your Googling pleasure, and this topic regularly pops up in news articles - typically about much more serious instances, often where the person involved didn't have insurance and wished they did. So my tip is to just bite the bullet and buy it. If you spend the money and it turns out that you didn't need to use it, then you can just be happy that nothing bad happened on your trip. 

Depending on the level of cover you take out (and the company), you can be covered not only for emergency medical expenses; but also for loss or damage to your belongings; costs associated with changing travel plans if something goes wrong; credit card fraud; even someone suing you; plus a whole host of other things.

For example, you can be covered for repair or replacement costs if you lose your camera/phone/laptop/anything really; or if you smash it because you dropped it in the street out of pure clumsiness or whatever other reason; or it gets stolen (*while you had it on you). Or you decide to photograph the rock pools but forget about the waves coming in that end up washing over your lens and destroying your camera beyond repair. Yes - these things have all happened to me. But luckily insurance covered them all. 

Or on a more serious note, if your grandmother is unexpectedly close to dying and you need to go back to your country to be with her and/or attend the funeral - your insurance can pay for your flights home, and, in some cases, also for your flight back to whichever exotic destination you were in to continue your trip.

Of course its much better if nothing bad happens on your trip. But if it does, its great to know that the money side of it isn't an issue. 

I always buy the Comprehensive cover, which is more expensive than Basic cover, but it means that I have the highest level of cover and am covered for almost anything that could go wrong. I personally think its worth the extra, but of course its your decision. 

I always use 1Cover as its the best value I've found (from Australia) and they've always been very responsive on my claims. You can get a quote for your next trip here.

Tip: I also always reduce the Excess to zero, so that if I make a claim I get the full amount back from them (i.e. they don't deduct anything from the payment). In an interest to save a bit of money, many people leave their excess at the default, which is often around $100. However, lets say you lose your $400 camera. That means you'll only get $300 on back from that claim. On the other hand, you could spend slightly more upfront to reduce the excess to zero so that you will get the full $400 back (its normally a very small amount to do so, eg $20).

Tip: Of course make sure you read your policy to know what you're covered for, and also always pay attention to the terms and conditions of your policy, because adherence to those can affect whether or not your claim is successful (e.g. there is often a requirement to file a police report for stolen property within 24 hours). You should also check if you need to pay extra to cover certain high risk activities that you might want to do, or to cover specific expensive equipment that you're travelling with.