We know you’d rather spend your dollars on having fun or getting business done when you travel and travel insurance is just one more thing you have to review and sometimes it just feels like a big hassle. To be honest, having travel insurance isn’t always necessary.
- If you’re traveling to an area where your health insurance coverage is in effect and where adequate medical facilities readily available, you probably don’t need travel medical coverage. Remember, however, that most health insurance plans cover you within a network range and medical care outside that area will cost more. If you can afford those medical expenses, you may not need travel medical insurance.
- When it doesn’t matter if your travel is significantly delayed. If you’re a slow traveler on no particular schedule and you don’t mind a few unexpected hotel or meal expenses, then you probably don’t need travel delay or missed connection coverage. Those coverages are only important if you want reimbursement for unexpected hotel, lodging, and transportation costs or you are trying to meet a cruise departure or other time-specific event.
- When you carry your bags with you on board the flight and you don’t worry about them being lost, stolen, or destroyed by the many people who come in contact with checked bags. You won’t even have to worry about them being routed incorrectly causing a baggage delay. In that case, you can purchase a travel insurance plan with little to no coverage for baggage.
- When everyone around you is perfectly healthy and has no pre-existing medical conditions. In this situation, you probably don’t need to worry about trip cancellation or interruption coverage to attend to an ill family member. Of course, remember that you may want trip cancellation and/or interruption coverage for reasons other than illness too. Many travel insurance plans allow cancellations and interruptions for a number of covered reasons.
- When you can afford to lose all the money you’ve invested in a trip or it will be a company loss and not your own. In that situation, coverage for cancellations may not be important to you because you won’t need reimbursement for your non refundable pre-paid trip costs.
