Travel insurance is designed to reimburse travelers for unexpected losses, and travel insurance plans with trip cancellation or ‘cancel for any reason’ benefits ensure that a traveler who has to cancel their trip doesn’t also have to forfeit their trip investment (provided they cancel their trip for a covered reason).

Most travel insurance plans require that a traveler insure all their non-refundable travel arrangements that are subject to cancellation penalties in order to have certain benefits.

These include but are not limited to the following:

• Pre-existing condition coverage
• ‘Cancel for any reason’ coverage
• ‘Cancel for work reasons’ coverage

See 5 Reasons to Purchase Travel Insurance Early for more details.

This means that even if you purchase a travel insurance plan on time (within the required number of days after making your initial trip deposit), you might not be able to cancel your trip for a full refund if you haven’t covered all your pre-paid, non-refundable trip costs.

When you’re filling our travel insurance quote form, you’ll see the selection here:

When getting a travel insurance quote, you’ll need to calculate your total trip cost, which is the cash value equivalent of all arrangements that were booked and paid for.

What factors determine total trip cost?

Your trip costs are determined by adding up the total of the pre-paid, non-refundable expenses that would be lost if you had to cancel your trip. These include:

• All non-refundable payments, including deposits, toward your trip: hotel, airfare, cruise, etc.
• Pre-arranged, pre-paid transportation costs like taking a pre-paid shuttle to and from the airport
• Non-refundable fees you pay for before you leave, including those fees related to tours, conventions, classes, or retreats
• Any cancellation penalties that you’ll be assessed if you suddenly cancel, such as in the deposit for a condo on the beach (check your rental agreement for the cancellation penalty schedule)
• Non-refundable tickets such as those to the theater, special events, Disneyworld passes, etc.

What costs are not included in my total trip cost?

These costs are not pre-paid and so they should not be included in your total trip cost:

• Meal and lodging costs you pay after you arrive
• Day trips or excursions arranged for and paid for after departure
• Souvenir, gift, or other costs for items you purchase during your trip
• Emergency passport replacement costs (although many travel insurance plans have an allowance for those costs if your passport is lost or stolen while you’re on your trip)
• Any other costs that were not pre-paid

If you include these in your total trip cost amount, it amounts to over-insuring your trip because these costs will not be reimbursed to you.

Do not include these costs in your total trip cost!

Do not include the costs associated with any pre-paid expenses that can be changed. This is where a lot of travelers make a mistake. It’s important to remember that travel insurance only reimburses you for losses.

If the bed and breakfast you reserved in Paris doesn’t allow for cancellations, but they will happily reschedule your stay, then it’s not a loss and you won’t be reimbursed for those costs by your trip cancellation coverage even if you can’t take your scheduled trip for a covered reason.

To protect your trip investment, think carefully about where you book your lodgings, tours, retreats, etc. If their ‘cancellation’ policy doesn’t allow for true cancellations, then reconsider and don’t include those costs in your total trip costs because they won’t be covered anyway.

What about airline ticket purchased with points?

If you purchase your airfare with points or frequent flyer miles, check the rules of your plan. In many cases, if you have to cancel your trip, the airline will re-deposit those points minus a fee.

In brief, you’ll include these costs in your total trip cost amount:

• The fee to re-deposit your frequent flier points or miles
• The taxes paid on the airline tickets

Essentially, the fee to reimburse your account with your points is non-refundable, but the ticket cost itself is not.

What if I don’t know all my trip costs – should I estimate?

If your total trip cost is unknown, and you want to purchase your policy in time to take advantage of certain benefits that require early purchase (typically between 10 and 14 days of your initial trip deposit) to be in effect, including but not limited to:

• Pre-existing condition waivers
• ‘Cancel for any reason’ benefits
• ‘Cancel for work reasons’ coverage

It’s wise to round up in order to avoid being precluded from access to these coverage options.

If you later discover that you’ve over-insured your trip, the policy can be updated to reflect the accurate trip cost and the difference in the premium will be refunded to you as long as the changes were made prior to your departure.

Motor vehicle accidents – not crime, not terrorism, and certainly not natural disasters – are the highest cause of American deaths in foreign countries.

As worldwide economics change, many more people in many more countries are gaining the ability to drive, crowding roads even further and causing road safety issues around the globe.

While local residents bear most of the risk of death and injury, travelers are particularly vulnerable because of their lack of familiarity with the local surroundings, road conditions, and driving laws. In cases like these, it’s good to know that travel insurance covers rental cars.

Get the Facts about Driving Overseas

In 2004, the World Health Organization and the World Bank published a joint report: World report on road traffic injury prevention, indicating that 1.2 million people are killed in road crashes each year and as high as 50 million are injured or disabled.

Even worse, 85% of those deaths are in low- to middle-income countries, and predictions indicate that worldwide traffic fatalities will increase to 2.3 million by the year 2020.

While traffic accidents occur everywhere, much of the most recent growth in motor vehicle usage is in developing countries where the roads were built to standards less than we’re used to here in the U.S. Many of these roads are also used by pedestrians and cyclists. In addition, little to no signage, few traffic regulations, and very little enforcement of those laws are further compounded by poor emergency response capabilities.

Be Prepared for Safe Driving in a Foreign Land

Driver unfamiliarity – unfamiliar cars driving on unfamiliar roads with unfamiliar signs – is a big contributor to car crashes abroad. Yet, many tourists prefer to drive on their trips abroad.

If you’ve decided you will drive on your next trip, start preparing before you leave home:

• Research the driving laws where you’re going (go online, speak with friends, etc.)
• Get an International Driver’s Permit, but take your U.S. license with you too
• Research your automobile insurance options and have the right coverage
• Know the local numbers to contact the police (hint: it’s not 911)

Your auto policy back home plus your credit card benefits may be enough coverage, but check the details carefully. Many auto policies don’t cover driving overseas or even renting a car abroad, and there are significant limitations to the  car rental collision coverage you get with your credit card travel protection.

At the Scene of a Car Crash

If you’re involved in a car crash abroad, it’s important to understand that the training and availability of emergency responders may be well below typical U.S. standards. That means, you could be waiting for help for a rather long time.

The rules at the scene of an accident are similar in a foreign country:

1. If you’re able, contact the local authorities immediately. You may have to request an English-speaking representative.
2. If anyone is injured, tell the operators you’ll need emergency medical assistance.
3. Take down information – driver’s names, the make and model and color of each of the vehicles involved, the address where the collision occurred, and registration plate information.
4. Take pictures of the accident scene using your phone and/or camera.
5. If you have travel insurance or car rental insurance, contact the insurance company as soon as possible. Depending on your coverage, they may be able to help you with getting through to the authorities, sending emergency medical support, and even a tow truck.
6. In many regions, you’ll be asked to fill out and sign a statement – get a copy of that.

Provided you did your insurance homework, you’ll know whether you have to wait to return home to file a claim or do it immediately.

Know Your Coverage Limits and Limitations

Neither your credit card coverage or your coverage from back home are complete coverage if you’re in an accident overseas, and the coverage you get with travel insurance has its own set of restrictions, like only covering cars up to a certain value.

In addition, there are country-specific limitations you should look for, such as some countries requiring the driver to have adequate auto insurance. In some countries, you’ll be required to purchase coverage from providers based in that country. That means your credit card coverage, your auto policy back home, and your travel insurance coverage are useless to you there.

See our review of car rental collision coverage for the full details.

The media is full of stories that can put nervous people off traveling, but the statistics still show you’re more likely to die crossing the street than in a plane crash.

Unfortunately for today’s traveler, losing your life in a plane crash, a civil riot, or a sinking cruise ship is the least of your worries.

There are actually many unconventional ways that travel can kill you if you’re not careful.

1. Nibbling the latest Asian delicacy

Both China and Japan feature amazingly diverse cuisine and part of the appeal lies in the wide variety of unique ingredients.

The puffer fish, for example, is considered a delicacy, but it can only be prepared by licensed chefs for a simple reason: the puffer fish contains tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin that is over a thousand times more deadly than cyanide.

The first recorded case of tetrodotoxin poisoning was found in the ship log of Captain James Cook from 1774 when the crew of the ship ate some local tropical fish and then fed the remains to the pigs kept on board. The crew experienced numbness and shortness of breath while the pigs were found dead the next morning (likely due to eating the body parts that contained most of the poison).

Unfortunately, a growing number of restaurants have been known to serve the fish to risk-taking tourists. With no antidote for tetrodotoxin, it’s safer to stick to the chilis and wasabi.

2. Slogging through the jet lag

For many travelers, jet lag is simply a minor annoyance that causes them to feel a little out of sorts – a condition that leaves you with jangled nerves, severe exhaustion, and a lack of appetite.

Unfortunately, recent studies have found that a person whose circadian rhythms – that is their internal bodily clock – are scrambled are at a greater risk of heart attack. They’re also at risk of being severely confused and distracted. Sometimes travelers who cross multiple time zones can distracted enough to forget they are in another country and walk into the street without checking for cars in the right direction.

Jet lag is no joke. Take enough time on the other side to get properly recalibrated before you head out to see the sites.

3. Forgetting your vaccinations

For some travelers, coming home with a weird disease amounts to bragging rights. Even travelers with healthy immune systems need to check their vaccinations before heading out because access to adequate local medical care may not be available.

Here are the top traveler diseases that are preventable by vaccines or treated with antibiotics:

• Tetanus – this one can occur anywhere, but it’s most common in places like India and central Africa. It’s called lockjaw for a reason too – this disease affects your nervous system, causing muscles to spasm and seize. Get a booster every 10 years.
• Cholera – this disease is caused by poor sanitation, so it can occur wherever there is contaminated food and water. It often occurs in areas affected by natural disasters that disrupt the sewage and water treatment facilities. This one can kill.
• Typhoid – this one is most commonly contracted in India, parts of Asia, Africa, and South America. It develops slowly and in the majority of cases it’s not fatal. It’s caused by consuming contaminated food or water.
• Hepatitis – while there are various incarnations of hepatitis, travelers need to worry most about types A and B, which are found in developing countries including Mexico, Latin America, India and parts of Africa. Both types can lead to severe damage to the liver, but only Hep B is considered fatal.
• Yellow fever – another disease spread by mosquitoes, this one is mostly found in tropical regions of South America and Africa. Patients usually end up with jaundice, which gives cause the the name ‘yellow’ fever and untreated cases can lead to death.
• Meningitis – found in an area stretching across Africa from Senegal to Ethiopia, this disease starts with a fever and neck stiffness and untreated cases are often lethal.
• Japanese Encephalitis – again, blame the mosquitos but this one affects the central nervous system and is most common in agricultural regions like Cambodia, India, Nepal, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Be aware that while getting the jabs is all well and good, the effectiveness of the cholera and typhoid vaccines are in dispute (some say they are only about 50% effective).

There are also some diseases travelers pick up for which there is no vaccine, including:

• Dengue fever – featuring headaches as well as severe muscle and joint pain, Dengue is found in tropical regions of Africa, Singapore, and Taiwan.
• Malaria – one of the trickiest diseases for travelers because the medication has to be taken before, during, and after the trip and it can cause unpleasant side effects.

In both cases, bite prevention is the best medicine because these diseases are spread by mosquitoes.

4. Failing to fidget

Travelers who are in a situation of prolonged immobility – in planes, cars, busses, and trains – are at risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a life-threatening complication caused by blood clots that travel through the bloodstream and into vital organs causing:

• Chest pain and pressure
• Shortness of breath
• Sudden collapse and even death

Recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, indicate that between 60 and 100 thousand Americans die each year from DVT. Death can even occur hours after the traveler has returned to normal mobility because the general pain is typically dismissed as a pulled muscle or soreness.

The primary key to preventing DVT is movement, so travelers are warned to keep moving. Standing up, jumping or wriggling around, and even fidgeting can keep blood flow moving.