Travel Insurance

Travel Insurance

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Definition

Travel Insurance refers to the type of insurance policy which provides you financial protection from any loss or damage caused due to unforeseen circumstances that may arise while you travel, whether in the country or abroad.

Why should you buy travel insurance?

Consider you have planned a trip, whether for work, for studies, or just as a vacation. No matter how well you may have chalked out all the little details of your trip, certain untoward circumstances may arise without warning, such as:

  • Emergency medical conditions that may need hospitalisation such as meeting with an accident or catching an illness
  • Getting stranded in a remote location
  • Flight related issues such delays or luggage loss/damage
  • Personal liabilities you may incur accidentally

Travel insurance protects you from these eventualities by providing you financial coverage against all such adverse situations. Additionally, having a travel insurance policy is mandatory for visiting certain countries. Purchasing this policy gives you the peace of mind necessary for you to enjoy yourself during your travels without worrying about you or your belongings.

Benefits:

Getting a travel insurance is always recommended because it gives you a huge array of benefits while you travel. Coverage benefits of travel insurance policies commonly include:

  • Medical Expenses: All medical expenses including hospitalisation as well as daycare for treatment of diseases or due to accidents.
  • Medical Evacuation In case of severe medical conditions that cannot be treated locally or accidents etc., the policy covers the cost of emergency transport to the closest medical facility that provides these services.
  • Repatriation of Remains In case of the unfortunate demise of the insured while travelling, the insurance covers the costs of a funeral, as well as transportation of the mortal remains back to the country.
  • Daily Cash: In case of hospitalisation of the insured for treatment, the policy arranges for a fixed cash amount to be disbursed to cover the regular day to day expenses.
  • Accidental Death or Disability: If an accident while travelling leads to permanent disablement or death of the policyholder, compensation is paid to the insured or to the next of kin.
  • Loss of Baggage: If your check-in baggage is lost or misplaced during transit, the insurance compensates your losses. Further, if the checked-in baggage arrives late, the policy reimburses any emergency expenses you may have had to incur on clothing, personal requirements, etc.
  • Missing Connecting Flight: If your inbound flight is delayed for any reason, leading you to miss a connecting flight to your final destination, the travel insurance policy covers all your losses and expenses for further arrangements.
  • Trip Cancellation & Curtailment: If unforeseen situations arise just before your journey and you have to cancel or postpone your trip, travel insurance covers the losses you incur from flight and accommodation reservations already made.
  • Loss of Passport: If your passport is lost or stolen while travelling abroad, costs of issuing a duplicate or replacement is covered.
  • Personal Liabilities: Unforeseen events may happen anytime, and some of them may not cause you any harm, but to the person or property of a third party. Travel insurance policies cover all these liabilities, including legal expenses.
  • Compassionate Visits: If you are a student studying abroad and you have to be admitted to the hospital due to an accident, a travel insurance policy will not only cover the medical expenses, it will also cover the travelling and accomodation of an immediate family member. Conversely, the policy also covers the travelling costs if you have to travel back to India due to hospitalisation of a family member.

Apart from these, travel insurance also gives you coverage against a number of other unfortunate situations you may face.

Key features:

Travel insurance plans vary among different insurance providers. However, policies from all providers have a few features in common. These key features include:

  • Emergency Medical Expenses: All travel insurance policies provide you coverage against medical expenses incurred due to daycare or hospitalization, whether for treatment of ailments or caused due to accidents. In case of hospitalization, cashless facility is often provided, where all medical bills are settled directly by the insurance provider without you having to pay anything.
  • Compensation for Flight-Related Issues: Whether it be loss or misplacement of baggage, delay in baggage arrival, or missing connecting flights, travel insurance commonly covers all expenses due to the same.
  • Loss of Documents: Travel insurance policies cover the expense of getting duplicates or replacements of your travel documents (passports, identity cards, etc.) issued in case you lose them during your travels.
  • Trip Curtailment: If your trip needs to be canceled or postponed at the last minute for unforeseen reasons, travel insurance covers all the losses you will face out of cancellation of hotel reservations, flights, etc.
  • For Frequent Flyers: If you are a frequent traveller or need to make multiple long trips in a year, travel insurance can be very expensive for you. Travel insurances thus accomodate you by long term plans which provide coverage for multiple trips instead of just one.

Types of travel insurance:

A wide variety of travel insurance policies are available in the country, covering a wide variety of travellers and depending on a large number of factors. Different types of travel insurance plans you can buy can be grouped as follows:

  • Based on geographical borders:
    • Domestic travel insurance: Coverage for people travelling within India
    • International travel insurance: Coverage for people visiting abroad
    • Schengen Travel Insurance: Customized coverage plan for those travelling to one or more of the 26 European countries under the Schengen agreement. Travel insurance is mandatory for visiting these countries.
  • Based on traveller types:
    • Family Travel Insurance: Insurance coverage for the entire family of the policyholder travelling together overseas.
    • Senior Citizen Travel Insurance: Insurance coverage for senior citizen travellers of 60 years of age and above.
    • Student Travel Insurance: Insurance coverage customized for Indian students who go abroad to study.
    • Corporate Travel Insurance: Long term insurance coverage for corporates undergoing frequent trips for business purposes.
    • Group Travel Insurance: Insurance coverage for people travelling in groups, such as agency organised trips, training trips, pilgrimage, etc.
  • On validity period:
    • Single Trip Travel Insurance: Travel insurance coverage whose validity lasts for the duration of a single trip.
    • Multi-Trip Travel Insurance: Travel insurance coverage whose validity lasts for all trips undergone within a fixed timespan like a year.

Add-ons:

Travel insurance policies usually provide comprehensive coverage of all aspects of travelling and provides financial protection against almost all types of untoward incidents that you may face as a traveller. However, travel insurance policies often allow you to purchase optional add-ons to your basic plan for additional protection. Some common add-ons to travel insurance policies include:

  • High-risk activities: Commonly excluded under regular travel plans, this add-on allows you to extend your travel insurance coverage to damages caused due to high-risk activities such as adventure sports.
  • Travelling to war-prone destinations: Usually travel insurance coverage is not applicable if you travel to a location where there is a threat of imminent war. However, if you must travel to such destination, this rider allows you to undertake the journey with the financial coverage of a regular travel insurance
  • Pre existing conditions: Another common exclusion of travel insurance policies, you are not covered for your expenses if you are travelling with a pre existing medical condition. This rider extends your coverage in these cases.
  • 3rd party supplier insolvency: This rider provides you financial protection from losses you may incur from the failure of the third party service you had reserved, such as hotels, cruises, hired car, etc.

Inclusion & exclusions:

INCLUSIONS EXCLUSIONS
All medical expenses including hospitalisation Expenses arising due to intoxication by alcohol or drugs
Loss of belongings and/or documents Expenses due to self-injury or suicide
Personal liabilities for damage to third party Treatment expenses for alternative treatments, cosmetic procedures, and sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS
Distress caused due to hijacking Travellers participating in high risk activities like adventure sports
Death or disablement of the sponsor of a student studying abroad Expenses due to war or civil war
Travelling with pre-existing medical conditions
Travelling against medical advice
Certain exclusions specific to Schengen travel insurance

Eligibility criteria

The eligibility criteria for different types of travel insurance are as follows:

  • International travel insurance: Covers 2 adults up to 60 years of age, and 2 children up to 21 years of age.
  • Family travel insurance: Covers for 2 adults up to 60 years of age, and 2 children up to 21 years of age.
  • Student travel insurance: Covers students of all ages between 16 and 34-40 travelling abroad for higher studies.
  • Senior citizen travel insurance: Covers senior citizens from 60 years of age up to 85 years of age.
  • Schengen travel insurance: Covers adults up to 70 years of age and new-born babies over 90 days old. Travel purpose should only be either tourism or business.

Claim process

If you meet any unfortunate situation while travelling and you have travel insurance, you can file for the insurance claim in the following procedure:

  • Contact and inform the travel insurance assistance provider or the insurer through email or over the phone about your situation as soon as possible.
  • Ask for and prepare all the necessary documents. Documents necessary vary among various types of travel insurance, and the list of requirements will be provided when you make a claim.
  • Send all the documents asked for directly to your insurance provider.
  • Once documents are received, they will be verified, and if accepted, the money will be disbursed to you.
Travel Insurance - FAQs

Let’s Clear Your Doubts

Travel insurance providers have a network of partners or assistance providers in all countries. Their contact information for the country you are going to visit is provided to you in your policy documents. They are the ones who provide you assistance on behalf of your insurance provider, starting from registering your claim, to arranging for medical assistance, and even repatriation of remains.

Term insurance policies do not normally provide any maturity benefit. The sum assured is paid as death benefit in the event of the policyholder's demise during the term period, and no payment is done if death does not occur. However, there is a maturity benefit in the case of Term Return of Premium policies. In case of such policies, if the policyholder survives the term period, all the premiums paid by them during the term is paid back by the insurance provider. This is in addition to the death benefit normally available under term plans.

The documents that are necessary when purchasing a term insurance policy include:

  • Photo Identity Card, preferably government issued
  • Proof of age and address
  • Proof of Income such as salary slips, income tax returns, etc.
  • Other documents specified by the insurance provider

Insurance providers have a specific list of procedures where this is applicable. Additionally, different insurance providers have different sets of conditions for the clause to be inapplicable.

No, since term insurance plans do not have a maturity benefit, you cannot normally avail a loan based on such policies.

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