The Critical Gaps In Travel Insurance

Due to the rise in unexpected disasters and illnesses including acts of terrorism travel insurance has become more popular with those traveling. But there's a catch to this type of coverage. In general, travel insurance provides limited coverage that will apply should you choose not to take a trip because it's too dangerous.

In most cases, fears of subway bombings or liquid explosive plots are not covered. The possibility of a hurricane a thousand miles away that MIGHT hit the beach you plan to visit most likely isn't covered as well. These are not the situations where travel insurance helps.

Travel insurance claims that you can receive payment for those "un-reimbursable" portions of your trip. Items such as the airline ticket and/or hotel deposits. Situations that would warrant payment are when the holder of the policy has to delay, or cancel a planned trip, or if the insured is stranded somewhere then the cost of hotel accommodations and meals would be covered.

Travelers insurance will cover, however, your medical expenses should it occur overseas. Many medical policies that cover a person at home may not cover expenses in another country and the individual must pay for them unless they have travel insurance. However, each of these programs will have certain exclusions.

A lot of the things that cause people to purchase travel insurance aren't even included. Sometimes the threat of terrorism is ignored completely. This forces travelers to have to carefully read their policies to find out which types of coverage are available.

And the policies that do cover terrorism will only reimburse for your canceled plans if a terrorist attack has occurred in a place included on your itinerary, and only if that happens within a 30-day period of your departure. So if there is a terrorist act in Paris, and your trip was planned for London, your insurance will not cover the costs if you cancel. In short, you can't get covered for your fears.

The sad fact is, being afraid is why insurance sells! But, it is also something that the majority of policies don't protect against. Travel insurance policies also can trip up buyers when it comes to issues such as terrorism, in the event that a customer didn't buy the policy 15 days prior to booking the trip.

In 2006 London, after a terrorist plan to attack planes was uncovered, the majority of insurers did pay for hotel rooms and meals for their insureds who were delayed due to fears that the terrorists would be able to follow through with their plans. However, companies would not reimburse if you attempted to cancel, because no actual attack took place.

The cost of protection for traveling is just like every other insurance policy because it depends on where the person is going, how thorough they want their coverage to be and other risk factors. There are policies you can get that can take care of costs incurred while you are stranded, cancellations of the trip, any medical coverage, flight accidents, or lost luggage that are called comprehensive policies. You can just pick what you want covered as well.

Though not common some policies can be purchased that include a "cancel for any reason" clause. These policies will offer the holder up to 74% of the cost of the trip if you cancel. The clincher is that these policies cost close to 40 percent more than others.

About 17 million travel insurance policies are sold in the U.S. annually. Ever since the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the annual sales of travel insurance policies has just about doubled. It is expected that they will continue to increase, due to recent events such as environmental disasters and outbreaks of disease that affect the travel industry.

When deciding on how much travel insurance and what needs coverage one should bear in mind that many companies that provide travel will often not penalize the traveler if they must cancel or delay their flight or cruise due to large scale interruption in transportation. Sometimes you don't need the insurance to catch a break.

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