Travel insurance is, to put it plainly, is a down payment or a deposit on your personal financial security, and more importantly health, whilst your out backpacking or navigating the roads on one of your road trips. A serious medical scare or an injury while in a strange new place can be a nightmare. Knowing that you have some degree of protection and certainty in a form of an insurance policy, removes the element of the unknown.
During my six year work stint, developing and creating travel insurance policies, I realised that there are still a huge distrust and misconception on travel insurance. On occasion, I’d ask my friends if they’ve got travel insurance yet for their upcoming trip, almost always the response would be:
- “Do I really need it? – I’ll just go to the hospital in the country and I’ll be fine”
- “It’s a waste of money.”
- “Insurance companies just want to make money”
- “It’s only for rich people”
So I’m here in my little internet corner, to remind you that yes, you do need travel insurance. And there are important things to know about how exactly can travel insurance protect you. Here’s eight reasons why you need travel insurance.
1. Baggage delay happens all the time
SITA is a platform I have been following for many years. In fact, they are an amazing resource for travellers and frequent flyers to really get deep facts and statistics about what goes on in the air transport industry. So here are some baggage delay insights they published.
The top two reasons for baggage delay are transfer mishandling and loading errors.
Historically transfer bags have accounted for the majority of mishandled bags in the air travel industry anyway. In 2022, this trend continued increasing by 1% from 2021, further pushing the proportion of bags delayed at transfer to 42%. The increase is attributed to the rise of long-haul flights during the year.
While there’s always been different types of reasons for baggage delays; such as loading errors, ticketing errors, bag switches, and security related errors, delayed bags due to airport customs, weather or space weight restrictions in particular, have been consistent with the previous year. In this case the year 2021.
SITA reports the average time it took for travellers to reunite with their baggage, usually takes 1.76 days and if you don’t have a travel insurance there is no way you can get that money back. Travel insurance allows you to claim for those expenses when you return home, which is why it is always wise to consider a travel insurance before you leave for long trips.
2. It’s actually affordable
Travel insurance costs for as little as RM2.50 per day. Sure beats the overseas hospitalisation expenses that could amount to $400 (RM 1,710) or more per day in countries like Argentina right? There are many travel insurance policies that include overseas hospitalisation benefits. And medical insurance is not one of them.
3. Travel emergency assistance
Remember Tsunami? Think restricted access into affected areas, think of the hassle of booking an air ticket to get your injured self back home, think of the cost of an oxygen tank when your life depends on it while being airlifted back home. This is when your RM2.50 per day travel insurance come in handy. Why? Because travel insurance is so much more than covering for your medical costs. It takes care of your issues during and after any major incident.
Did you know?
Insurance companies outsource reliable travel emergency assistance providers to help you when you face unforeseen circumstances. They pay an annual fee per policy to these providers, which is already included in your travel insurance premium. Most providers are top notch experts and have a wide range of network around the world. This way, insurance companies ensure that policyholders are taken care of.
4. When you travel solo
If you thought of solo travelling, solo backpacking or solo road trips, travel insurance is perfect. If you’re injured and have no one to accompany you back home, a travel insurance will be able to cover your relative or friend’s travel expenses to get to where you are as well as their accommodation expenses if they needed to stay while waiting for your discharge.
5. When you’re held liable
Most travel insurance indemnifies you against any amount that is made legally liable to you to pay as compensation for losses or damages to properties belonging to a third-party. Be sure to check your policies for the amount, different insurers impose different limits. Nevertheless having this coverage saves you loads of financial trouble while travelling.
6. Stolen Passports and travel documents
Law enforcement officers around the world including officials in Malaysia, can perform a lookup to check the validity of a travel or an identity document within seconds. They use a database called SLTD an INTERPOL database that houses 99 million records of stolen, lost revoked, invalid or stolen blank worldwide.
According to INTERPOL there had been searches of 1.7 billion times in the SLTD database by officials worldwide, and 146,000 were positive matches. Imagine if you were one of these victims? The nightmare does not stop with just a police report. You will likely have to think of how to get a temporary passport quickly (and pay for it) so you can get a move on or won’t be denied entry. Coupled with you being stuck in the airport because you need to sort this out. It could take hours, who knows.
Most travel insurance on the market provide lost or stolen passport with a significant amount to cover your expenses when you apply for a new travel documentation. This benefit alone can put you at ease. At least financially.
7. Travel accidents and injuries
On 29th October 2022, the Itaewon Halloween Festival shocked the world where over 150 people died while 200 people came out of the festival severely injured. Most of the festival attendees were young adults and the deaths and injuries were caused by crowd crushes and stampede.
Generally, people overlook the possibilities of deaths or injuries for concerts and festivals because why not right? It seems like a harmless activity and it should be something exciting to look forward to when you travel. However these are the potential mishaps while travelling that you may unexpectedly experience and more often than not, a visit to the hospital is inevitable.
I often caution my friends and family members about getting travel insurance because you never know when things like this can happen to you.
8. Rental car damage or theft
This benefit is one of my favourites. I’m a frequent roadtripper and whenever I travel domestically or internationally, I usually rent a car to get by and explore. Even though rental car companies offer an extra coverage, having an additional cover for damages or theft under your own travel insurance is worthwhile.
Final thoughts
I’ve used travel insurance since I first started travelling in 2017. Although all my travels are smooth and breezy, it feels good knowing that I have a backup plan in case anything happens. There are tons of travel insurance option to choose from and choosing the most suitable travel insurance for that one trip you’re about to embark on, is always better than having none.
If you have no idea where to get one for yourself, airline companies usually offer travel insurance as an auxiliary item or you can always get one directly from insurers online. Take time to educate yourselves with travel insurance. If you can take the time to study about the places you want to visit, why not take the time to find out about travel insurance.
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