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Travel Insurance Tips: 7 Things to Know Before You Buy - YouTube
Channel: Yellow Productions
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- Seven things to know before
you buy travel insurance.
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I'm Chris, this is Yellow Productions.
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I do travel guides that are fun,
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informative, and entertaining.
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And since the recent pandemic,
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I've been getting questions
about travel insurance,
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quite a bit that recently.
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People often ask me,
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"Chris, should I buy travel insurance?
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Should I insure my next trip?
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Is it right for me? Do
you buy travel insurance?"
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So those are some of the
things I'm gonna answer
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in this video and more everything
you ever wanted to know
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about travel insurance.
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The first thing to know
is travel insurance
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doesn't make sense for everybody.
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To determine whether
it makes sense for you,
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you have to decide how willing you are
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to take financial risks related to travel.
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Travel insurance exists to minimize
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the financial risk when you travel
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and so you have to look at
the trip that you're taking,
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how much money did it cost?
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If you can't go or something happens,
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how much money are you out?
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Are you just out a few
hundred bucks in air fare
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or is it a $20,000 once
in a lifetime trip?
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Those are things you
have to look at to decide
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whether you wanna buy
travel insurance or not.
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And you also have to ask yourself,
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how much is peace of mind worth to you?
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If you're someone who worries a lot,
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peace of mind might actually
be worth quite a bit.
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The second thing to know
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is that there are many different
types of travel insurance.
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Travel insurance is not a
one-size-fits-all thing.
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And every travel insurance
plan covers different areas
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and different conditions.
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So now, I wanna share with
you some of the coverage areas
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that you might be interested in
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and looking for in a
travel insurance policy.
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The most common coverage
area for travel insurance
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is trip cancellation coverage.
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If you have a policy that has
trip cancellation coverage,
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then your insurance will refund you
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the price of your trip provided
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that the reason you're canceling
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is one of the covered reasons.
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By the way, COVID-19 coronavirus typically
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is not one of the covered reasons
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for most travel insurance policies.
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Often paired with trip
cancellation coverage
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is trip interruption coverage.
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This one kicks in if you have to interrupt
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and stop your trip halfway through,
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a third of the way through,
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because something happened
and you have to go home.
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In that case, the
insurance would refund you
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the rest of the price of your vacation
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that you didn't get to enjoy.
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Trip delay coverage will
reimburse your expenses
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due to delays in travel.
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So if you've ever been stuck
at LAX or London, Heathrow
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for 6 to 12 to 18 hours,
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you might have to stay
in a hotel overnight,
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that's what trip delay coverage is for.
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One area that might be
pretty important to you
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is medical coverage,
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Medical coverage as part of
a travel insurance policy
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will reimburse medical expenses incurred
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at you are travel location.
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You might also want to look
at emergency evacuation
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or transport coverage so
that if you have to go
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to a hospital, if you're
in a third world country,
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if you have medical transport
or emergency evacuation
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due to a medical situation,
then they will pay
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for transporting you to a better country
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that has better health facilities.
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Death or dismemberment coverage,
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this one's kind of a depressing one,
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but if the covered person dies,
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or is dismembered, loses
limbs, then their next of kin
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or in the case that they were dismembered
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would receive the money associated
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with that part of the policy.
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Baggage coverage will provide
for reimbursement of expenses
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due to loss, damage
delayed, or stolen baggage.
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Rental car coverage will cover
your rental car on a trip.
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Change coverage will cover you
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of you have to make change fees
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to your airlines
reservations, cruise ships,
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whatever the change these come from.
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Some less common types of coverage areas
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but you might be interested in them
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depending upon where you're going.
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The first one is political
evacuation coverage.
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If there's something like
an uprising in the country,
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this we'll provide for your transport
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out of that country in that situation.
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If you see a policy labeled
as a comprehensive policy,
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that's typically one that
covered almost all of the things
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that we talked about above.
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If you're looking at a policy that says
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it's reimbursement only, then
the way that policy works
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is you pay first and
then you get reimbursed.
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Some might pay before you first
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in the case of medical transport,
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the insurance company
might pay for that direct.
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So you have to see, do you
have enough money in the bank
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to pay for those potential expenses
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and then fight to get
your money back later
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from the insurance company?
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Another type of interesting
insurance policy
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are annual policies.
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If you travel a lot, then
you actually might want
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to look and getting an annual policy,
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which would cover you on all
the trips you take in a year.
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This would make sense if
you travel quite a bit.
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The third thing you need
to know is about price.
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Travel insurance generally costs 5% to 12%
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of the total value insured for the trip.
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The biggest factor is the
age of the people insured,
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and if your age is over 50 years old,
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then it generally goes up
considerably from there.
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Children under the age of 17
might be free or discounted
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provided that there are some
adults on the policy already.
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The prices of travel
insurance can range wildly,
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so definitely comparison shop,
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and don't just buy the
travel insurance company
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that your airline or cruise
company is pushing on you
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when you book directly with them.
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The fourth thing to know is about
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when to buy travel insurance,
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and many people think that you have
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to buy travel insurance at the same time
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that you book your tickets
or flights or cruise,
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but that's actually not the case.
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Typically, you don't
have to buy many types
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of travel insurance
until just before you go.
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Now, if you're buying a
trip cancellation coverage
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that really gives you more value,
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the earlier that you buy it.
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If you buy it later on,
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well, you might not be
reaping the benefits,
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'cause something might already happened,
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you had to cancel it if you
didn't buy it at the same time.
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Now there are some policies
that do require you
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to purchase it within 7, 14,
21 days of booking your trip.
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So you should research the policies
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and try to book it around the same time,
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but you don't have to.
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The fifth thing to know
is a bit more detail
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about medical coverage.
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I think this is one of
the most important areas
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for travel insurance and
so I want to dive into it
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a little deeper than I did earlier.
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So first of all, if you
already have health insurance,
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your existing health insurance plan
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or policy might cover you
when you go on travel.
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Read the details, call
your insurance company,
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figure that out before
you buy travel insurance
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so you're not spending money twice
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on something you're already covered for.
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Now you do need to dive into
the details a little bit
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because if your insurance
company says they cover you,
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well, they might actually be
billing those coverage things
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at out of network rates,
which could actually lead
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to some really expensive medical bills
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if something happens to
you while you're on travel.
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And I mentioned earlier,
but I'm gonna say it again,
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If you're going to
someplace kind of sketchy,
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you might really wanna look into a policy
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that gives you that
emergency airlift service
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to take you to a civilized hospital.
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This type of coverage
becomes more important
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the more adventuresome
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and the more remote places you're going.
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For example, if you're
hiking the Himalayas
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and something happens to
you up on the mountain,
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well, you're first
gonna need a helicopter.
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And then after the helicopter,
you'll need an airplane
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to actually take you someplace civilized.
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So that can get expensive really quick.
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The sixth thing you need to
know is about credit cards.
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So a lot of people ask me,
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"Chris, do I need travel insurance
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if I already have a credit card that comes
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with some premium benefits?"
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Well, it depends on the car that you have.
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My favorite card is the
Chase Sapphire Reserve
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and I think this one is
the king of travel benefits
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so I wanna share the travel benefits
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that are on this card
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and then you can take a
look at your premium card
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and see if your card has these benefits.
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I'd actually be cheaper to get yourself
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one of these premium
cards or a better deal
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than buying travel insurance.
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It provides loss, damage baggage coverage
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up to $3,000 per passenger,
but only 500 of that can be
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for luxury items like watches
and electronic equipment.
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Trip delay reimbursement is
covered up to $500 per ticket
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provided that your trip is
delayed more than six hours.
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This is really helpful
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if you require an overnight
stay due to a flight delay,
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flight cancellation that caused
you to go out the next day.
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In this case, you don't
have to take the hotel
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that the airline is offering
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'cause it might not be very good.
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You could book your own
and then reimburse it
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through the coverage on the card.
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Trip cancellation and
interruption coverage
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is provided up to $10,000 per person
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or $20,000 in total for the trip,
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but that's only gonna cover prepaid
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non-refundable expenses.
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If your tickets are refundable,
then Chase is gonna say,
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"Why don't you just go
refund those tickets?
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We're not going to give
you your money back."
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And then you refund the tickets.
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Medical evacuation is covered,
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travel accident insurance is covered,
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emergency medical and dental expenses
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are covered up to $2,500,
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and one of the things
that's most useful for me
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is the Chase Sapphire Reserve
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provides primary rental
car coverage up to $75,000.
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So if you're traveling someplace
out of your home country
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where your home car
insurance doesn't apply,
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if you book your car with the
Chase Sapphire Reserve card,
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then you don't have to get
the insurance in that country.
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Now, if you're doing that, some countries
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do require you bring proof of insurance.
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In that case, you can actually
get a proof of insurance
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for the country you're
going to from Chase.
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So the seventh thing to know
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and the question that
people ask all the time is,
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"Chris, do you get travel
insurance when you travel?"
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And for me, I typically don't
and let me tell you why.
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I typically book my flights
with miles or points,
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and miles or points bookings
are often refundable
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or changeable either for free
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or for a small fee
directly with the airline.
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Now, in order to get the
Chase Sapphire coverage,
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I put the taxes and
fees from those tickets
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on my Chase Sapphire card,
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and then that gives me the coverage,
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all of the benefits talked
about from Chase Sapphire
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for the trip because I
bought the airline tickets
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through the credit card.
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And for medical insurance, our
medical insurance covers us
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when we travel and we've
actually tried it out overseas.
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My mom was in Japan.
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We went to an urgent care clinic
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and we asked our insurance
company if they would cover it,
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they said they absolutely would.
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The cost was only $80, but they said,
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"You have to fill out
18 reams of paperwork."
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And we're like for $80,
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it is actually not worth
getting reimbursed.
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So that's something you
have to think about too.
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Do you wanna go through all the pain
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of travel insurance
reimbursement, but I will say,
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the time that you probably will
want to get travel insurance
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is if you're booking that
once in a lifetime trip,
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that's all prepaid, non-refundable,
costs a lot of money,
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that probably is going to be
something you'll want to insure
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because you'll wanna make
sure that all that money
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that you sunk in that
vacation doesn't go, poof,
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in the event that something happens.
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Also, if your health
insurance won't cover you
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while you're traveling
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and you don't have a premium credit card
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that provides all these benefits,
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then travel insurance starts
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to make a lot more sense for you.
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So those are my thoughts
on travel insurance.
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I'm curious what yours are.
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Do you get travel
insurance when you travel?
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Did I miss something?
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If I did, please leave me
a comment, let me know.
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And as usual, I won't say goodbye
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because I'll see you
in one of these videos.
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