Before you shrink away from the words, “budget travel insurance,” you could at least hear us out. Some people seem to think that budget travel insurance is something to be taken only when all other options are beyond your wallet’s reach. This is not true in the slightest. You might be surprised that some of these so-called budgeted services are as comprehensive as the more expensive travel insurance policies in the market.
So why are they called budget travel insurance?
The term obviously refers to the actual rates of the insurance policy. Many companies are offering budget travel insurance policies in order to attract a more diverse crowd of potential policy holders. However, this does not mean that this kind of insurance is not worth the money you are shelling out for it.
Lesser known insurance companies usually offer budget travel insurance, simply because they do not have the branded names of the more prominent insurance companies. And yet, the policies they have are as comprehensive as everyone else’s.
Sometimes too, the type of travel insurance package and its intended market both affect the price greatly. Student travel insurance, for example, is almost always cheaper than the other travel insurance policies. Companies are banking on the fact that there is greater profit to gain from the sheer volume of students applying for travel insurance; and these companies are more than willing to bring prices down.
Student travel insurance, gap travel insurance and backpacker travel insurance are some of the less costly insurance packages available. However, this market is somewhat limited. Only travelers below the age of 35 are granted this reprieve.
The key to knowing what makes budget travel insurance so cheap and affordable is written in its fine print. Some companies offer full coverage for medical and health covers; but may offer nothing else in regards to property covers and / or legal covers. Naturally, you would not want to sign up for something like this.
Read and compare coverage and policies before you sign up for anything. Aside from medical and health covers, you should also have protection should you lose your luggage and important papers. Furthermore, you should also make sure that you have coverage should your trip (whether by flight or cruise) do not go according to plan.
Your insurance policy should have covers for the cancellation, curtailment or delay of your trip. Legal assistance, personal liability and property liability are also imperative. You should make sure that even if you have budget travel insurance, these covers should be part of the package.
However, some comprehensive travel insurance can be trimmed off some of the more unlikely covers. You could ask your insurance agent to remove covers from your policy to help bring down cost. (You could only do this with direct insurance providers, though.)
If you feel like you will not be doing any sports-related activities during your trip (say you are planning on a cultural pilgrimage or a historical tour,) you could ask that the sports-activity coverage and the winter sports-activity coverage be removed from the list.
You could also bring down the travel insurance rates by simply enrolling more than one person under one policy. There are insurance policies out there that allows up to 10 people to sign up under 1 package.
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