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What Your Travel Insurance Won't Protect

By: Mary Sullivan


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The constant threats of disaster in these turbulent times have stimulated a high level of interest in the purchase of travel insurance. What you may not know is the catch to all of this. There are restrictions on the reasons you are allowed to cancel a trip.

If your concern focuses on potential bombings in the subway, or plots involving liquid explosives, those concerns probably aren't covered. If you think there's a chance of a tropical storm slamming into the shore you love, it probably isn't covered. The purchase of travel insurance would not alleviate your concerns about either of those possibilities.

What travel insurance will cover, is payment to you for non-reimbursable portions of your vacation. For example airline tickets or deposits for your hotel. Where the insurance does help is if the insured is stranded through no fault of their own and they must pay for hotel and meals above and beyond their original trip, or in the event the policy holder must postpone or cancel their trip under circumstances specified in the policy.

Medical services are also covered by insurance should you become ill overseas and need medical evaluations. Insurance coverage is essential when traveling internationally because your medical insurance may not be accepted by the hospitals. However, many travel insurance policies specify that they will not cover certain events or criteria.

A lot of the potential disasters that increase the insurance sales, end up not being covered. Several policies do not cover terrorism at all. This forces travelers to have to carefully read their policies to find out which types of coverage are available.

In the event that terrorism actually is covered, you must be careful to review the fine print, because the protection may be restricted to a specific timeframe or radius. Travel insurance won't help you much if, for example, a bombing in London has scared you into canceling your plans to go elsewhere in England or even to Paris. In short, you can't get covered for your fears.

However, fear is many times a motivating factor in travelers purchasing travel insurance. But, it is also something that the majority of policies don't protect against. Insurances companies also have restrictions on when you buy the insurance, many insist that it needs to be bought within 15 days of booking for full covereage.

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. Since no attack took place, people didn't get their money back if they decided to cancel.

As with any insurance there are variables in their cost, and one of the variables is how expensive your trip is, and just what type of coverage you would like. The wise shopper can find travel insurance that will provide protection for many things including medical coverage and medical transportation, or even for delayed flight and lost bags. You can be very specific in what you want on your policies.

A new type of policy that insurance companies are starting to offer is a policy called "cancel for any reason." If you don't go on your trip, these policies will cover 74 percent of the cost. Because this policy offers more leniency, it costs much more than regular travel insurance.

Currently in the U.S. there's some seventeen million policies for travel insurance that are sold each year. Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the yearly sales of travel insurance have practically doubled. With the recent events that affect the travel industry, like environmental disasters and outbreaks of disease, sales of policies are going to keep on increasing.

You should also remember that in serious catastrophes that affect a lot of people, travel agencies will generally waive restrictions and fees on re-booking. Many times you can get relief for your foiled travel plans without the benefit of insurance.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

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