Trip Insurance - You Don't Need It....Until You Do

Travel Insurance is an issue and question that's been coming up again and again amongst my travel agent friends and colleagues, so I thought it was time to devote a blog post to it.

Essentially, trip or travel insurance is coverage you purchase with your vacation that can be used to cover, for example, medical expenses while traveling or if you're unable to travel due to a medical emergency or another covered reason. Some policies have allowances that allow you to cancel or any reason, or cover you if the company you're traveling with goes under before your trip. Many travel destinations offer their own travel insurance plans; there are also numerous companies out there and you can comparison shop for the plan that works best for you.

Each trip insurance plan can have different specifics, what's covered and what's not, etc and that is too nitty-gritty to go into here. Also, I am not an insurance agent and so I cannot give advice regarding specific plans or nuances of what a plan might or might not cover.

However, I thought it was still important to discuss here because there have been a few instances recently among my friends and colleagues that just reiterated to me why I personally will be getting travel insurance on any vacation, from here on out.

As the title of this post says, you might not think you need trip insurance...until you do. It's the same thought process as having car, health and/or home insurance. Is it very likely that you'll get in a serious car accident, need lots of medical care, a new car, etc? No, hopefully you will not - but it's nice to know that in the event you do, you won't go into financial ruin because of it.

What if any of the below issues happened to you?

* Two days before your once-in-a-lifetime European river cruise to celebrate your 25th anniversary, your husband falls at work and breaks his leg; you are unable to go on a trip that was booked and paid for years or months ago.

* You're at Disney World and your husband has a heart attack in the park. He not only needs medical transport to the local ER and emergency surgery, they also decide he needs to stay in the hospital for a week, perhaps longer.

In these instances, without any trip insurance coverage you would most likely be out of the money you'd paid for your trip, and could also have additional bills from needing medical care that your own health insurance might not cover. Most destinations will not refund your money, or reschedule your trip, simply because you had an incident and are unable to come. In most cases, without trip insurance, you are out of luck.

Again, this is a decision that everyone has to make for themselves but I'm a "better safe than sorry" person and so it's trip insurance for me, from here on out!

Have a magical day!

Be sure to carefully read and evaluate any trip insurance coverage to make sure it's best for you. As I am not an insurance agent, I am not able to provide you with specifics on any plan (nor is any other TA, unless they are also licensed in insurance) but encourage you to research and if necessary, contact your personal insurance agent with questions. My opinions expressed above are not an endorsement or recommendation of any specific trip insurance plan or company.