Travelers are often quick to enquire about the type of travel insurance they require for their specific trip. Essentially, travel insurance plans are of 3 main types: travel medical plans, package plans, and speciality plans that limit coverage to specific options such as repatriation/evacuation, flight accidents, or car rental for example.

 

 

The vast majority of travelers think of travel insurance as a package plan, which is a comprehensive travel insurance plan that combines multiple coverage options into one plan intended to cover all the disasters and mishaps that may occur on a trip. Package plans might be the commonest type of travel insurance sold, but it is also the most expensive type of travel insurance that costs anywhere between 6 and 8 per cent of the total cost of a traveller’s trip.

Travelers sometimes don’t need the level of coverage offered in a package plan and instead require a travel medical plan and can actually avoid the extra costs associated with package plans. The following is a brief explanation of how you can determine the type of travel insurance plan that’s needed. Visit FamilyMoney.co.uk for more advice.

You are the ideal candidate for a travel medical plan if…

… your travel is primarily domestic, relatively cheap, or outside your health insurance network.

Travel medical insurance plans are used to cover your emergency medical care when traveling outside your health insurance network. 

Simply put, you require a travel medical plan if you are not worried about the recovery of the non-refundable costs of your trip, your trip is relatively cheap, and you know that you will be outside the health insurance network area, which means that you won’t have coverage for medical care.

Here are the travelers that need a travel medical plan:

Business travelers that don’t have to pay for the cost of their tips but are aware of the fact that their health insurance coverage does not extend to the destination.

International student travelers that aren’t worried about the cancellation of their trip and require coverage for illnesses or injuries while abroad.

Couples, families, and individuals traveling outside areas covered by their health insurance network and want secondary coverage to avoid having to pay massive medical emergency bills.

Backpacking travelers that are not worried about cancellation of their trip but require coverage for emergency medical care, interruption of their trip (should they be required to return home quickly), and would like some coverage for their belongings.

Volunteer or missionary travellers that aren’t worried about getting a refund for their trip costs, but are aware that they require coverage for medical emergencies and evacuations.

Some travel medical plans actually include benefits similar to package plans such as coverage for delayed or lost luggage, minimal trip interruption, as well as some trip delays.

You are the ideal candidate for a package plan if…

… your travel is costly, once-in-a-lifetime, or you are operating on a budget.

Travel insurance packages generally cover a wide variety of travel risks, which include travel interruption, trip cancellation, loss of baggage, emergency medical care, and evacuations and features such as car rental, travel delays, and more. Cancellations may occur for several reasons, and when you want coverage for cancellation of a trip, you will need to buy a package plan.

Travel insurance package plans are ideal for the following travelers:

Travelers on an expensive trip, such as a safari or cruise, and want to recover the non-refundable costs of their trip should there be a need for cancellation of the trip.

Travelers on a once-in-a-lifetime trip, such as an anniversary, sporting event, honeymoon, etc. In case the trip has to be cancelled for whatever reason, you will obviously want to recover your losses.

Traveling families as well as seniors on a budget that cannot afford to lose the non-refundable costs of the trip in case of an unexpected emergency such as a losing a job, a car accident, or even an illness.

Travelers on an adventure trip. The vast majority of travel insurance plans usually don’t include adventurous activities, but travellers may purchase adventure package plans or upgrades to a standard package plan to cover medical emergencies on their adventure trip.

Travel insurance packages include coverage for travel medical emergencies.

You are the ideal candidate for a speciality plan if…

… you have an insurance gap you need to be covered.

Travel insurance speciality plans are great when it comes to covering gaps in your insurance coverage. Here are some examples:

If your travel medical care is covered while you are abroad through your health insurance and you don’t wish to recover the pre-paid costs of the trip, then you may only require repatriation and evacuation coverage. It is often referred to as the ‘med-evac’ plan.

If you spent a lot of money on an airline ticket and travel to a place where you won’t require medical coverage and wish to recover the pre-paid ticket costs, you can consider getting airline ticket protection.