I love traveling – maybe more than most. But there’s one thing I never leave home without and that’s travel insurance. I’ve heard of way too many horror stories where people have left home without insurance and then found themselves begging for money on a GoFundMe page in order to cover their medical bills. The truth is: if you can afford to travel you can afford to set aside a little extra money in order to provide yourself with adequate protection. Here are my top 3 reasons to never travel without travel insurance:
1. You Can’t Predict the Future
Bad things happen, sadly, and it’s best to be prepared for the worst. Travel insurance allows you a little breathing room and security if something unexpected and expensive happens to you on the road. You don’t want to be unsure about going to a hospital because you’re unsure whether you can afford it. Your baggage may go missing, flights may be cancelled and things could be stolen. In all of these situations you’ll be so glad you had the insurance to help minimise your expenses.
2. Extra Peace of Mind
Wanna go hiking in a remote part of Asia? With travel insurance you’ll be able to get emergency evacuation if something goes really wrong. If you’re injured in the middle of no where, it would be often impossible to get yourself out, but without travel insurance you probably can’t justify the cost of an emergency evacuation. Don’t put yourself in that situation. Having travel insurance that properly covers the types of activities you have in mind will give you assurance that should anything go wrong, you’ll be covered.
3. If Things Go Really Wrong, Your Parents Wont be Financially Ruined
I’ve heard many stories of people traveling, finding themselves very injured or even worse overseas and their parents having to sell their home in order to foot the medical and evacuation bills. While this is thankfully very unlikely, it would be extremely unfair and cruel to put this amount of financial pressure on your parents or family members. Travel insurance insures that your parents wont be left with an unaffordable bill that leads them to financial ruin.
AIG have created an awesome infographic that shows some of the most recent travel insurance trends, check it out below:
