One of my valued partners is Allianz Global Assistance and I have written about them several times including Why You Need Travel Insurance and What’s in My Travel Insurance Policy. Our partnership continues and I wanted to give you 20 reasons why you should have travel insurance whether it be from Allianz or another provider.
It is irresponsible to travel without travel insurance. I have seen friends and family both save thousands and thousands of dollars because they had travel insurance. The one time in my life when I did actually need travel insurance, I didn’t have it and it ended up costing me $5500 in flights due to illness, trip interruption and cancellation. It was probably more but that was what I quantified at the time.
I know travel insurance is not the sexiest thing to talk about but believe me, if you need it, you’ll be glad you have it. It’s a minimal investment compared to the cost of your trip and your peace of mind. Here’s 20 reasons why you should have travel insurance.
20 Business equipment can be broken
19 Rental car collisions can occur
18 Change fees happen when you travel
17 Flights get cancelled and screw up your plans
16 Flights get delayed…a lot
15 Luggage gets lost or delayed at the airport
14 Luggage gets damaged during transit
13 Trips get cancelled before you even leave home
12 People get sick abroad
11 People get injured abroad
10 People have emergency dental issues abroad
9 Peace of mind is so important
8 Your vacation is a massive investment of time and money and should be protected
7 Medical treatment abroad can be very expensive and tricky to deal with
6 Someone on your side at home looking out for you
5 Assistance finding and with medical facilities abroad
4 In emergencies, nurses fly to assist you and fly you home on private medical transport
3 Repatriation of remains can save tens of thousands of dollars to loved ones
2 Health Insurance doesn’t usually cover you abroad
1 SHIT HAPPENS
Disclaimer: I have partnered with and receive financial compensation from Allianz Global Assistance. However, everything written in this post is by me and based upon my own annual policy.
Also, stay tuned as I’ll be doing another awesome giveaway from Allianz in the next few weeks. Plus, I’ll be hosting a #TravelConfident Twitter chat on August 4th and be sure to check out the results of the Vacation Confidence Index!
My parents once had a really expensive trip cancelled because my mom got sick (she’s OK now) and because they had insurance, they were able to recoup almost all of the money. It saved them like $25,000!
Hannah, the same thing happened with my grandma when she broke her leg in Thailand…insurance saved her like 50k
Hi Lee, I just read your other post about what’s in your annual policy and I love your blog and am jealous of your experiences.
I was wondering, what’s a good price for an annual policy versus individual trip policies. I travel abroad 4-5 times a year but usually only for 5-7 days at a time. So is it worth it?
Thank you.
Hi Niall,
I’m the PR guy at Allianz Global Assistance. You can get a great annual plan starting at around $250. Just visit AllianzTravelInsurance.com and select Annual Plan under Type of Plan.
Thanks!
Thanks Dan! Niall thanks for the comment and go with the annual plan!
I’d rather not focus on # 3. 🙂 But otherwise, I agree with you that travel insurance is a sound investment. Several months ago when I was in southeast Asia and going through a medical issue, my travel insurance company helped me find local pharmacies that had medication that I needed and told me what the local equivalents were of the meds that I would buy in a U.S. pharmacy ; they also found local hospitals in the event I needed to visit one (fortunately, I didn’t).
And a few years ago, when I had to cancel a trip for medical reasons, the travel insurer fully reimbursed me and I was then able to pay for planning a new trip to the same place when I recovered.
(I will say that for one recent planned trip for which I hadn’t yet acquired insurance because I hadn’t finished planning all the parts of the trip, and then I had to cancel the trip, which was then several weeks out, due to a medical condition, the airlines and most of the hotels were very good about giving refunds or (in the case of United) waiving change fees) when I sent then a doctor’s note on the doctor’s letterhead. It would have been easier, though, if I’d had travel insurance already in place for that trip because then I could have just sent the doctor’s note to the insurer and not have had to spend so much time dealing with multiple entities.
Thanks Harvey! Good to hear from you man! Hope all is well!
I experience a lot of things that travel insurance saved us financially. It’s a great thing that you have travel insurance.