BootsnAll Travel Community

hey all,
heading off to istanbul, johannesburg, sydney, auckland and bangkok for a year, and was wondering just how necessary that $500 worth of travel insurance really is. i'll be staying with families that i know in most places (aside from oz and thailand), and you may think i'm a complete ass, but that $500 means a lot right now. anyone done without?

Erin

I've never bought any, but then I definitely fall in the complete ass category so I wouldn't be takin' no safety advice from me if I wasn't me (but I am).

"Just giv'er"
-FUBAR

Like all insurance, not having travel insurance is a great way to save money, until you have a problem. Staying with families you know doesn't make you immune to accident and disease, which is the biggest thing travel insurance covers (my policy for my upcoming trip also covers stolen or lost baggage up to $1300 - and a seperate category for passport replacement costs - , trip cancellation and emergency evacuation, all for CA$260 for 4.5 months...just medical and cancellation was about CA$100 less).

So, not getting insurance is like buying a lottery ticket. The odds are low, but the potential payoff is huge. So it's up to you, but, despite never using it, I'd highly recommend insurance.

-Neil.
----
It is better to stand corrected than to walk on your knees.

Like Almost Free said, basically travel insurance is totally worthless if nothing goes wrong and essential if something does.

Everyone knows that insurance is a scam, but it is, unfortunately, a necessary one. We're all paying monthy for our car, medical, renters, house, whatever just to pay off the very few claims that actually occur. Of course, when the problem happens to you, you may not see it that way.

Just keep in mind that although medical help may be cheap in many places you're going to, it is limited and if you're too seriously ill or harmed for them to help you, they'll recommend you evacuate to somewhere that can. Very quickly you'll start to see figures like $50,000 floating around. Also keep in mind that you're embassy will not help you at all financially.

I basically agree with the responses above. You have to look at it from a risk/cost view. First it depends on what you are insuring. You can pay for travel insurance that pays to replace the sunglasses you lost in the ocean....that I think is totally rediclulos. You have to think about what would be the worst thing that could happen if you didn't have it insured. How could you handle it? How would it effect your trip. Not having sunglasses is pretty harmless. However, having some of the big things covered makes a lot of sense such as the evacuation for medical treatment....you could be risking your life. It might be worth a couple of bucks. The bottom line is be selective about what you are insuring.

How about ridiculous and not rediclulos. Sometimes my spelling is ridiculous!

I'm most probably going to get flamed now.

I have always previously purchased travel insurance without a second thought, but on my last couple of trips the insurance company had refused to pay out.
You have to think about what you're paying for.

I have missed flights, had luggage not turn up and flights have been cancelled. Not once did my insurance policy pay out. However, the airlines themselves are usually pretty good at sorting out problems that arise; they need our business. If anything happens they will do their best to ensure you are satsified.

I never have anything that valuable anyway and my valuables are always worth less than the cost of the insurance!

So I feel ok with not having insurance for flights and theft.

The only thing I think you do need insurance for is your health. The other posters are right, you can't even comprehend the cost if something awful happened. I am working abroad and my school has provided medical insurance so I feel ok with not having my own. However, I am going to be doing some diving in May and so I will get insurance for that.

You have to think about where you're going and your situation. After all, I don't take out insurance for when I am at home so when I pop over to Europe for a weekend I wouldn't dream of taking out insurance. But if I know I'm going to be somewhere remote and I'm going to be doing adventure sports of some kind then I feel that insurance is vital.

I do know people though who have actually benefitted from haivng insurance and made a profit when they put in a claim.

jennie - what insurer did you use?

Personally, I'm not leaving without the stuff. I have loads of other things I'd rather spend my money on, than medical or evac costs - and yes, those can so easily soar into the $20,000, 40,000 and 60,000 grand mark that it's obscene. Will I in all likelihood need it? No. I'm a careful, healthy guy - but I know that shit also happens.

I paid about $200 for the insurance I used for my trip to Asia. When coming back home, I got holed up in LA for a night. I got on the phone with my insurance company, and they sorted me out for a flight change and a hotel reservation. The flight change cost me nothing; the hotel and meals cost me $222 - hey, I had $1200 in trip delay coverage, so the Marriott sounded like a great idea.

I used the CSA that you can get through BnA. The claim was easy, and I got my money back no prob.

Cheers, Anthony

It's necessary

I cannot consider the possibility of not having it while travelling abroad.

Good & safe trips


Ga

think about how bummed your family would be if you (broke traveller) got really busted up in some foreign land and they (disgruntled family who loves you) had to pay to get you home and in good health.

My family would sell the shirts off their back to save my health or life, as I'm sure many of yours would, and how would that make you feel afterwards when your $200 cheapskateness turns into their $200,000 debt?

just a thought to consider about how your actions have reactions.

I'm a healthy person who *touch wood* has so far never claimed on travel insurance... equally I'm a clumsy person with many broken bones and accidents behind me...

I'd NEVER leave home without insurance, as you can guarantee the first thing i'd do without it would be robbed while falling down a flight of stairs or something...

I hope to never, ever need it, but wouldn't leave home without it... I've only been away for a couple of months, and already crashed a bike (nothing serious) but when I think what could have happened..... eek!

http://blogs.bootsnall.com/mary/

Well, like I said, I do have medical insurance and I will take out extra insurance for when I go scuba diving. I don't think my family would be too bummed though if my mobile got stolen or I lost some clothes or I missed the last bus. These 'small' things cost less than the general insurance itself and in my experience the insurance companies have never compensated me for when these incidents do happen; but that's just me.

The only real valuables I have with me are my passport and credit cards. When I first got my visa card I was asked if I wanted 'cardguard.' I pay about 12 pounds a year and it insures EVERY document that I list with the company so my passport is registered with them. I also keep photocopies of my important documents separate from the original. Also in China (which is where I'm living) you are required to register your passport with the police which I have done.

But my situation is different. As I originally said: "I have always previously purchased insurance" But as I am living here in a clean developed modern city which has more hospitals than my home country I feel quite confident that should something awful happen then not only am I already insured via my work but that the facilities here are more than adequate.

Erin's situation is different. Erin is going away for at least a year to several different continents with various extremes of weather and is likely to be doing lots of exciting and (dangerous) activities: scuba diving? bungy jumping? sky diving? who knows.

If I was travelling around the world for a year I wouldn't even heistate and whilst travelling I always ensure I have the following five documents:

passport
visa
ticket
insurance
credit card

I would advise Erin to purchase travel insurance. You need to make sure though that it covers any adventure sports you are likely to be doing; kayaking for example is considered extreme by some insurance companies and so you have to take out extra cover.

The majority of people are going to tell you to get insurance.

But I would like to hear some horror stories.....has anyone NOT purchased travel insurance on a round the world trip??

Probably only"life"travel insurance. Especially if you have dependents and/or lots of debt.

BIG-TARGET: Do not think you are,know you are!!"-Morpheus(The Matrix)

If you plan on doing any amount of diving, I suggest looking into DAN insurance.diversalertnetwork.org Otherwise, make sure your insurance is going to cover time in the chamber and evacuation. DAN is very cheap especially considering the cost of these can easily get into the tens of thousands. It can also delay your trip because you won't be able to fly anywhere until your treatment is done.

Thanks scubamama! You'ven just saved me a few hours trawling the net!!

xx

escape artist -

i see that you're from the states. this makes insurance even more important. as others have said, if you get hurt abroad and have to go home to take care of it, med bills will really pile up in NY.
another, little-known effect is that insurance companies here in the US charge higher premiums if you have gaps in your past insurance, because people with gaps are more likely to have health problems. evil, but that's insurance companies. so getting travel insurance may say you on premiums later...

and just one other (morbid) point: any travel insurance worth anything will cover "repatriation of remains." this basically means that if you die (sorry) your body will be sent back to your family.

Hey, check out my blog:

Central America At Last

I also have to say travel insurance is worth it. I have medical insurance through work, but we still take out travel insurance to cover our "stuff".

hey guys,
thanks for the advice. yeah, i'm about to cough up the $500. the last thing i want on a year + abroad is to have to worry about pitching headfirst down a flight of stairs or having my remains shipped back home. *knock on wood*
back to the grind....

Erin

We always take out travel insurance, even if we're only hopping across the border to the US for a couple of days. I can't imagine travelling without it - the hospital costs of some people are absolutely insane. I'm positive that the one time you don't take insurance out is the one time that you really need it.
I recently heard a horror story of a friend in the US who wasn't treated in the hospital, and laid around with a broken bone, until they were sure that the insurance would come through.

Thank God for healthcare... Canada may not be perfect, but it beats waiting for insurance to come through and sitting around with a broken bone.

"Never for me the lowered banner, never the last endeavour." -- Sir Ernest Shackleton

Most of the travel medical insurance companies i've looked into are rather complicated in the sense that they recommend you call them first before you seek medical treatment to see if they will cover the treatment you are seeking. Well, if i keep my U.S. HMO through work, it works pretty much the same way. My dilemna is this: do i pay the $300/month COBRA and skip out on additional travel medical (from everything i've read, the coverage between the two is the same, basically they cover any urgent/emergency care) or do i forget about COBRA and just go with travel (which would be cheaper). My main concern is that if let's say i broke my leg while abroad and had to come home, i don't believe that the traveler's insurance will continue to cover my expenses for that broken leg once i'm home. So i'd be in a position of trying to get a U.S. plan, but they likely would't cover the broken leg treatments, cuz it would be deemed a pre-existing condition. Also, in regards to what someone said about having a lapse in insurance raising your premiums, my insurance company (amerihealth) said that most times traveler's insurance does not have comparable enough coverage to typical u.s. plans, and so therefore they would still see it as a lapse in health insurance. Ok, so i guess my question is this, for those of you who get traveler's insurance (medical) are you maintaining some sort of health coverage here in the U.S. while you are abroad?

sue