Budget Travel Webpage

The decision to purchase travel insurance or not lies with the assumption that either nothing bad can happen during your travels, or whether should something bad happen you can adequately resolve these unforeseen events.

None of us want to think that something bad will happen. We assume incorrectly that fire, flood, earthquake and terrorism will happen to others. We assume we won’t have a heart attack or stroke, we won’t be ill. All these are wrong assumptions because we cannot predict the future and cannot tell what is going to happen.

Should you purchase travel insurance as a frugal traveller? Well, let’s look at a few things that could, and do happen, to overseas and even domestic travellers. Then, you decide if you should purchase travel insurance.

The question, “should you purchase travel insurance” is perhaps answered by asking yourself why you purchased homeowners insurance, or medical insurance or life insurance. You purchased them so that your consistent small payments would assure you of having someone else provide help in case of a catastrophic event for which you are unprepared. Purchasing travel insurance, just like purchasing any other insurance, is not just about receiving the funds to recover. It’s also about having the professional assistance for you and your family to recover.

You’re from Texas. You’ve never been to the ocean. You travel to Florida and book a hotel room a week but you are then ordered to evacuate due to an expected hurricane. But you have non-refundable airline tickets, and your hotel and rental car are already paid for. How do you replace the airline tickets and get reimbursed for your stay?

You’re on an island in the Caribbean, ready for your cruise back home. You find out that the cruise ship company has gone bankrupt and there will be no return cruise. What do you do? How do you get your money back? Most importantly, how do you get back home?  

You’re ready to take your family on a much-needed vacation to Hawaii. Your son has an attack of appendicitis and must have immediate surgery. But your airline tickets are non-refundable. How do you get your money back?

You landed in Melbourne and are ready to retrieve your luggage at the baggage carousel. However after waiting for 45 minutes, you still can’t find your luggage. Could someone have taken yours by mistake? You did not place an identity tag on your luggage or an address in your hurry to catch the flight. What should you do? You are stranded at the airport with no luggage. There is no way you can replace all the contents in your luggage during your stay. Do you have to spend on clothes for nothing using your credit card just to replace them? 

The above scenarios will give you an idea on whether you should buy travel insurance. While you hope that your trip will be plain sailing, you cannot tell the future or control circumstances. After all, it takes just a little out of your pocket to travel with your mind at ease and to cover expenses that are way beyond your savings if such unfortunate events would occur.  We pay a little in order to save more in unforseen circumstances.

Travel safe and don’t end up being sorry.