TRAVEL INSURANCE - Should I buy?
 

I've been reading the travel insurance threads and got some quotes.
I also joined DAN that gives you coverage and travel assistance just for a $55 membership.

https://www.diversalertnetwork.org/m...avelassist.asp

I also looked at Tru travel insurance, but I have to split my trip as it only covers at a maximum of 32 days.

http://www.trutravelinsurance.com/compare.html

Would it be worthy to buy the Trutravel also?

Anybody??

What are you looking to cover? Your health? Medical evacuation (not necessarily covered by basic travel health insurance)? The fixed costs you incur if you have to cancel or interrupt your trip? The financial risk of your tour or cruise operator after you have made a big upfront payment? There are many dimensions to travel insurance. The nature of your trip and your own circumstances determine whether you should buy travel insurance or not. For example on a normal trip I might take with just my husband on free ff tickets, basic hotel reservations I can cancel, etc. I don't get travel insurance. But when I have taken a expensive cruise with my elderly inlaws I did.

Thanks Laurieann,

That really clears it out for me. Everything is done by me, reservations, FF ticket.

Should I get basic travel insurance to cover travel health insurance, or that will work with my regular health insurance?

Mia

You should check whether your regular health insurance covers your medical expenses when you are out of your home country. You may also want to have medical evacuation coverage. You can buy that for each trip. Or you can buy an annual medical evacutation policy that covers you for all your travel during the year. For about $300 per year my husband and I have MedJet Assist coverage. There are others but MedJet covers your extra expenses to return home even if you were just going from Chicago to New York for a business trip and got in a car accident or something. If you don't know the website www.insuremytrip.com they have some general information about various kinds of coverage. I think magazines like Consumers Reports probably do too in their on line archives.

Would you have been able to afford the cost of an extra week of hotel and meals if you were marooned during the recent volcanic crisis? Insurance against the kind of 'act of god' delay that airlines are not responsible for could be very useful.

You're the only one who can decide what risk you want to take and what costs you will have. that DAN thing seems like a waste to me, as most credit cards give you assitance for free. If it includes evacuation, maybe that's not too bad if you get it for a year. That is included in travel insurance policies, though, so it's double coverage if you buy travel insurance anyway. If you buy travel insurance mainly for the health insurance (if you regular policy doesn't cover you abroad), then the DAN thing really seems a waste as all travel medical policies cover evacuation.

Check with your existing health insurance if they offere worldwide emergency coverage - some do, some don't. Call the 800 number on your card, and ask them where to go in case of emergency.