Travel Insurance
 

Is travel insurance worth the money. If so what companies offer it. Have tried several insurance companies and have not found any who offer it.

The US State Department's web site has a list of companies that offer travel insurance, with links to those on the web. www.state.gov/travel. Whether it's worth it, I think, depends on your situation. Does your health insurance cover travel (esp. overseas0? If you're spending a ton of $$$, cancelation insurance can be important. As with all insurance, be very sure to read the fine print

We always use Liberty Travel on all of our trips and they have an excellent insurance plan for $49.00 each. I had to cancel a trip and got a full refund on airline & hotel. Vince

I've used CSA twice, excellent service, easy to do business with, and highly recommended on this board, other boards, and by Consumer Reports as well. Phone #800-348-9505 fax: 619-552-9151. <BR> <BR>I always get travel insurance to cover anything prepaid (air, cruise, etc.). At under $45 for $1000 of coverage, it's a steal for the peace of mind. Includes trip cancellation AND trip interruption, so if something happens while traveling, it covers getting me home, and reimbursement for portion of trip lost. <BR> <BR>The question to ask yourself is could you afford to lose whatever $$ you've prepaid if something happened and you had to cancel or had to return home early? If not, get insurance.

I am not a big fan of travel insurance, but it really depends on your personal situation. If your risk factors are low, you probably don't need insurance. Risk factors would be your health, your age, health of family members, etc. Also take into account whether you could afford to lose your prepayment. I never bought insurance until we travelled when my wife was pregnant. The risks for us not being able to make a trip just weren't there until then. For domestic air, I don't buy insurance because you can usually reschedule the flight (or get credit) for little more than the cost of insurance if you need to. I am insuring our trip to Tahiti, because I can't afford to lose my prepayment of $5000. Even though the risk of loss is minimal, it would be many years before we would save up enough to go if we missed this trip and lost our prepayment.

I'm sure I've taken at least 60 vacations costing a minimum of $1000 per person over the past 10 years, at least 10 costing 4-5 times that. <BR>I would not have been able to collect on insurance once. <BR>That's about $2700 I'd have thrown away. <BR>On the other hand, for the really expensive trips, $45 buys a lot of peace of mind, I suppose. I'd be very selective. <BR>Keep in mind that insurance companies only sell policies to cover things they're quite sure they'll come out ahead on. That is, they've already analyzed the whole game and know that on average, customers will pay in more than the company will pay out. As such, over your lifetime, insurance should be a bust for you as a client and a profit maker for the company.

Be aware that there are two different types of trip insurance. Trip cancellation insurance covers you when you or a family member becomes ill any you must change your plans; some types of this insurance will pay to airlift you out of a difficult location if you should become ill during the trip. The other type of insurance is trip interruption insurance, which covers your losses if your trip is affected by a natural disaster, for example. You need to read the fine print and evaluation your situation to decide which you need and when you need it. I personally have collected on trip interruption policies twice, and collected enough to recoup the cost of all the premiums I've ever paid (as well as being made whole for my losses). One time was when I was stuck in the BVI during a hurricane. Travelling to the islands during hurricane season is a calculated risk (one in which the traveler is almost always the winner, by the way); the cost of insurance is part of the calculation. But don't assume that hurricane season is the only risk you take -- travel in winter has its perils as well. The other time I collected, I was "forced" to extend my winter vacation in the islands because of an East Coast blizzard which stranded all aircraft, and left us "stranded" in paradise: insurance paid for extra nights of room, meals during our extra days, extra days of rental car, and phone expenses. <BR> <BR>Incidentally, both claims were with BerkeleyCare, which policies were sold as part of the price of the trip. <BR> <BR>As one writer wrote, consider whether you can afford to lose the cost you've paid, and what your risk of loss is, and then decide.