Things You Need To Know Before Buying Travel Medical Insurance

Having proper medical and travel insurance is mandatory when holding a working holiday visa for New Zealand.

For many backpackers, this will be the first time having to deal with an insurer and compare offers. Your insurance can cover five main points:

• trip cancellation and interruption
• medical
• evacuation
• baggage (By the way, check out our predeparture checklist in case you forgot anything)
• flight insurance.

Most cover includes some but not all of those points. Here is the list of questions you may want to ask your insurer before purchasing your insurance.

1. WHERE IS THE INSURANCE COMPANY BASED?

A company based in New Zealand will be able to help you much more efficiently in an emergency than one based in your home country.

2. WHO IS THE UNDERWRITING COMPANY AND ARE THEY LICENSED?

This is an obvious one, New Zealand companies have to be registered and display the underwriter rating. If they don’t, something is fishy.

3. HOW DOES THE POLICY DEFINE A PRE-EXISTING CONDITION?

Pre-existing conditions are usually excluded from your cover or covered at extra costs. Check if that applies to you.

4. WILL A PRE-EXISTING CONDITION AFFECT YOUR COVERAGE?

If you do have a pre-existing condition listed in your policy wordings, check how much it will affect your cover.

5. ARE THERE ANY MEDICAL EXCLUSIONS THAT APPLY TO YOU?

Some companies may excuse certain procedures, situations or diseases from their coverage, check if any of the exclusions apply to you.

6. WILL YOU HAVE TO PAY A DEDUCTIBLE / EXCESS? IF SO, HOW MUCH?

An excess or deductible is the amount of money per claim that is to be paid by you. Most insurances have one. To help you understand this more, we have put together this guide to Medical and Travel Insurance for New Zealand.

7. WHAT IS THE INSURANCE COMPANY’S PROCEDURE FOR HANDLING CLAIMS?

This process will have to be made during a stressful situation; you are better off knowing the process beforehand.

8. DO YOU NEED APPROVAL FROM THE COMPANY BEFORE SEEKING MEDICAL TREATMENT?

Ask about the process of getting treatment, so in case of emergency you are prepared.

9. WILL THE INSURANCE COMPANY PAY THE HOSPITAL OR PHYSICIAN DIRECTLY?

In some cases you may have to pay the full amount yourself and then be reimbursed later by the company.

10. DOES THE COMPANY OFFERING THE POLICY PROVIDE A FREE, 24-HOUR HELPLINE THAT YOU CAN CALL IN AN EMERGENCY?

It sounds simple but some of them don’t.

11. DOES THE POLICY EXCLUDE ANY SPORTS OR ACTIVITIES YOU PLAN TO DO ON YOUR TRIP?

New Zealand offers plenty of awesome activities. The most extreme of them are not covered by your policy but the activity provider’s insurance.

12. WHAT IF YOU WANT TO STAY AWAY LONGER THAN ORIGINALLY PLANNED?

Can you extend your policy to cover me for the extra time you are in New Zealand, and how do you make the necessary arrangements?

13. ONCE YOU HAVE SIGNED A POLICY, CAN ANY FURTHER CHANGES BE MADE AT THE INSURANCE COMPANY’S DISCRETION WITHOUT ADVISING YOU?

For example, can the company revise the policy later and reduce your coverage.

14. WHEN DOES COVERAGE BEGIN AND END?

Some insurances will cover from the day you are leaving your home country, during the whole transit, and then in New Zealand. OrbitProtect covers you in transit, meaning you can take trips to those nearby Pacific islands and be covered!

Travel insurance is one of the most important things you’ll need for your trip. You wouldn’t have a car without car insurance, a home without home insurance, and you can’t have a trip without travel insurance.



Why? Because travel insurance is what will provide you with medical coverage when you get sick or injured, reimburse you when your camera breaks, your flight is canceled, a family member dies and you have to come home, if lose a bag, or something is stolen. It’s all-purpose emergency coverage and is the single most important thing you should get for your trip (but hope to never have to use). It’s the one thing I strongly, strongly advise travelers to never leave home without because I’ve seen it help so many – and so many others regret being cheap and not getting it! For only a few dollars a day, it’s a no brainer.

I used it for a doctor in Argentina, when my camera broke in Italy, my ear drum popped in Thailand, and my luggage was stolen in South Africa. Each time I was reimbursed my expenses and was made whole again.

Travel insurance was there when my friend had to be helicoptered out of the Amazon after he fell off a boat, when friend’s father died and she had to fly home, and another got her bag stolen. Travel insurance makes sure you don’t lose money and are always protected. (My favorite travel insurance provider is World Nomads. They always have my back when something like the above happens. I’ve been using them since 2003.)

Since most health programs don’t cover you overseas and credit cards offer really limited protection, travel insurance is something you definitely need to protect against the unknown. After all, you don’t want to end up like my friend who didn’t have insurance when her computer was stolen and had to pay out of pocket for a new one.



Since travel insurance is one of the most complex, important and confusing aspects of trip planning, I want to break it down for you, help you understand what it is about, and show you how to avoid getting a bad insurance plan:

What to look for in a great travel insurance plan

There are a lot of options out there. Insurance is a billion-dollar business, and everyone wants their hand in the cookie jar, thus you face a mind-numbing number of choices that can be confusing and overwhelming. And, often, in the fine print, you’ll find that plans aren’t as good as you thought.

When looking for the best travel insurance plan, first make sure they have a high coverage limit on your medical expenses. A good company will provide up to $100,000 in coverage care, though more expensive policies will cover you for higher amounts. The maximum coverage limit you can find is around $1,000,000 USD, though I’m not sure why you would ever need a limit that large. High coverage limits are important because if you get sick, injured, or need serious attention and have to seek professional care, you want to make sure your high hospital bills are covered. The worst thing you can do is go cheap and get a policy with a $20,000 coverage limit, break a leg, and reach that limit before they are done taking care of you. Don’t be cheap with your health. Get minimum coverage of $100,000.

Second, you want to make sure your travel insurance policy also covers emergency evacuation and care that is separate from your medical coverage. If you are hiking in the woods and you break your leg, your policy should cover your evacuation to the hospital. If a natural disaster occurs and you need to be evacuated to somewhere else, your plan should cover that as well. This protection should cover an expense of up to $300,000 USD.

Additionally, evacuation also should mean from the hospital to your home country. Standard emergency evacuation usually includes this provision, but it’s important you double-check a company will cover the cost of your flight back home if you need it.

A great travel insurance plan will always include the following provisions:

• Cover most countries in the world
• Some coverage for your electronics (and have the option for a higher coverage limit)
• Cover injury and sudden illnesses
• Twenty-four hour emergency services and help (you don’t want to call to be told to call back later)
• Cover lost, damaged or stolen possessions like jewelry, baggage, documents, cameras, etc.
• Cover cancellations such as hotel bookings, flight, and other transportation bookings if you have a sudden illness, death in the family, or some other emergency
• Cover emergencies, strife in the country visited, etc., that cause you to head home early
• Have financial protection if any company you are using goes bankrupt and you are stuck in another country

A quick note on electronics: most companies only have a small limit, usually up to $500 USD, as part of their basic coverage. You can often buy supplemental insurance to get a higher amount of coverage. For instance, Clements Insurance offers special coverage for your electronics. Prices vary depending on the country you visit ($145-195 per plan). Moreover, many regular and home insurance companies such as State Farm offer plans that can help you cover your electronics. Be sure to check if you find a travel with a lot of gear! My camera was covered because it was cheap. If you have an expensive DSLR or lens, get supplemental insurance! It will be worth it!

What’s not covered by your travel insurance plan is just as important as what is

Know what is also not covered by your plan. Most policies do not cover accidents sustained while participating in extreme adventure activities such as hang gliding, paragliding, or bungee jumping unless you pay extra. The majority of companies won’t cover you if you injure someone on the road (called third-party liability). Policies do not normally cover alcohol- or drug-related incidents, or carelessness in handling your possessions and baggage. You won’t get reimbursed if the problem happened because you were reckless (how “reckless” is defined is a matter up to each company). But simply: if a reasonable person wouldn’t partake in what caused your accident, you won’t be covered.

Moreover, you won’t be covered for pre-existing conditions or general check-ups. For example, if you have diabetes and need to buy more insulin, you won’t be covered. If you want to go see a doctor for a general check-up, you aren’t covered either.

Travel Insurance Loopholes: What To Look For

Even the best travel insurance have their limits. Often, in the fine print, you’ll find that plans aren’t as good as you thought.

The medical portion of travel insurance is more about emergency care than being a replacement for your normal healthcare. A lot of people purchase insurance thinking it is, then get disappointed when they find out they can’t go get an annual physical with it. Travel insurance is accident insurance. It is there to protect you in case of emergency and, if need be, get you home in a hurry. If you want a global health plan (because you now live in Beijing), you need a completely different type of plan.

Your stolen goods coverage won’t pay you back for a lost wad of cash, your theft coverage won’t cover you if you left something in plain sight or unattended, and if civil unrest makes your destination unsafe but your government hasn’t called for an evacuation, you’re probably out of luck.

Buy Your Travel Insurance As Soon As Possible

Even though you can wait until you leave, it’s best to get your travel insurance as soon as possible. Every day you wait, there’s a chance something could happen and you can’t get a travel insurance after the fact. If a hurricane ruins your trip, your travel insurance would only cover you if you bought it before the hurricane formed. Buy a plan the day after you go to the doctor but before he tells you you’re sick? Your plan won’t cover you since your original visit happened BEFORE the plan!



Don’t wait to get insurance because it will only cover you for things that happened AFTER you bought the plan. Don’t wait and get out of luck. I’ve seen it happen too often. The second you know you are going somewhere and have the dates, buy travel insurance!

There’s a 99.99% chance you will never need to use the policy you bought, but accidents happen and life on the road is uncertain. It’s better to be safe than sorry, especially when you are in a different country, thousands of miles from home.

Don’t want to end up like my friend in Peru, who decided against coverage, only to break her arm and have to spend lots of money to get it fixed in Lima.

Be smart and get coverage.

When do I need travel insurance?

A vacation travel break can be revitalizing and can open you up to new experiences. It can also be expensive—and just because you're off from work doesn't mean the universe cooperates.



A whole variety of unforeseen circumstances can squash travel plans with little notice—which often means leaving you on the hook for financial and other losses.



Fortunately, the right insurance can help protect against these losses. Before you book your trip, check if the credit card you plan to use offers any travel insurance or assistance that might be useful to you, then consider the coverages below.

What kind of travel insurance do I need?

There are four major types of travel insurance and, generally, you can purchase packages that offer these with a combination of other travel coverage options.

Choose your travel insurance based on what makes sense for your trip and your own finances. If you've been saving for that $15,000 tour of Italy as your vacation of a lifetime, you may not want to take a chance that a family illness will cost you your deposit.

• Trip cancellation insurance – Reimburses you when certain circumstances prevent you from taking your trip—such as if your cruise line or tour operator goes out of business or if you have to cancel the trip due to sickness, a death in the family or another calamity listed in the policy. In addition, if you or an immediate family member becomes seriously ill or is injured during the trip most policies would reimburse you for the unused portion of the vacation.

Don't confuse trip cancellation insurance with the cancellation waiver that many cruise and tour operators offer. Compared to insurance, waivers might seem relatively inexpensive and they do provide coverage if you have to cancel the trip. However, they include many restrictions, they generally must be purchased at the time the trip is booked, and they will usually not cover you immediately before departure (the time period during which most people cancel) or after the trip has begun. Most importantly, because waivers are not insurance they are not regulated by state insurance departments. If your tour or cruise operator gets into financial difficulty, you may not be able to collect on the waiver.

• Baggage insurance or personal effects coverage – Provides coverage if your personal belongings are lost, stolen or damaged during the trip.

Before purchasing this type of coverage, find out how much insurance the airline or trip operator provides for your belongings. Also check your homeowners or renters policy, which will usually provide coverage for off-premises theft, such as stolen luggage.

If you are traveling with expensive electronic equipment, jewelry or sporting gear, it might be more cost-effective to purchase a floater or endorsement to your homeowners or renters policy that covers these items. This would provide full coverage against loss of the item, anywhere in the world, as well as at home.

Some insurers also offer baggage delay insurance, which would cover items you need to purchase in case your luggage to hold you over in case your luggage is significantly delayed.

• Emergency medical assistance – Covers expenses related to medical crises, which can be very costly. Emergency medical assistance covers situations like: being airlifted off a mountain after a skiing or hiking accident; a prolonged period stay in a foreign hospital; or needing to be flown home due to a serious illness or injury.

Before purchasing this type of coverage, check with your own health insurance carrier to find out what type of coverage you have when traveling at home or abroad and what the limitations are.

Depending on where you're traveling, consider getting insurance enough to cover a flight home or to a country with first-rate medical care.

• Accidental death provides coverage in event you or a family member dies during a trip. Depending on your life insurance plan or other financial provisions for your loved ones, this may be duplicate insurance.

Are there other types of travel insurance I should consider?
There are many other types of travel insurance—you can even get coverage for lost travel loyalty plan points. Depending on your destination and circumstances, you may want to consider the available coverages for:

• Missed connection
• Travel delay
• Emergency evacuation
• 24-hour traveler assistance
• Collision/damage coverage for rented cars

Travel insurance can help cover medical expenses or financial losses you might incur while traveling. It's often pitched as the best protection for those traveling domestically or overseas. This article will explain what kind of coverage you need before you sign on the dotted line and start paying for protection against the unforeseen and unpredictable.

What Does Travel Insurance Cover?

There are five main categories of travel insurance:

• Trip cancellation
• Travel medical
• Major medical
• Emergency medical evacuation
• Accidental death/flight accident

Trip Cancellation Insurance

As its name implies, trip cancellation insurance (sometimes known as trip interruption insurance or trip delay insurance) covers you in the event that you or your traveling companions need to cancel, interrupt or delay your trip.

Policies differ in terms of which reasons are acceptable, but it's fairly typical for this insurance to cover cancellation or interruption for the following reasons:

• Sudden business conflicts
• Change of mind
• Delay in processing your visa or passport
• Illness or injury
• Weather-related issues

Some policies may include additional coverage, which would insure you against one or more of the following events:

• An act of terrorism
• The vendor (cruise line, tour company, airline) going out of business
• An accident on the way to the airport
• Fire or flood in your house
• Jury duty

The insurance pays the difference between the refund you get from the vendor and the amount you originally paid for the trip. Make sure the insurance you buy is not from the same carrier you purchased the trip from; that way, if the carrier goes out of business, you'll still be protected if something goes wrong during your trip.

Travel Medical and Major Medical Insurance

Both of these types of insurance provide medical protection if the policyholder becomes ill or is injured while traveling. The difference between these two types of insurance is the duration of coverage:

• Travel medical insurance provides only short-term medical coverage; the duration can be anywhere from five days to up to one year, depending on the policy.
• Major medical insurance is for travelers who are planning to take longer trips of six months to one year or longer.

These types of insurance can help you cover medical expenses and locate doctors, hospitals, healthcare facilities and foreign-language services if you become ill or injured while traveling overseas. Whether you purchase medical insurance separately or you already have it, find out if you will need prior approval from your insurance company for any type of medical care.

The U.S. government urges Americans to consult their medical insurance companies prior to traveling abroad to determine whether a given policy applies overseas. For example, your medical insurance may only cover you in the U.S. and Canada, but not Europe. According to the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, Medicare does not provide coverage for hospital or medical costs outside of the U.S. For more information go to Travel.State.Gov.

Also, when traveling, always register your travel plans with the State Department through its free online service Travel Registration website - this way, the nearest embassy or consulate can contact you if there is a family emergency or a state or national crisis while you're traveling.



Note: Check to see what preexisting medical conditions, if any, are excluded before you sign up. Make sure you read all the fine print and know what the policy covers and what it doesn't.

Emergency Medical Evacuation Insurance

This type of insurance provides coverage for medically necessary evacuation and transportation to medical facilities. These costs can easily reach $10,000 out of pocket if you don't have coverage. This becomes extremely useful should you become stranded in a remote rural area without easy access to needed facilities.

Accidental Death and Flight Accident Insurance

These types of insurance pay benefits to a traveler's surviving beneficiaries, as with life insurance. Benefits are paid out in the event of an accident resulting in death or serious injury to the traveler.

Specialized Coverage

There are also more specialized forms of travel insurance. For example, some focus on the needs of business travelers, extreme athletes or expatriates. So, if you are planning to participate in high-risk or extreme sports while away, selecting an insurance that is made specifically to cover you in case of a sports-related injury might be more cost-effective and needs-specific than selecting an insurance policy that provides more general coverage.

Purchasing Travel Insurance

You can purchase travel insurance in three ways:

1. Per-trip coverage is the most common type of travel insurance. according to the U.S. Travel Insurance Association, 80% of all travel policies purchased are per-trip policies. This policy is for travelers who don't travel as often, and it provides protection for a single trip.
2. Multi-trip coverage provides protection for multiple trips during one year, but none of the trips can exceed 30 days.
3. The annual policy is for frequent travelers; it provides coverage for a full year.

The cost for each varies depending on the category or type of insurance for the coverage you think you will need. Generally, the cost of a per-trip travel insurance policy varies between 4% and 8% of the cost of the total trip. For instance, if your total trip cost, including airfare and a week-long tour of France, is $3,000, your out-of-pocket insurance cost would be between $120 and $240.

Be wary of travel insurance companies that overprice their policies. Check out the reputation of the insurance company you are looking to purchase from. You can start by looking at organizations like the U.S. Travel Insurance Association, which provides helpful advice on choosing travel insurance. You can also go to your Better Business Bureau (BBB) office to find out about qualified travel insurance companies.

Do You Really Need Travel Insurance Coverage?

There are several questions to ask yourself when trying to determine whether to buy travel insurance or deciding what type of insurance you'll need:

• Will you be traveling overseas?
• Are you planning to participate in extreme sports?
• Can you afford the cost of the trip back home if an emergency arises and you need to get back?
• If you or someone who is traveling with you gets sick, will you be able to afford medical care?

These are all potential problems that can turn your dream vacation into a nightmare if you aren't prepared. When deciding whether to purchase a policy, go through as many scenarios as you can.

• Get familiar with the cancellation policies of hotels, tourism cruise lines and other travel service providers.
• Review existing policies and agreements with credit card companies. In some cases, credit card companies already cover issues, such as lost luggage or car rental liability.
• Become familiar with price schedules, terms, conditions and exclusions of the insurance you choose.

The Bottom Line

The fine print is the backbone of your contract and it will be what determines what type of coverage you will have when you need it most. When you have the right insurance in place to cover you on your trip, you can ensure that your dream vacation turns out to be all you had planned and more.

To be succinct with the following understatement, insurance as a whole is complex and confusing to most. Some types, like health insurance, shouldn’t be difficult (okay haha actually, that one should be a human right). But others, like travel insurance, aren’t necessary for every single person on this earth to have for every single trip they take. Maybe you’re hiking to Everest base camp and you think maybe you should cover your future ass. Maybe you’re worried that a flight might get cancelled and you’re wondering whether you should check off the 11-dollar travel insurance box on your airline’s website. But it’s tricky to know when travel insurance is truly useful, and when it’s just another unnecessary way to spent your money.





To answer that question, we talked to three travel insurance experts who gave us a primer on when you’d be wasting money to purchase a plan and when you’d be dumb to not buy one. Adrenaline chasers and those who tend to lose their baggage, read carefully.

Does everyone need it?

Short answer: No. A few potential risks that travel insurance covers include trip cancellations, lost luggage, medical emergencies, and evacuations. Therefore, assess how likely it is that you’ll run into any of these issues. Furthermore, some credit cards, like Chase Sapphire Preferred, offer some travel coverage—you may have it and just not know it.

How does the cost structure work?

Just like every other type of insurance, not all travel insurance policies are the same. According to ValuePenguin, the average cost of travel insurance in the U.S. was $148, but a few factors can move this number way up or down. “No matter the type of policy someone buys, the price increases dramatically the older they are,” says Paul Reynolds, Head of Consumer Research at ValuePenguin. “Premiums remained relatively flat for travelers age one through 30, but then the cost begins to climb. The most drastic increases in travel insurance costs occur between ages 60 and 80.”

Does my credit score matter?

Unlike with many other types of insurance, where your credit score can be a factor in determining your premium, travel insurance isn’t influenced by this number. “In fact, when requesting a travel insurance quote your credit score or social security number are not required,” says InsureMyTrip Product Director Lynne Peters. Reynolds explains why: “The nature of the travel insurance industry pretty much precludes using credit scores, since it’s based on providing practically instant quotes based primarily on your trip particulars and the levels of coverage you require.”

Are you going bouldering or skydiving or paragliding or BASE jumping?
Your itinerary matters. “If you’re planning high-risk activities, like skydiving and scuba diving, you’re more liable to require medical care, and you might want to get travel insurance with a rider that clearly covers those,” Reynolds says. Also, if you’re going to a remote area that’s far from major hospitals, you may want to look into travel insurance that would evacuate you in case you fall off a boulder or get bitten by a shark.

What insurance do you already have?

“In short, travel insurance exists because there are gaps in your coverage elsewhere when it comes to travel,” says Damian Tysdal of Travel Insurance Review. First, check your health insurance plan, which may or may not cover you abroad. Also, if you have personal property insurance and have made the decision to mark valuable items (so, stuff that would be in your luggage) as “scheduled items,” that insurance would cover those things were you to lose them. However, if you’re concerned about your luggage being lost, stolen, or damaged, and you don’t have that insurance, look into travel insurance.

What if I’m only concerned with my material possessions and not the well being of my physical body?

Federal regulations require that airlines are liable for up to $3,300 if your luggage is damaged when you fly domestically (some like American Airlines and Delta will pay up to $3,500). However, if you’re traveling internationally or with items worth more than that amount, look for travel insurance that covers baggage, or just buy baggage insurance.

Okay, where do I buy it?

While you can buy travel insurance directly from providers, such as Nationwide and AIG Travel, it’s smart to use a website to compare plans’ benefits. “It works the same way as Expedia—you enter your trip information, then it pulls quotes from all major companies,” Tysdal says. “Then, it makes it easy to compare the plans side-by-side to see which ones has the best coverage for the best price.”

If you're spending big for a vacation this summer, it's worth weighing another purchase: travel insurance.



Consumers are expected to shell out $98.02 billion on travel over the three months between Memorial Day and Labor Day, according to the ADI Travel Trends Report for 2017. That's one-third of the total travel spending projected for 2017.



Deciding whether you'd benefit from coverage isn't a quick yea or nay. Experts say it depends on several factors, including the cost and components of your trip, where you live and where you're headed, and what potential problems you're worried about.

"There's no simple answer, because everyone's trip is slightly different," said Christopher Elliott, who advocates on behalf of travelers through his site, Elliott.org.

These four questions can help you weigh your options:

1) How much money is at stake?

Check the change and cancellation policies for travel components including flights, hotels, cruises and car rentals, as well as any destination activities already purchased, like theme park tickets. That can help you assess how much money might be lost if you need to cancel or postpone your trip, or head home early.

If that total is more than you're willing or able to lose, then travel insurance is worth a closer look, said Loretta Worters, a vice president for the Insurance Information Institute.

2) What are your travel plans?

Big-ticket trips with intricate itineraries are often better contenders for insurance, Elliott said. (Think multicountry European vacation or a bucket-list African safari, versus a domestic getaway to grandma's.) A policy could help cover costs for situations like the tour company going out of business, or a delayed flight that means you miss your cruise departure.



You might also want to consider travel insurance with medical coverage if you're headed abroad (where your health insurance may not be valid) or to a remote area or on a cruise (where getting to a hospital may require air evacuation), Worters said. Uncovered, those expenses could add up to tens of thousands of dollars.

3) What are you worried about?

Dig into the details to make sure a policy would offer the coverage you want. Broadly speaking, you have two choices: named exclusion (which covers a limited range of events and scenarios), and cancel-for-any-reason coverage (which, true to its name, offers broad coverage). The former generally runs 5 to 7 percent of the cost of your trip, and the latter, 8 to 10 percent, Elliott said.

"Named exclusion is a little more risky," he said, with big variations in what's covered and when.

Say you're worried about hurricane season, which runs from June 1 through Nov. 30. One policy might allow you to cancel your trip as soon as there's an official storm warning in effect for your destination, while another may require a bigger impact like a delayed flight, said Steven Benna, a spokesman for comparison site Squaremouth. You won't be covered at all if the storm threatening your trip is named before you buy a policy.

Keep in mind that unless you get a cancel-for-any-reason policy, fear of travel — say, because you're worried about recent terrorist attacks or that you might contract a disease like Zika at your destination — typically isn't covered.

4) Do you already have coverage?

Before you buy a third-party travel insurance policy, check to see if you already have some protections through other sources. For example, a homeowners or renters insurance policy may cover your belongings away from home, said Worters — helping alleviate worries about lost baggage.

Travel insurance is also a common perk for credit cards, provided you paid for those travel arrangements with the card. (Again, you'll want to scrutinize details carefully.) On the most generous cards, you might have coverage of up to $10,000 per trip, according to a recent Squaremouth analysis.



That might mean you don't need a policy at all, or only need one that fills in gaps — say, to add medical coverage and cover any trip costs that exceed the cap, said Benna. That stacking can help you create a more comprehensive policy at a lower cost, he said.

Picking the best travel insurance to buy for your coming vacation can be a daunting task, said Stan Sandberg, the co-founder of the trip insurance comparison site TravelInsurance.com. “There are literally hundreds of plans out there, and they are all steeped in complex legal language that can be hard for even the savviest consumers to decipher,” he said.





A good travel insurance plan, he said, gives you peace of mind that the money you’re spending on your trip isn’t lost if you end up not going and costs, on average, from 4 to 10 percent per person of the total cost of the trip per person.

Here, he shares his top tips on buying a travel insurance plan.

Figure Out What You Want to Insure. Are you looking to protect an investment in nonrefundable airfare, hotel or cruise costs? Or do you need travel medical protection? Mr. Sandberg said that many travel insurance plans bundle both types into a single plan, which may be unnecessary but definitely costs more.

Travelers who aren’t looking for travel medical insurance, for example, and want only to insure travel costs, need a trip-cancellation-only policy. Similarly, travelers who aren’t concerned about the risk of cancellation, but want medical coverage can find a number of choices for medical-only plans. These single-category plans are cheaper. “Some travel medical insurance plans with emergency evacuation are as little as $50 a person,” Mr. Sandberg said.



Check Your Health Insurance Before Hitting the Road. Many travelers assume that their health insurance will cover them for any medical services, Mr. Sandberg said, but that is not always the case. “Most health plans today are based around in-network-only coverage, which means that you’re not covered if you see a doctor out of network, unless it’s for emergency or urgent care,” he said.

Whether you’re traveling domestically or abroad, a travel medical plan can help bridge the gap of in-network-only health insurance and save you an exorbitant out-of-pocket fee if you need to see a doctor for any ailment like a stomach virus or heat rash.

Subscribe to The Times
Adventure and Active Travelers, Beware. Fitness fiends and thrill seekers should buy a plan that offers coverage for hazardous and adventure sports, Mr. Sandberg said. “Many travel insurance plans exclude coverage for accidents or injuries that happen during certain activities deemed to be higher risk like skiing, scuba diving or bungee jumping,” he said. Some plans offer hazardous sports coverage as an optional upgrade while other plans include it.



A Cancel-for-Any-Reason Plan Is the Most Flexible. “If you decide the week before your trip, that you’re too scared to travel, the money you spent on the trip is protected up to 75 percent,” Mr. Sandberg said. Be aware that these flexible plans cost up to a few hundred dollars more than standard travel insurance.