By Holly Johnson. Last updated 10 October 2019
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Travel is never cheap, and that's especially true if you're
flying to a destination far from home. For that reason and plenty of others,
savvy consumers tend to pay for travel insurance before they even head to the
airport.
With a travel insurance plan, you can buy coverage that will
reimburse if you if your trip is canceled or delayed for a covered reason
beyond your control. You can even purchase "cancel for any reason" policies
that let you back out of your trip any time you want.
Other inclusions travel insurance policies offer include medical
coverage, baggage delay coverage, lost luggage insurance, travel accident
insurance, and more.
Many consumers lean on the free travel insurance their credit
cards provide — and that can sometimes make sense. After all, premier travel credit cards offer
most of the coverage you get with a travel insurance policy for free. And if
you can get insurance for free, why pay for it?
The reality is, there are a ton of reasons to buy travel insurance even
if you get some coverage with a credit card. Here are a few of the most
important details to consider as you plan your next trip.
Pay for sufficient medical coverage
Even though travel credit cards are pretty good about offering
perks like trip cancellation/interruption insurance and baggage delay coverage,
they're notoriously bad when it comes to offering medical coverage. That's a
real problem if you're traveling to a destination where your own health
insurance coverage won't work, such as any trip abroad.
With travel insurance, however, you can buy a policy that offers
a much higher limits for medical expenses. It wouldn't take long to rack up
huge medical bills if you wind up in the hospital due to illness or broken
bones during your trip, but you can protect yourself with adequate travel
insurance coverage that includes coverage for medical bills. (See also: How Emergency Medical Coverage Could
Save Your Vacation)
You need medical evacuation coverage
In addition to medical coverage, you'll want to make sure you
have adequate coverage for medical evacuation. This type of coverage will kick
in if you become injured or ill and require emergency transportation to get
back home. This could mean emergency evacuation in a plane or helicopter with a
full medical team, so it's easy to imagine just how much you'd be stuck paying
if you didn't have this type of coverage.
Most credit cards don't offer emergency evacuation coverage and
ones that do may not offer high enough limits to help you sleep well at night.
If you're worried about the high cost of medical evacuation if you were to
become sick or injured overseas, you'll want to buy travel insurance that
includes this benefit.
Credit card coverage may not even apply
Also note that some credit card insurance coverage may not even
be applicable to you. Primary auto rental coverage, which is a popular credit
card benefit, is a great example of coverage that doesn't always work.
Many credit card auto insurance policies only cover certain
types of cars for certain amounts of time. For example, some cards only offer
insurance for rental periods of 31 days or less. And some credit card auto
insurance policies also limit the number of countries you can use your coverage
in, meaning it may not work at all depending on where you travel to. (See
also: 7 Times Travel Insurance Is Worth It)
You may want higher coverage limits
A final reason to purchase travel insurance is the fact that you
get to select your coverage limits. This is unlike credit card coverage since
it gives you whatever limits your credit card issuer decides.
For example, some cards offer free baggage insurance that can
cover you if your baggage is lost by a common carrier. However, this benefit
sometimes includes limits on the cost per person, per trip for carry-on baggage
and checked bags, which may not be enough if you have brand-name luggage that
would cost a lot more than that to replace.
The same is true with trip cancellation/interruption insurance,
which is one of the most important valuable travel benefits you can buy. Travel
credit cards that offer this perk tend to limit it to $10,000 per person and
$20,000 per trip, which may not be enough if you splurged for a luxurious trip
of a lifetime.
The bottom line
There are times when it makes a lot of sense to rely on your
credit card's insurance coverage, but you have to make sure you have the
coverage you need with high enough limits to count. In many cases, credit card
travel insurance just isn't enough.
If you're on the fence about whether you have the coverage you
need to protect yourself, you may want to buy a travel insurance policy just in
case.
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