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When you purchase insurance - health insurance, homeowner's insurance, carinsurance, life insurance, or travel insurance - you're not making an investment.It's not the same as going to the bank and depositing money and expecting to reapfinancial rewards at some point. No, any insurance including travel insurance isabout sharing risk in case of unforeseen catastrophic events.
For thousands of years, risks have been shared during times of tragedy. The firstformal insurance company, Lloyd's, was formed in 1769, and their insurance conceptremains today - to gather the premiums of clients as a pool of resources to returnto clients who experience covered events.
Is purchasing travel insurance smart for you, then? Do you need a pool of resourcesfrom others' premiums to help you out in the event of a travel emergency? Or can youtake care of any unforeseen circumstance on your own? It's not just about money,either.
To decide if purchasing travel insurance is smart for you, let's take a look at justa few of the things that could happen while you're traveling.
It's your first time in Europe and neither you nor your spouse speaks any foreignlanguage and your wallet is stolen. Your credit cards, your airline tickets, yourpassport and your money are all gone. What do you do now? Money may not be theprimary problem here as you can always call your bank and have a wire transfercompleted. Or can you? Do you know the international rules and capabilities forthis? Where are the banks and do the tellers speak English? What about replacingyour airline tickets? What about money to get to the airport and check out of yourhotel? Your passports are the primary issue probably. They took a very long time toget. Now you can't get out of the country without them. Where do you go to replacethem? If you had known this was going to happen, how would you have answered thequestion, "is purchasing travel insurance smart?"
Your child is involved in an accident and must have medical assistance but you findout your insurance does not cover you outside of the United States, and medical careare not adequate where you are anyway. How do you get your child back to the UnitedStates for medical care? If you had known this was going to happen, how would youhave answered the question, "is purchasing travel insurance smart?"
So, to answer the question, "is purchasing travel insurance smart?" consider whatcould happen while you're abroad and determine if you might be grateful for outsideassistance.
