Savvy travelers understand the importance of travel insurance. If your flight gets canceled, your luggage gets lost or you have to cut a trip short due to an emergency, travel insurance can help cover the costs of any unexpected expenses or recoup costs you’ve already paid. However, as Forbes Advisor points out, travel insurance can be pricy – often costing 5-6% of the total cost of your trip.
Before you make that investment, you might want to explore whether your credit card provides travel insurance. According to the article, some of the most common trip protections are trip cancellation and interruption insurance; trip delay insurance; baggage delay insurance; lost luggage reimbursement; rental car collision damage waiver; travel accident insurance; emergency medical and dental coverage; and emergency evacuation and transportation coverage.
Typically, these benefits will be activated when you use your credit card to pay for some or all of your trip, and most protections apply to the cardholder and their immediate family.
The article warns you should not consider credit card travel insurance as an umbrella policy. You need to look carefully at your card’s benefits to see what is and is not covered.
If your card does not have the specific coverage you need, consider getting a traditional travel insurance policy to fill in the gaps. You may also want additional coverage beyond the maximum amount your credit card coverage will reimburse you for if the trip is particularly pricy.
It’s also important to note that most credit card travel insurance does not include emergency medical coverage. If your regular healthcare insurance does not extend to travel, then you might want to purchase a travel insurance policy that does.
Do you purchase additional travel insurance before going on vacation? Message The Seniors Trust on Facebook or Twitter and let us know if you think it’s a wise investment.
