Do I have to insure all of my trip costs?

Let’s face it, there are lots of misconceptions and misinformation about travel insurance. You may have heard or read that you can insure only a portion of your total trip costs, or even enter a trip cost of $0 and gain access to all the travel insurance protections: medical, dental, evacuation, etc., without having to pay the higher premium required to cover trip cancellations.

Here’s why entering a trip cost of $0 is too risky.

Otherwise, the problem with not covering all your trip costs is that you won’t have coverage for some pretty important bits, including:

• Pre-existing condition coverage
• ‘Cancel for any reason’ coverage

Take a look at the ‘cancel for any reason’ description included in the TravelEx’s Travel Max plan (as an example):

If you cancel your Covered Trip for any reason not
otherwise covered by this plan, we will reimburse you for
75% of the prepaid, forfeited, nonrefundable Payments
or Deposits you paid for your Trip provided:
1. the payment for this plan is received (or, if mailed,
postmarked) within 30 days of the date your initial
deposit / payment for your Covered Trip is received;
and
2. you insure 100% of all prepaid Covered Trip
costs that are subject to cancellation penalties or
restrictions; and also insure within 30 days of the
payment for those arrangements the cost of any
subsequent arrangements added to your Covered
Trip; and
3. you cancel your Covered Trip 2 days or more before
your scheduled Covered Trip departure date.

Note the text in bold. As you can see here, the plan description requires that you insure all the prepaid trip costs. If you have to make a claim, the insurance provider will want to see all your travel arrangements to be sure your dates and trip costs match your policy. If you don’t insure everything, they’ll deny the entire claim.

Once you’ve got your travel arrangements all settled, run through the pre-paid trip costs again to be sure the total meets your insured amount. If you need to make adjustments to your plan, do it within the free look/plan review period and you’ll be just fine.