Travel can be full of surprises. Some of those surprises, like that amazing hole-in-the-wall restaurant you stumbled across, make the best stories.
Other surprises you’d rather avoid or at least minimize their damage. For those times when the unexpected is unwanted, travel insurance can help.
The guide below covers a lot. It provides links to additional resources to help you understand travel insurance and make sure you choose your best options. Read through the entire guide or jump around to what’s most helpful:
- What is travel insurance?
- How does travel insurance work?
- Types of travel insurance
- What does travel insurance cover?
- How are medical benefits paid if I get sick or hurt while traveling?
- Does travel medical insurance have a network?
- Travel assistance services
- Who needs travel insurance?
- How much does travel insurance cost?
- When should I buy travel insurance?
- When does travel insurance start?
- Can I extend my plan if I need more coverage?
- Can I cancel my coverage?
- Is travel insurance worth it?
- How can you buy the best travel insurance for you?
What Is Travel Insurance?
Travel insurance is about protecting you from the unexpected. Travel insurance provides that extra safety net when things go wrong during (and sometimes before) your trip, helping you recover money, find medical coverage, and more.
When shopping for travel insurance, you have different options depending on your needs.
If you are looking for a plan that is focused on medical benefits, you can choose travel medical insurance.
If you are looking to protect the money you spent for your trip (airfare, hotel, etc.), you want to consider trip protection, sometimes called trip insurance.
How Does Travel Insurance Work?
To put it simply, there are three stages to how travel insurance works.
First, you buy coverage before you travel. This is a good point in the process to read your policy and understand what is and isn’t covered.
Regardless of where you buy it or which plan you choose, travel insurance is what’s called “named perils coverage.” That means that it doesn’t cover anything and everything under the sun. You are only protected against the “named perils,” or the situations and scenarios listed in your plan document. We call these covered reasons.
Second, if something happens — you have to cancel your trip, there’s a delay, your luggage is stolen, you get sick on the road — a claim is filed. You might be the one to submit the claim or, in the case of medical coverage, your medical provider might file the claim.
Finally, the travel insurance provider reviews the claim. If it meets all the criteria set forth in the plan document — the event is not excluded, the appropriate triggers and time requirements were met, and so on — the claim will be paid.
What is the travel insurance claims process?
Like many things in travel insurance, the exact process depends somewhat on what kind of coverage you have. In general, however, here’s what you can expect from the claims process:
- You or the medical provider you visited file the claim with your insurance provider. The submission may include a variety of documents such as a police report, medical records, receipts, and other information that helps paint a full picture of the event.
- The travel insurance provider assigns a licensed advisor to review all the documentation filed. At this point, the advisor might make a decision whether or not the claim is eligible for payment, or they might ask for more information so that they can make a fair and complete ruling.
- If the claim is approved, you’ll receive reimbursement, typically via bank transfer. If the claim is denied, you’ll receive an explanation for that decision.
For more about filing a claim, check out our blogs about the trip protection claims process and travel medical insurance claims process. You’ll find more details about how long you have to file a claim, how deductibles work with medical coverage, and other key information to help make the whole process easier.
What is the appeal process?
Appeals are uncommon but available. If you believe an error was made in processing your claim or you have additional information that could change the decision, you could choose to file an appeal.
For more details, check out our blog on how to properly appeal your claim.
Types of Travel Insurance
We hinted before at the different types of travel insurance: coverage that focuses on medical benefits and coverage that focuses on protecting your money. Below is a quick guide to what that means.
If you’re looking for more detail, though, take a look at our blog for comparing travel insurance plans.
Health insurance for international travel
Travel medical insurance provides medical coverage for those traveling abroad. If you get sick or injured on your trip, travel medical plans can cover anything from doctor and hospital fees to dental treatment, emergency transportation, and more.
Many policies also cover pre-existing conditions and accidental death and dismemberment. They also provide 24/7 multilingual emergency travel assistance.
Different plans offer different levels of coverage. They’re also designed to best meet the needs of different kinds of travelers.
For example, Seven Corners offers plans specifically for U.S. residents traveling overseas, different plans for an international visitor coming to the United States, and still other plans for non-U.S. residents traveling overseas to a different country entirely (like from Portugal to Thailand).
It’s all so that we can make sure you get the right amount of coverage — not too much and not too little — at the budget you can afford.
Trip protection coverage
Trip protection plans provide some of the best coverage for your money and belongings. They can protect you if:
- You need to cancel your trip for a covered reason
- You need to interrupt your trip, returning home early or joining it late, for a covered reason
- Your trip is delayed for a covered reason
- You miss a cruise or tour connection
- Your luggage is delayed, lost, stolen, or damaged
Take a quick look at this video for more.
Like travel medical insurance, Seven Corners’ trip protection plans are designed to match the way you travel. We have cruise insurance for those sailing the open seas (or rivers), providing unique benefits like Cruise Diversion and Disablement.
You can also get coverage for a single trip or purchase an annual travel insurance plan to cover each of your trips during the course of a year.
In addition to coverage for U.S. residents going abroad, we offer a plan specifically for U.S. residents traveling domestically. Because we know that the Great American Road Trip is not the same as an epic European train adventure.
How is travel medical insurance different from trip protection?
Compared to trip protection plans, travel medical insurance typically provides more robust coverage for medical care. These plans might have higher medical maximums or cover a broader range of ailments and situations.
Conversely, trip protection plans provide greater coverage for your money and belongings in the event of a trip cancellation, trip interruption, or delay. These plans might have a longer list of covered reasons, meaning there’s a greater chance that a travel mishap will result in a claim being paid.
It’s important to note that travel medical plans often have some trip protection benefits and vice versa. That trip cancellation benefit, however, just won’t be as robust on a medical plan as if you had a dedicated trip protection plan, for example.
This is why it’s always a good idea to review a plan’s schedule of benefits (typically a chart that lays out the basics of each benefit included) and talk to a licensed agent. Turning to an expert can help you decide what kind of coverage is most important for you and which plan will deliver that coverage.
What Does Travel Insurance Include?
Regardless of the specific plan, travel insurance generally provides protection in three key areas:
- Protection for your money: When something unexpected happens causing you to cancel or change your trip in some way, you risk losing the money you already spent on travel arrangements. When things like hotels, airfare, or cruise fare aren’t refundable, travel insurance can reimburse those prepaid expenses.
- Protection for your health: If you get sick or hurt during your trip, travel insurance can pay for treatment. Rather than having to pay for everything out of pocket, especially when your regular health insurance doesn’t cover you overseas, travel insurance eases that financial burden.
- Protection for your belongings: When luggage is lost, stolen, delayed, or destroyed, you’ll need to replace some things, especially if your trip is just starting. Travel insurance can reimburse you when you buy new clothes and essential toiletries.
Individual benefits and how they protect your money, health, and belongings vary by plan. You can find more by reviewing the plan document or checking out this more in-depth guide for some of the common mishaps that travel insurance covers.
How Are Medical Benefits Paid if I Get Sick or Hurt While Traveling?
Imagine you get the flu during a trip and need to see a doctor. You need to understand how the medical bill gets paid and how much of that bill, if any, might be your responsibility. To help answer that, here are a few key terms to know.
Primary vs. Secondary Insurance
You might have more than one insurance plan, such as your regular health insurance from home and your travel medical insurance. Primary insurance is the first payor of claims. This is often your regular health insurance, although some travel medical plans are primary insurance. They will evaluate the claim and determine what is covered.
If there’s any remaining charge after your primary insurance pays, your secondary insurance then evaluates the claim and can pay some or all of the remaining expenses.
Scheduled vs. Comprehensive Benefits
Travel medical insurance can be either scheduled or comprehensive. The key difference between them is how benefits for medical treatment are paid.
- Scheduled benefits: The plan has a medical limit for how much it will pay for each injury or illness and for each type of medical treatment you receive.
- Comprehensive benefits: The plan has a medical limit for your coverage period rather than for individual treatments.
Both types of plans have medical maximums, but there may be more limits besides that. Make sure you know what the limits and sub-limits are in your plan so that you know how much to expect to pay out of pocket, if anything, after your insurance makes its payment. These limits will be listed in the Schedule of Benefits section of your plan document.
We know this can be confusing, which is why we’ve written another whole article about it. Read more about the key differences between scheduled and comprehensive benefits.
Does Travel Medical Insurance Have a Network?
Some travel medical insurance plans have a provider network while others do not. If your plan talks about a PPO (Preferred Provider Organization) or HMO (Health Maintenance Organization), it has a network.
It’s important to know whether you have a network or not before you travel as this could impact what you will have to pay for medical treatment if you get sick or hurt during your trip.
Learn more about how to use your travel insurance network and finding a doctor while abroad.
What is my coverage out of network?
If your plan does have a network and you visit a doctor outside of that network, treatment will be more expensive, and you will likely end up paying for more out of pocket.
Visiting a doctor or medical facility that is in network typically saves you money.
If your plan does not have a network, you can visit any doctor or medical facility you want without worrying about a difference in cost.
Travel Assistance Services
Separate from the insurance benefits in your plan, Seven Corners provides travel assistance services to support you during your trip. Our Assist Team is a multilingual team that is on call for emergency assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Assist Team can help you find a doctor, arrange for translation services if you speak a different language than your medical team, coordinate emergency medical evacuations, and generally aid with other critical situations.
Emergency medical evacuations aren’t common, but they also aren’t unheard of. And they certainly aren’t cheap. Watch how Seven Corners helped Felipe get medical treatment when the hospital at his destination didn’t have the level of care he needed.
Seven Corners Assist also played a huge role in reuniting this family. When Makenzie, who was traveling alone in Europe, fell ill and lost touch with her mom, Seven Corners helped to locate her, fly her mother to France to be with her during recovery, and paid for Makenzie’s medical care and transportation.
Who Needs Travel Insurance?
Travel insurance is for anyone who will be traveling abroad or traveling within the United States. Yes, even U.S. residents traveling within their own country, like when setting out on a road trip, can benefit from trip protection like Seven Corners Trip Protection USA. The purpose of travel insurance is to protect you from the unexpected, which can happen anywhere.
Whether it’s an unforeseen travel delay, missed connection, lost baggage, or a medical emergency, travel insurance is there to keep you (and your wallet) protected. How much coverage you need may vary and impact the type of plan you get, but the bottom line is that you do need some kind of coverage when traveling.
Who can buy trip protection?
Seven Corners trip protection plans are designed for U.S. residents. These plans can be used for either domestic or international travel.
Trip protection plans are ideal for anyone who wants to protect their money against unexpected loss. This is most common for travelers who have invested large amounts of money in a trip, but it’s also affordable coverage even if you’re traveling on a more modest budget.
Who can buy travel medical insurance?
Anyone can purchase travel medical insurance. When choosing a plan, you’ll let us know whether you’re a U.S. resident traveling overseas or a non-U.S. resident traveling outside your home country. This will help us identify which plans you’re eligible for and which coverage is best for your trip.
Travel medical plans are critical for anyone traveling internationally. Your regular health insurance from home typically does not cover you in other countries, nor is it a good idea to rely on a destination’s universal healthcare. Universal healthcare is usually reserved for the citizens of that country, not visitors or travelers.
If you’re a U.S. resident on Medicare or Medicaid, those plans also typically do not provide coverage if you get sick or hurt during a trip.
This is why we consider travel medical insurance critical for international travelers. Travel medical insurance is typically the only way to reduce the risk of paying for medical care out of your own pocket when you’re in another country.
Find out if your health insurance follows you when you travel.
Can you get travel insurance for groups?
Travel insurance for groups is a great way to keep everyone safe during a trip. And the rules of probability say that the more people there are, the greater the chance something could go wrong.
Seven Corners considers a group to be made up of 10 or more people. Our sales agents make it easy to get the right coverage for each person, whether you’re an extended family heading to Florida or a mission trip traveling overseas.
Learn more about our group travel insurance.
How Much Does Travel Insurance Cost?
We know we probably sound a bit like a broken record, but ... the cost of travel insurance depends on whether you choose a trip protection plan or travel medical insurance. Here’s how the cost is determined for each.
Trip protection
The cost of trip protection plans depends on a number of factors, including:
- Your age
- The cost of your trip
- How much coverage you’ll need
- The length of your stay
- Any optional benefits, such as Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) or rental car collision coverage, you choose to add
The more coverage you need, the more you can expect to pay. Generally speaking, coverage will run you approximately 4-10% of your total trip cost.
Here’s why the cost of your plan is impacted by the cost of your trip. The more expensive your trip is, the more you have to protect. You need more coverage to protect higher expenses. And as you can probably figure out, more coverage generally equates to higher cost.
Even so, that cost is nothing compared to what you would lose if you didn’t have trip protection. It’s important to remember the value of your plan, not just how much you paid for it.
The best way to calculate trip cost and determine the cost of travel insurance is to speak with a licensed agent and get a quote.
Travel medical insurance
The cost of travel medical insurance also depends on several factors:
- Your age
- The length of your trip
- The medical maximum and deductible you select
Seven Corners’ plans allow you to choose your medical maximum and deductible. If you select a higher deductible, your premium will be lower.
Similarly, if you choose a lower medical maximum, your premium will also be lower. This is because you are taking on more risk. If you get sick or hurt, a high deductible and low medical maximum means you will pay more out of pocket.
On the other hand, if you choose a lower deductible and a higher medical maximum, more of the risk is assumed by the insurance company. You will pay more for the plan because the insurance is taking on more responsibility. If you get sick or hurt while traveling, your travel insurance will pay for more of your care, and you will pay less out of pocket.
The key is to find the balance you’re most comfortable with.
Now that you know how much travel medical insurance costs, you might be wondering if it’s worth the cost. Read Lizbeth’s story about how travel medical insurance not only saved her husband after a heart attack in Belize, but possibly also saved their home by helping them to not default on medical bills.
When Should I Buy Travel Insurance?
“Should” and “have to” are two different things. We say you “should” buy travel insurance soon after you make your first travel arrangement or deposit. This will give you time to weigh your options, review your plan, and make sure you’ve made the right decision. (We also recommend that you have a nice little snack first so you aren’t shopping hangry, but that’s a story for another day.)
Trip protection
It’s best to buy trip protection coverage as soon as possible because your plan may cover events occurring prior to your departure. Remember that trip protection includes trip cancellation benefits, which you need before your trip begins.
Consider this scenario. You book a trip for a summer backcountry hike but need to cancel in the spring due to a knee injury. To cover the cancellation, you would need the plan well in advance of your trip.
The idea of purchasing coverage early isn’t just a good practice, however. There may be some deadlines associated with your plan. For CFAR coverage (and for a pre-existing medical condition exclusion waiver, if that applies), you typically have to buy your travel insurance within a specific time period. This varies by plan.
This helpful blog has more about deadlines and when travel insurance should be purchased.
Travel medical insurance
Some travel medical insurance includes trip protection benefits such as trip cancellation, but the primary purpose of these plans is coverage for medical expenses incurred during your trip. Because you cannot use those benefits before you travel, purchasing the plan far in advance is less critical.
We still recommend purchasing travel medical insurance sooner rather than later so you have time to review your plan, but technically, you could buy coverage while you’re at the airport.
When Does Travel Insurance Start?
As you saw above, different travel insurance benefits help you at different times — some before your trip and others during it. We’ve summarized some key dates below, but you can also find more information about when travel insurance starts in this blog.
Trip cancellation
Standard trip cancellation benefits and Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) coverage begin the day after you pay for your plan.
For example, if you purchase a trip protection plan on May 1 for an August vacation, trip cancellation benefits will be in effect starting May 2.
Trip interruption
Standard trip interruption benefits and Interruption for Any Reason (IFAR) coverage begins on the day and time you depart on your first travel arrangement, such as your first flight.
Other trip protection benefits
Trip delay and other trip protection benefits often go into effect once you’re a certain distance away from your home. Your plan document will specify what that milage is or if there is a time specific period before a benefit is in effect.
Travel medical benefits
Because your travel medical benefits only cover treatment for an injury or illness that occurs during your trip while you’re outside your home country, these benefits begin when you depart your home country.
Can I Renew this Plan and for How Long?
Sometimes you’re having such a great time, you decide to extend your trip a few more days. And sometimes you suffer a medical emergency, so you’re unable to return home on time because of a doctor’s orders not to fly. In both these examples, you may need to extend your travel insurance coverage.
Know when your coverage expires and try to be proactive so that you don't have any lapse in coverage. You can often extend your plan if you have travel medical insurance, although it is less common to be able to extend or renew trip protection plans. Still, you may have other alternatives if you need more coverage.
If you think you may need an extension of coverage, contact the travel insurance provider for more details and requirements. The sooner you can do this, the better.
Can I Cancel My Coverage?
Some trip protection plans include a Free Look Period. This is the amount of time after you purchase the plan that you can cancel your coverage and request a refund.
The Free Look Period varies by plan and where you live. It typically ranges from 10 to 15 days. Note that a Free Look Period is not available to residents of all U.S. states.
For travel medical insurance, you can typically cancel your coverage if you submit a written request for cancellation prior to your effective date.
If it is after your effective date, you can still request a refund for the unused portion of the plan cost. There may also be a cancellation fee.
Regardless of whether you’ve purchased a trip protection plan or travel medical insurance, it’s important to note that if you’ve made a claim, you can no longer cancel your plan.
Check with the insurance provider for more details and requirements before purchasing the plan.
Is Travel Insurance Worth It?
100%, yes.
A plan is worth purchasing to protect against costly cancellations, paying for unexpected hotel stays, medical emergencies, and more. In an era when overburdened airports and natural disasters affect travelers daily, it’s important to protect yourself and the financial investment you’ve made in your trip.
If you’re still undecided on whether travel insurance is necessary, see why these travelers bought coverage.
How Can You Buy the Best Travel Insurance for You?
If you’ve made it this far, you know that travel insurance provides you with lots of options. You might be ready to purchase a plan on your own, in which case, you can get a quick quote and choose the best coverage for your trip at SevenCorners.com.
You might still have questions, though, which is completely normal (and expected). Seven Corners’ licensed agents are ready to help you make sense of your options and customize a plan to best fit your needs and budget. Contact us before you travel and be ready when trip happens.
