Travel Insurance policy protects your interests only if you know your rights and know how to avoid insurance traps. Some useful tips to stay protected:
1. Shop for quotes from different insurance companies. Find the best fit for your trip and needs. Many touristic companies offer buying travel insurance policies. Consider this variant – it will most probably be the right option for you. However, do not blindly buy just whatever is offered to you.
2. Read Travel Insurance agreement thoroughly. Know your rights. Especially, be attentive with those points of the contract printed in small letters and marked.
3. Always carry your Travel Insurance card with you. If you have an accident, and get into the hospital, for example, they have to make a claim about the money coverage to your insurance provider. Otherwise, you are the responsible for the expenses and it may become hard to get the money paid out from the insurance company.
4. Check the term/length of policy. The Travel Insurance plan might cover the whole period of your trip plus two weeks to/from the dates of your vacation. In case your trip or departure is delayed, you have to be covered; otherwise you do not have a right to make a claim.
5. Check if your travel insurance policy covers expenses in the country you are going for vacation. For example, if your Travel Insurance covers the Schengen zone, and you get an accident in a country which does belong to it, you are not covered.
6. Check details of your policy. If you do not follow the claim requirements of your policy, you may not be paid out. Then you will have to pay thousand dollar bills in hospitals after emergency.
7. Keep receipts. In case if you were robbed, you have to make a claim having submitted some proof that you really owned the property lost.
8. If you have got an accident or emergency, keep all the evidence of proof available. Make photos, videos and write down. Collect letters, receipts and any kind of official documents which support your rights.
9. Whatever happens, immediately contact your Travel Insurance agent. If you cannot reach your personal insurance agent, on your travel Insurance card, you can find a number of a 24/7 call center. In most cases you have to make a claim right from the place of an accident (no matter what it is –burglary, medical emergency or loss of belongings) and follow a certain required procedure. They will also give the necessary phone numbers, contacts of local providers, etc.