Wave off your disappointment for cancelled trip, with cancellation benefits of your travel insurance
It’s that time of the year when everyone packs their bag for a short sojourn to a foreign land or someplace domestic. As excited as you may be about your trip, all your hard work and planning could be dampened with one call of emergency. However, the smart act of taking travel insurance can save you the hassle and disappointment of the cancelled trip.
For example, you are ready to depart, but at the last minute, there is an emergency and you are left with no option but to cancel your trip. What happens to your travel insurance policy? Don’t worry. You can cancel that too, however, with conditions applied.
What is travel insurance?
When you plan for your trips, travel insurance provides you with insurance coverage against unanticipated and unpredicted circumstances such as medical emergencies, flight accident, lost baggage, change of schedule, cancelled trip or any other losses arising while travelling.
What happens when you cancel your travel insurance for your cancelled trip?
Most insurers now provide travel cancellation benefits, which are restricted to the sum insured. These benefits help you cover the financial losses that you incurred due to cancellation of the trip. These losses could be the cost of airline tickets, hotel bookings or fees paid for travel packages.
However, you cannot simply cancel your travel insurance by cancelling your trip at your own comfort. You need to adhere to the review period in order to do so. The review period starts from the time you buy the insurance and ends at the time decided by your insurer, within which you are allowed to cancel the policy.
In short, you can cancel your travel insurance only before your departure date or if you haven’t filed a claim for the policy period. Different insurance companies have different conditions for the review period, hence it is important to read the policy documents carefully and understand its contents and cancellation policies before you buy it.
What are the cancellation benefits?
For example, if you have cancelled your trip due to unforeseen conditions such as an emergency situation at work or home, sudden death of a family member, natural calamity at the place of visit, volatile weather conditions, political turmoil or terrorist attack, then you may cancel the policy and the premium would be refunded to you as per the terms and conditions laid by the insurer towards the travel insurance.
How do I cancel my policy?
In case you have cancelled your trip and not made any claims towards the policy, you simply have to deposit your proof of passport to show that you did not undertake the journey for your planned trip. Usually, a request for cancellation is considered within 14 days after the commencement of the policy, as given in the schedule. Moreover, a nominal fee is charged inclusive of the service tax for cancellation of travel insurance policy, which varies from insurer to insurer.
Another scenario: Trip Interruption
In the event you have already departed for your planned trip, however, an emergency strikes midway and you are forced to alter your schedule or shorten the stay, travel insurance could help in this scenario too. In such cases, also known as Trip Interruption, the travel insurance policy would compensate for any financial losses that would arise due the emergency situations as listed above, up to the sum insured in your policy. It would cover for your expenses for the return journey home along with all additional transportation costs that would have been paid to get to the actual destination in the event of delay in departure date for the trip, due to unforeseen circumstances.
Compare and choose from the various offerings available for international travel insurance online. Travel insurance will ensure safety of your baggage, passport and provide coverage against a number of unpleasant surprises, in a distant foreign country.
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