Not Taking Travel Insurance - You May Be Risking More Than You Think
If you're planning on taking a vacation where you would be leaving your state, province, or country, and you decide not to take any travel insurance, you may be risking more than the cost of your flight, hotel, or vacation package cost! This is what I tell my clients every day when they contact me to book their trip, and I tell them this even if they're only visiting their family and friends for a weekend.
You see a small number of my clients can justify paying insurance premiums for their home or car, but when it comes to obtaining coverage when away from home, they don't see the big picture, and that's my duty to inform them.
I have new travel clients that call me or pop by my office saying that they never purchased nor needed travel insurance in the past, and that there is no reason for them to take it now.
My comments are consistent in telling them that they do need the coverage each and every time they travel, and then I proceed to tell them that they should consider themselves extremely fortunate.
Believe it or not, as professional in the travel business, I truly care about my clients, because many of my clients are very close family members and friends.
The last thing I want to do is book a dream vacation or family trip to later find out one of them ended up in financial trouble due to no travel protection or lack of coverage.
Unfortunately I have no control over what happens to you once you leave on your trip, and I do have a responsibility to ensure that you' re taken care of in the event something serious were to happen.
But Medical Costs Are Cheap Where I Travel...
I had a client that told me that he was traveling to a country where medical was cheap, and if anything were to happen to him, he would be able afford the medical costs.
I asked this client a hypothetical question, and it went like this: Let say you became extremely ill at this destination you travelled to, and you were hospitalized for several days due to this illness, and where you not only had to pay the medical bills, but now you had to pay for a one-way ticket back home because he missed his flight.
Not only did you miss your flight, but you required your travelling companion to stay with you to help arrange your new flight, communicate with your doctor back home, and get you additional supplies needed while you're getting better.
What costs are incurred here I asked? Let me tell you, there is the cost of additional accommodations for your spouse or travelling companion, plus the additional cost of food, phone calls back home, and other expenses for supplies.
How much do you think that may all add up to, I asked him? This client could not even come close to giving me answer, because he never thought about all those additional costs that may occur if he were to hospitalized even for a couple of days.
You Could Be Risking Your House by Not Purchasing Significant Travel Coverage! Now let's take this medical scenario one step further, because this is one that in my opinion no one ever thinks about when they travel.
Even if you may think medical costs are affordable in certain foreign countries, and that is your determining factor for not taking sufficient travel medical coverage, then I have to say you're making a terrible mistake, and you can easily risk more than you ever thought, possibly your house! A good number of my clients believe that they're going to be okay financially if something were to un-expectantly happen to them, and they strongly feel they could cover the medical costs.
My reaction is always obvious, and my first question would be, even if you could afford all the medical costs out of pocket, why would you not purchase a travel protection policy that would normally cost a hundred dollars on average, and protect your out of pocket money that could easily run in the thousands of dollars for a serious illness or accident? I Always Tell My Clients To Think About What They're Risking And Can They Actually Afford Not To Be Covered! I give my clients actual situations that have happened, let's say you currently live in Canada, and you're on a flight back home from a Caribbean vacation, when all of a sudden you become extremely ill on the plane.
At that very critical moment the pilot and staff need to make a quick decision, and they proceed to fly you to the nearest city with a hospital, and it happens to be in the United States.
Are you aware that the moment you enter hospital doors in the United States, you may already be in a very serious financial situation.
I'm not going to quote any actual costs, because it is based on the serious nature of your incident, but going by past experiences with past travel clients and insurance industry claims, the average cost in a US hospital can easily range from $2000 -$10,000US and that's per day! Now do you think my clients while booking their vacation with me at the time ever thought in a million years they would wind up in a United States hospital, even if they were not originally vacationing in the U.
S.
Probably not! This could happen, it has happened, and if I would not bring up that scenario to my clients, they would not think of the seriousness of being properly protected for a situation like this alone! The financial costs can be astronomical, depending on how serious your illness is, they could easily incur serious financial loss large enough where they could lose their home if they could not pay those US medical costs.
Please remember that travel agents have your best interest in not only providing you a memorable trip or vacation, but we also care about your health and safety, because we want you to come back to us year after year.
I have heard many horror stories over the years, and when you work in a business, you quickly realize that if something were to happen, eventually it will, and I personally pray that it never happens to any of my special clients, which like I mentioned earlier are my family members, and very close friends and associates.
So when travel agents ask you if you have travel protection, or if you have sufficient vacation coverage from another source or insurance company, seriously think about it, and make sure your coverage is enough to help you avoid getting in deep financial trouble.
Purchasing a Travel Medical & Trip Cancellation insurance policy will offer you true peace-of-mind.
You see a small number of my clients can justify paying insurance premiums for their home or car, but when it comes to obtaining coverage when away from home, they don't see the big picture, and that's my duty to inform them.
I have new travel clients that call me or pop by my office saying that they never purchased nor needed travel insurance in the past, and that there is no reason for them to take it now.
My comments are consistent in telling them that they do need the coverage each and every time they travel, and then I proceed to tell them that they should consider themselves extremely fortunate.
Believe it or not, as professional in the travel business, I truly care about my clients, because many of my clients are very close family members and friends.
The last thing I want to do is book a dream vacation or family trip to later find out one of them ended up in financial trouble due to no travel protection or lack of coverage.
Unfortunately I have no control over what happens to you once you leave on your trip, and I do have a responsibility to ensure that you' re taken care of in the event something serious were to happen.
But Medical Costs Are Cheap Where I Travel...
I had a client that told me that he was traveling to a country where medical was cheap, and if anything were to happen to him, he would be able afford the medical costs.
I asked this client a hypothetical question, and it went like this: Let say you became extremely ill at this destination you travelled to, and you were hospitalized for several days due to this illness, and where you not only had to pay the medical bills, but now you had to pay for a one-way ticket back home because he missed his flight.
Not only did you miss your flight, but you required your travelling companion to stay with you to help arrange your new flight, communicate with your doctor back home, and get you additional supplies needed while you're getting better.
What costs are incurred here I asked? Let me tell you, there is the cost of additional accommodations for your spouse or travelling companion, plus the additional cost of food, phone calls back home, and other expenses for supplies.
How much do you think that may all add up to, I asked him? This client could not even come close to giving me answer, because he never thought about all those additional costs that may occur if he were to hospitalized even for a couple of days.
You Could Be Risking Your House by Not Purchasing Significant Travel Coverage! Now let's take this medical scenario one step further, because this is one that in my opinion no one ever thinks about when they travel.
Even if you may think medical costs are affordable in certain foreign countries, and that is your determining factor for not taking sufficient travel medical coverage, then I have to say you're making a terrible mistake, and you can easily risk more than you ever thought, possibly your house! A good number of my clients believe that they're going to be okay financially if something were to un-expectantly happen to them, and they strongly feel they could cover the medical costs.
My reaction is always obvious, and my first question would be, even if you could afford all the medical costs out of pocket, why would you not purchase a travel protection policy that would normally cost a hundred dollars on average, and protect your out of pocket money that could easily run in the thousands of dollars for a serious illness or accident? I Always Tell My Clients To Think About What They're Risking And Can They Actually Afford Not To Be Covered! I give my clients actual situations that have happened, let's say you currently live in Canada, and you're on a flight back home from a Caribbean vacation, when all of a sudden you become extremely ill on the plane.
At that very critical moment the pilot and staff need to make a quick decision, and they proceed to fly you to the nearest city with a hospital, and it happens to be in the United States.
Are you aware that the moment you enter hospital doors in the United States, you may already be in a very serious financial situation.
I'm not going to quote any actual costs, because it is based on the serious nature of your incident, but going by past experiences with past travel clients and insurance industry claims, the average cost in a US hospital can easily range from $2000 -$10,000US and that's per day! Now do you think my clients while booking their vacation with me at the time ever thought in a million years they would wind up in a United States hospital, even if they were not originally vacationing in the U.
S.
Probably not! This could happen, it has happened, and if I would not bring up that scenario to my clients, they would not think of the seriousness of being properly protected for a situation like this alone! The financial costs can be astronomical, depending on how serious your illness is, they could easily incur serious financial loss large enough where they could lose their home if they could not pay those US medical costs.
Please remember that travel agents have your best interest in not only providing you a memorable trip or vacation, but we also care about your health and safety, because we want you to come back to us year after year.
I have heard many horror stories over the years, and when you work in a business, you quickly realize that if something were to happen, eventually it will, and I personally pray that it never happens to any of my special clients, which like I mentioned earlier are my family members, and very close friends and associates.
So when travel agents ask you if you have travel protection, or if you have sufficient vacation coverage from another source or insurance company, seriously think about it, and make sure your coverage is enough to help you avoid getting in deep financial trouble.
Purchasing a Travel Medical & Trip Cancellation insurance policy will offer you true peace-of-mind.
