Coronavirus has caused an extreme amount of uncertainty in terms of foreign travel. This has lead to several consumers believing that it is essential to buy travel insurance due to the sake of these unexpected times.
Travel insurance is highly recommended, however, you must ensure that the insurance company you opt for covers all your needs.
Some insurance companies in Pakistan completely stopped selling travel insurance due to the pandemic however, once they restart they are all going to have differing policies. Hence, before purchasing travel insurance be clear as to what the travel insurance will be covering in the event of a coronavirus disruption and what it will not be covering.
- Stay updated: The foreign office’s advice pertaining to travel is constantly changing and upgrading. You need to be aware of whether or not any circumstantial changes will be covered for by your travel insurance or they’ll be exempted. You can also book your holidays smartly with a group so that you could legally be entitled to a refund as well.
- Honesty is the best policy: In this testing time, before selling insurance policies, companies are bound to ask you your entire medical history. You must be honest and tell them about all pre-existing conditions despite leading to a hike in the price of the policy. Insurers can ask for access to these records as per their need in order to deal with any sort of situation that may possibly arise. Even if you have previously been diagnosed with coronavirus it is imperative to mention that as a medical condition if that’s what your insurance company states.
- Travel destinations being covered: Another thing that is important to note while buying travel insurance is to see whether or not the places you intend on travelling to are covered under the same standard policy without any exclusions or restrictions. Often many insurers don’t cover certain expenses in certain countries due to the expensive nature and people may be required to pay for them on their own.
- The duration of coverage: Policies should also be bought keeping in mind the fact that the number of days you will be going for consecutively are covered. Your insurance will be deemed invalid if the number of days you plan to travel for exceed the cover limit.
- Be aware: Like all businesses, the travel industry is also facing a severe crunch right now. Due to this, search for policies that include ‘end supplier failure’. in case any of the companies you book with stops trading or operating your travel insurance will cover you for it. Some policies also go ahead and offer you ‘scheduled airline failure’. so, if the circumstances arise where your airline goes bankrupt you will yet again be protected by your policy.
Therefore, travelers should consider these various aspects before investing in an insurance policy during the era of the coronavirus. One should have all the information and see whether or not all their destinations are included, the duration that is covered and what aspects will be covered by their policy.
