Is Travel Insurance Worth It for Short Trips?

Travel Insurance has picked up a lot of momentum these days. But why do we require insurance after all? To answer this question, let us understand the meaning of the word insurance. Insurance provides a risk guarantee if anything untoward happens to us, while depending on something else or somebody else. An example would be travelling in a train or bus to move from one place to another. A fresh example would be the Odisha train accident where 3 trains collided, claiming 300 lives and 700 people getting injured.

Travel insurance is available from a few rupees to a few thousand rupees. For example, booking a train ticket for a short journey would cost somewhere between a few paise to 10 rupees per passenger. Riding a cab with Ola or Uber would cost some percentage of the total ride fare. But they offer travel insurance of 50,000 to 1,00,000 INR.

By and large, several factors will help decide on whether to buy travel insurance for short trips, or not.

Some factors are:

• Cost of the trip


• The end destination


• Personal financial situation

Some benefits of getting travel insurance

• Cancel for any reason: Cancellation can happen due to any reason. It can happen when you are least expecting it. Natural calamities and disasters, riots, and family emergencies. 


• Trip interruption expenses: Cover your costs when you have to cut short your trip due to any unforeseen events on the course.


• Medical illness expenses: This helps to pay for your medical expenses if you get sick or injured in an accident while on travel.


• Baggage loss or damage: This helps to cover expenses of goods and articles lost or damaged during travel.


• Emergency assistance: This clause comes in handy if you are on short travel abroad and returning in a day or two. If you lost your visa or passport, change of tickets, delay or cancellation of flights. Cover your extra travel costs with travel insurance. This also covers repatriation costs

Final tips for purchasing travel insurance

While there are many travel insurance options available, choose proper travel insurance wisely. There is no point in purchasing insurance for the sake of it and because it is dirt cheap. Also, there is no use in purchasing super-costly insurance.

• Shop around and compare quotes given by different insurers. 


• Some travel companies provide insurance directly according to your ticket cost. This is the best way of getting travel insurance. Else, make sure you purchase a travel insurance policy as soon as you book your trip.


• Make sure you have covered your complete costs. Keep in mind the cost of goods you are carrying while traveling. In case of any untoward incident, you will probably not get back your original goods. But a proper cost of your luggage will help provide a proper insurance amount. This will help you to re-purchase all lost material.