World Crises May Boost Private Travel Insurance Costs
By Milan Korcok, Editor, TravelinsuranceFile
This may be a good time for you to pre-purchase travel insurance for forthcoming trips later this year as the crush of world events (revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic disruptions, radiation) put mounting financial pressure on the giant underwriting firms that backstop international travel insurers.
Buying a vacation trip to Disney World by a resident of Alberta may seem far removed from the Japanese nuclear threat, but the British, American or European firms that underwrite the risks for most insurance companies, including those in Canada, are now under intense pressure to make very large payouts for their insurance company customers. Some European underwriting giants still have nuclear/biological clauses dating back to the cold war that make them responsible for consumers’ exposure to radiation. These same multinational companies are responsible for covering the losses in Japan and New Zealand, the volcanic ash disruptions, property and other damage in the Middle East and North Africa, and the extraordinarily heavy snows in Europe and Britain this past winter. This means the deals they can offer to “insure” the losses of the retail insurance companies who handle many consumer products, from auto, home, life, and fire to travel insurance, will be more expensive and push up the prices of the products you need to cover your vacation in coming months.
Many travel insurance companies allow you to buy early and lock in a price for a trip you plan on taking later on. The only stipulation is that if any of your circumstances change from the time you buy your insurance to the date it becomes effective, you must notify your insurer so they can update the terms of coverage. For example, if you become ill in the interim and require medical treatment, or if your health status changes in any way (your medication is altered or you are referred for testing), you are required to notify your insurer.
This is also a good time to think about buying an annual plan at today’s price. Under the annual, multi-trip policy, you don’t need to have your travel plans and dates all locked in. You will be covered for the next year for any trips you want to make up to a pre-determined duration of your own choosing. A 30-day plan will allow you to take as many trips of up to 30 days as you wish throughout the year without first notifying your insurer. Just pick up and go. Multi-trip plans are available in many different duration periods—9, 15, 30, 60, 90 days or more. Check with the insurers advertising on this site for their various options.
But, as with advance purchase of single trip plans, if any circumstance such as your health changes in any way by the time you take your first trip or between trip durations, you must notify your insurer. Also note that taking three or four 30-day trips under an annual plan is a lot cheaper than buying three single trip policies.
One thing you can be pretty sure of is that with these pressures growing exponentially, prices of travel insurance are not likely to drop. So look at what you need, make sure you fully understand the exclusions as well as the benefits of your purchase, and do it now—save yourself some money.
All travel insurers advertising on this site meet TravelinsuranceFile’s acceptability criteria for out-of-country health benefits for Canadian residents. All offer a variety of short and long term plans including annual multi-trip policies that can be bought now for future travel. You can buy online or get more information on each plan and its policy concerning government travel alerts by visiting our Insurance Products section or click on the logos of insurers down the side of the homepage.
