Skip to main content

Why You Should Buy an Overseas Travel Insurance ?

Invest Mutual Funds Online

Download Mutual Fund Application Forms

 

A perfectly-planned holiday can be ruined by an unexpected event. The uninvited and often unpleasant event could be either a minor delay in arrival of baggage or delay in flight. Or it could be a serious health scare or the horror of losing one's passport. Sure, you have no control over these events. But you can limit the damage caused by them by buying travel insurance.


However, insurance penetration is around 20% of all international travellers, points out a study conducted by Tata AIG General Insurance. This is only because Schengen visas mandatorily require the traveller to have a travel insurance policy. But even if you are travelling to a non-Schengen country, it is advisable to opt for travel insurance because of exorbitant cost of healthcare abroad.


The cost of medical treatment is high abroad and insurance policies assure that such services are made available to the travellers at the price they pay for travel insurance, which is extremely low.


For instance, if you cut your finger, the basic check up would cost you anywhere between $500-1,000 (Rs 26,000-50,000). This possibility of incurring such a huge expense can be covered at a daily insurance rate of Rs 68. More so, the outbound travellers are mostly in the age group of 45-60 years. In this age bracket, travel insurance is highly recommended. Most travel insurance plans are standardised vanilla plans covering accident and sickness, baggage delay/loss, passport loss, personal liability etc. But there are differentiating factors you should consider before buying a travel cover.

Claim Settlement Ratio Of Insurer

You buy travel insurance to make sure that the insurance cover would help you when you need medical attention abroad. That is why it is very important to make sure that your insurance company is not infamous for rejecting claims on flimsy reasons. A traveller has to check the claims settlement record of the company which are usually available on the company's website or policy schedule. If this data is not available on the website, check this data with top three to four insurance companies before finalising your policy.

Recognised Insurer

Several insurance companies have tie-ups with foreign insurers. But make sure that the insurance company has sufficient direct or indirect presence in the destination country to service your claims. The insurer, from whom the plan is being purchased, should be a recognised player and should be valid abroad. Also evaluate the network of tie-ups with the facilitators, agencies and service providers abroad for handling any emergency.

Clause On Pre-Existing Diseases

Very few insurers cover health complications that arise out of pre-existing diseases in travel insurance. Pre existing ailments are usually not covered in travel insurance and it is imperative that the policyholders understand this. In case of any health problem, while travelling, they should be prepared to pay out of pocket for pre-existing conditions. However, Bajaj Allianz offers a policy which covers pre-existing medical conditions. They have capped the amount at $300, $500 and $1000, respectively, for classic, premium and privileged. Similarly, ICICI Lombard covers pre-existing conditions till the patient's condition becomes stable. For example, if a customer who is a heart patient, declares his/her heart condition before taking the policy, the travel policy covers him in the event of another heart attack. Once the condition becomes stable, (when he/she is shifted from the ICU to general/normal ward and is out of danger) from that point onwards, the expense of further treatment has to be borne by the customer

There is no dispute over the fact that health insurance is a principal component of travel covers. The most important cover in a travel policy being the medical cover, it is important to check if the sum insured is commensurate with the premium and also check the list of exclusions in the policy.

 
But ideally you should look at a travel policy which also looks beyond a health cover. For instance, loss of baggage or baggage delay is very common as airlines do misplace or lose baggage while flying from one destination to another.

---------------------------------------------

Invest Mutual Funds Online

Transact Mutual Fund Online

 

Download Mutual Fund Application Forms from all AMCs

Download Mutual Fund Application Forms

 

Best Performing Mutual Funds

    1. Largecap Funds:
      1. DSP BlackRock Top 100 Fund
      2. ICICI Prudential Focused Blue Chip Fund
      3. Birla Sun Life Front Line Equity Fund
    2. Large and Midcap Funds
      1. ICICI Prudential Dynamic Plan
      2. HDFC Top 200 Fund
      3. UTI Dividend Yield Fund
    3. Mid and SmallCap Funds
      1. Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund
      2. DSP BlackRock Small & Midcap Fund
      3. Sundaram Select Midcap
      4. IDFC Premier Equity Fund
    4. Small and MicroCap Funds
      1. DSP BlackRock MicroCap Fund
    5. Sector Funds
      1. Reliance Banking Fund
      2. Reliance Banking Fund
    6. Gold Mutual Funds
      1. Relaince Gold Savings Fund
      2. ICICI Prudential Regular Gold Savings Fund
      3. HDFC Gold Fund

 

Popular posts from this blog

How to generate a UAN Online

Best SIP Funds Online   In order to make Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) accounts portable, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) had launched the facility of Universal Account Number (UAN ) in 2014. Having a UAN is now mandatory if you have an EPF account and are contributing to it. So far, you got this number from your employer and every time you changed jobs, you had to furnish this number to the new employer.  However, in order to make it easier for you to get a UAN , and without your employer's intervention, the EPFO now allows you to go online and generate a UAN on your own. This facility can be used by freshers, or new employees, who are joining the workforce as well as by employees who have older EPF accounts but do not have a UAN as yet. As a new employee, you can simply generate a UAN and provide the number to your employer at the time of joining, when you need to fill up forms for your EPF contribution. As per a circula...
Read more

Income Tax Basics for beginners

Download Tax Saving Mutual Fund Application Forms Invest In Tax Saving Mutual Funds Online Buy Gold Mutual Funds Leave a missed Call on 94 8300 8300   Tax is a compulsory payment made to the Government, but there are ways to optimise it   Income tax is an instrument used by the government to achieve its social and economic objectives. Simply put, tax is duty or tariff that income earning individuals pay to the Government in exchange of certain benefits such as law and order, healthcare, education and a lot more. With proper planning, your tax liability can be reduced and optimised effectively, leaving you with a greater share of your income in your hands than being paid out as tax. Income earned in the twelve months contained in the period from 1st April to 31st March (Financial Year) is taken into account when calculating income tax. Under the Income Tax Act this period is called the previous year.   ...
Read more

Am you Required to E-file Tax Return?

Download Tax Saving Mutual Fund Application Forms Invest In Tax Saving Mutual Funds Online Buy Gold Mutual Funds Leave a missed Call on 94 8300 8300   Am I Required to 'E-file' My Return? Yes, under the law you are required to e-file your return if your income for the year is Rs. 500,000 or more. Even if you are not required to e-file your return, it is advisable to do so for the following benefits: i) E-filing is environment friendly. ii) E-filing ensures certain validations before the return is filed. Therefore, e-returns are more accurate than the paper returns. iii) E-returns are processed faster than the paper returns. iv) E-filing can be done from the comfort of home/office and you do not have to stand in queue to e-file. v) E-returns can be accessed anytime from the tax department's e-filing portal. For further information contact Prajna Capit...
Read more

Total Returns Index brings out real Equity Funds Performers

From February, equity mutual funds have to change their benchmarks to account for dividend payments. Until now, funds used price-based benchmarks alone. TRI or total return indices assume that dividend payouts are reinvested back into the index. What this does is lift the overall index returns, because dividends get compounded. For example, the Sensex TRI index will consider dividend payouts of its constituent companies while the Nifty50 TRI index will consider dividends of its constituents. Using TRI indices as benchmarks comes on the argument that an equity funds earn dividends on the stocks in its portfolio, which they use to buy more stocks. Therefore, using an index that also considers dividend reinvestment would be a more appropriate benchmark. Shrinking outperformance With a stiffer benchmark, it is obvious that the margin by which an equity fund outperforms the benchmark would shrink. Rolling one-year returns from 2013 onwards, the average margin by which largecap funds out...
Read more

Reliance Regular Savings Fund - Debt Option

Reliance Regular Savings Fund - Invest Online     The scheme aims to generate optimal returns consistent with moderate levels of risk. It will invest atleast 65 per cent of its assets in debt instruments with maturity of more than 1 year and the rest in money market instruments (including cash or call money and reverse repo) and debentures with maturity of less than 1 year. The exposure in government securities will generally not exceed 50 percent of the assets. The fund uses a mix of relatively low portfolio duration with active investments in higher-yielding corporate bonds. It does not take aggressive duration calls but tries to improve returns by cherry-picking corporate bonds. This is reflected in the fund's returns matching the category and benchmark for five years - at 8.4 per cent - but lagging behind the category during a raging bull market in bonds in the last one year. The fund has been a consistent but not chart-topping performer in the income category. Despite its ...
Read more
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Invest in Tax Saving Mutual Funds Download Any Applications
Transact Mutual Funds Online Invest Online
Buy Gold Mutual Funds Invest Now