As Covid restrictions are being lifted in Canada and other countries, a lot of my clients have been calling me about their travel insurance as everyone is planning their trip away. To make your trip worry-free, it is important to choose the correct travel insurance as so much has changed. I’m going to share with you important travel insurance information that you need to know before you get on that plane and the best way to get your insurance coverage for free
When most people think about Travel Insurance, they are thinking about are coverages for unforeseen medical expenses like illness and injuries while abroad. The key term for this is Emergency Medical Coverage.
One time, my sister once had food poisoning on her trip to the Caribbeans. She went to the hospital to do a blood test, routine examinations and was given some prescriptions. Guess how much that cost her, $1400.
Thank god, she had travel insurance even though she had to pay it upfront with her credit card. She was reimbursed after she came back.
However, not all travel insurances are made the same so when you are booking your trip, here are a few things you need to consider when selecting your Emergency Medical Coverage.
Please be careful when it comes to dependents, typically the definition is for children up to age 21 who are in school full-time.
Emergency Medical Coverage should be a minimum of $1 Million, ideally, get $2 Million or even $5 Million. You can't foresee how many surgeries or examinations or the length of your stay will be in a different country. Again, the travel insurance companies can't negotiate your medical fees with the hospitals because they don't know when, where or how long it will take for you to recover.
Make sure your OHIP is valid. It should not be expired before you board that plane and all essential information is up to date like your full name and your address.
For those who are going away for more than 7 months, please make sure you notify Service Canada, there are a few things that you have to prove like permanent residency in Ontario to extend OHIP coverage up to 2 years.
Pre-existing conditions are not covered under OHIP or travel insurances, which would mean if you had an existing illness like a lung condition. Any medical issues related to the lung or an illness derived from the lung condition will not be covered while you are traveling.
Call your group benefits if you have them with your employer. You could be covered up to the first 15 or 18 days of travel.
Be careful if you are over the age of 65 during your travel, make sure you read the policy manual because most standard coverages do not extend to people over the age of 65.
There are sub-limits in coverages and review exclusions carefully. For example: If your emergency medical coverage is $10 Million but there’s a dental sublimit of up to $3,000 or your pet whose traveling with you and now you need to head back to ontario early or later. The travel insurance policy would cover up to $500 for your pet’s return flight. You may want to review it carefully and check if you are comfortable with these limits.
Make sure to keep copies of insurances and phone numbers on you and with people you're traveling with. Typically, we get wallet cards with the claim phone numbers and policy numbers handy. Print one and send digital copies to your family members.
There is a list of people who the insurance companies have deemed too high risk and are generally not covered under most travel insurances. if you are in this group, make sure you are a ware of that and contact your insurance provider for more details. This includes:
Anyone with existing illnesses that requires medical attention and follow-ups. Usually these medical conditions aren’t stable for the past 3-6 months.
Anyone who has had surgery in the past year
Anyone who is pregnant
Those who participate in high-risk activities like mountain climbing, rock climbing, parachuting, skydiving, hand-gliding, or any other air-supported sporting device and those who like to participate in a motorized speed contest.
Another tip before traveling; make sure to check Canadian Travel Advisories in regards to the region that you are traveling to.
If your destination is under a travel advisory in red like Ukraine’s current status ‘Avoid all travel’, your travel insurance most likely will not cover you.
Now that you know what Emergency Medical Coverage is and how to protect yourself, I’m going to share with you my favorite way to get travel insurance and a whole lot more for free.
Not many people know that Travel Credit cards can provide affordable travel insurance during their trip compared to buying your individual insurance.
Even for myself as Insurance Broker, I find using credit cards for my travel provides good protection and peace of mind.
Here are things that you may not know could be covered under your travel credit card:
1. Emergency medical Coverage: You would have to request their policy wording to review the limits but I also recommend checking your eligibility and exclusions. Eligibility means things you must fulfill to activate coverage such as charging the entire trip on your credit card to receive the coverage.
Be careful, it typically covers you, your spouse, and your dependents under age 21. Not your parents, siblings, or other relatives who may be traveling with you. Be careful if you are over the age of 65. You should be purchasing your own coverage separately as standard Emergency Medical Coverage will not cover you. Please be careful that pre-existing conditions are not covered.
2. Car Rentals in North America excluding Hawaii
If you have an auto policy in Ontario with the OPCF 20/27 options added, you could rent a car in North America. Please note: Your car must be parked and unused at home for this extension to happen. For example, if someone is using your car at home while you are vacationing in Florida. your car insurance will not be extended to your car rental in Florida.
Depending which credit card you sign up for, they could have Car Rental Insurance and I always enjoy having two coverages rather than one.
3. Baggage Loss
This is a headache when it happens to you. The airline misplaced your baggage and it'll meet you at your hotel when it's found. If it's not found, they will give you approximately $200 or $300 if you're lucky. Goodbye to those beautiful dresses and shirts you bought for the trip or diapers that cost an arm and a leg while on vacation.
My friend was on vacation with her 1-year-old son and she packed everything in that luggage that was considered essential for her child and going to the Bahamas. The lost luggage made it back to her when she was leaving the country. During her stay, she had to buy new diapers, clothes, and bathing suits. It was not cheap in Bahamas. Good thing, her credit card gave her $300 to spend. It's not a lot but it helped. Best to check your limits and see if that's okay for you.
Note to self: Pack some essentials in your carry-on luggage in case your big luggage goes missing.
4. Trip Cancellation - a pre-departure benefit that can reimburse 100% of a traveler's trip cost if they need to cancel their trip for a covered reason. The most common covered reason is unforeseen illness, injury, or death of the traveler, a traveling companion, or a non-traveling family member.
In my personal experience, I've broke my leg approximately a week before my trip. I didn't have a credit card that had this feature but I wished I did because I would have got a refund for my trip. Instead, I wheeled myself to the airport and travelled to Jamaica with my friends. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed my stay but it would have been nice to have the option to remain back to recover. It was either go or lose $1200. I was lucky enough to travel but not many people are in the same circumstances.
5. Trip Interruption covers extra costs if you need to return home sooner or later than planned and reimburses you for non-refundable and/or non-transferable portions of unused, prepaid travel arrangements.
This could be for a passing of a close family member or that they fell ill during your trip and you wanted to return to their side. Read through the manual and call into claims department to see if you qualify for coverage at that time.
There are many credit cards that provide travel protection, most of the major banks have at least one of them, and they usually have an annual fee of around $130. There are often special offers from one of these cards that would waive the initial fee so you can often get the travel protection for free. A typical travel insurance per person for a one-week stay in the Caribbeans is about $200 for the 5 coverages I’ve listed earlier so for a family of four, you could be saving $800 on the insurance by booking through the credit card.
Again, make sure you do your own due diligence when you are booking your trip and check the policy wording so you know exactly what your coverages are before leaving for your trip.