Have you used the travel insurance you purchased?

I buy travel insurance regularly without ever having call to use it. I buy from a different provider each time through www.insuremytrip.com

I use TravelGuard.In May we were delayed 24 hrs in Newark.We called them and they told us just get recepits. They paid for our hotel and meals. It took some contacts to collect but we got it.

I buy insurance, though not always the same company. I get the least expensive coverage I can find for each trip that will cover what I need. I use insuremytrip.com to compare policies. In September I had to go see a doctor while in Germany. I paid cash for the doctor, tests and prescription. Access America reimbursed me for everything I had to pay out. I filed the claim online and faxed them my receipts. It could not have been easier. I didn't try to have the doctor bill the insurance company, as the cost was not too high and I forgot to bring the insurance information with me to the doctor. I will never travel outside of the U.S. without travel insurance. I would rather have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it. The cost of my medical expense was higher than the cost of insurance for both myself and my husband. In addition to the flight coverage and medical/dental coverage, etc., some companies have policies that also cover car insurance.

We bought travel insurance for a trip to Ireland in 2009. My wife fell and broke her arm and cracked a bone in her shoulder. Our company, chosen based on cost of premium, reimbursed all of our out of pocket medical expenses in Ireland AND upgraded her to 1st Class (as per Drs. orders) so that she could get up and walk around easier to prevent blood clots. We will never travel without travel insurance....so little to pay, but so much to lose if you need it! Dan

I have bought travel insurance from CSA. I had to file a claim in 2008 (our plan included car rental insurance and we damaged the car) The car rental company took forever to let me know what we owed...the insurance reimbursed us so fast it made my head spin. I always buy travel insurance, and getting it with car rental is actually cheaper than buying non-deductible insurance from the car rental company. (we had a zero deductible and the whole accident cost us nothing out of pocket) Although I have bought insurance for all our trips, this was the only time I have used it. However, it was a $3200 accident, so ...I think it is a worthwhile investment. I only buy it for overseas trips. (My own insurances cover me in the US)

We bought travel insurance from Access America for a trip to Peru this past September. Because of prostate surgery the trip, of course, didn't happen. After getting forms completed by both the primary care physician and the surgeon/specialist, and a larger set of forms that I completed, we were reimbursed for airfare which had been our only expense. In fact, both my wife and I were reimbursed even though only one of us had surgery! I recommend getting insurance.

Yes, I used it when I broke my ankle in Egypt and had to have two screws put in. The company was AIG which is no longer in business since the economic collapse. The biggie I found out was that they don't cover me on the trip, they reimburse you later when you turn in your proofs of expenses. My tour leader covered the operation and two days and a night in the hospital (only $2000 over there in 2004) but she only would do it after I showed her proof of travel insurance.

I firmly believe if you can't afford Travel Insurance you can't afford to travel. Obviously I can't compare the providers in Oz to the USA. However, I have had to claim on our last two trips. Once in Ireland to see a Doctor on a Sunday and on our last trip to Germany I attended the emergency department of a hospital in Berlin. Also, my camera case and a few bits 'n'pieces wre lifted from my husband's back pack on the underground in Paris. Fortunatately, my camera was around my neck. Medical bills paid in full. However, the camera case and miscellaneous items were subject to 'depreciation'. My claim for $160 to replace them was paid out in the grand sum of $15.00. I have always organised travel insurance on-line. Like all insurance policies, read the fine print.

Let the recent snow delays across Europe be a lesson. Buy the travel insurance. Not just medical problems can happen. Volcanos or other totally unpredicable things can happen.

Our trip to Europe in April was canceled due to the Icelandic volcano. We filed a claim and were reimbursed for all of our expenses. When we went to Europe in September we had insurance and will always purchase it for an expensive overseas trip. Another consideration is aged parents and the possibility of canceling a trip or cutting a trip short due to illness or death of a family member. Carole

The very nature of this question ensures that you will only get responses from those who find the piece of mind to be had from trip insurance to be worth more than it's actual financial value. It is no surprise all of the responses have been 100% supportive of insurance and that people who have required claims and successfully received them are delighted by the experience. But you are missing the input from everyone else. I suspect that accounts for the vast majority of all travelers - mostly folks who never considered paying for piece of mind plus a few who did and had issues with it. However, if you set aside the emotional value and look at things in financial terms only, travel insurance is a sucker's bet (as is almost every other kind of relatively small$ insurance). By definition, the industry survives by taking in significantly more than it pays out. It thrives because, on average, you lose. No matter what kind of insurance you are considering there is only one simple question you need to ask yourself to determine if it is worth it in any pragmatic sense (it would be foolish to try to measure emotional value & the insurance companies count on this fact heavily). The question is this; In a worst case scenareo, will I be financially devistated without this form of insurance. DEVISTATED is the key word. If the answer is yes, you buy the insurance. If the answer is no, you don't. If your worst case scenareo is being financially "annoyed", then buying insurance is just more money thrown down the toilet. Airline tickets are tricky, but you can sometimes work out a schedule change without too big a penalty (natural disasters earn you free rescheduling). Hotels only require 48 hours notice. Food & entertainment costs don't apply. I don't see much potential for financial devistation.

There have been several stories here on the website about people that ran up a huge medical charges when they got sick or were injured. Perhaps people like Randy don't bat an eye if they have a $50,000 medical evacuation bill, since he writes "I don't see much potential for financial devistation (sic)." But I think many travelers would be financially hurt. For about $50 I am able to buy a policy that covers this exposure, and I find it well worth it. "Obtaining medical treatment and hospital care abroad can be expensive, and medical evacuation to the U.S. can cost more than $50,000. Note that U.S. medical insurance is generally not accepted outside the United States, nor do the Social Security Medicare and Medicaid programs provide coverage for hospital or medical costs outside the United States." From http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/tips_1232.html#insurance As to whether you should buy insurance based on whether or not selling policies is profitable to the insurance industry: I buy fire insurance for my home. I'm pretty sure the industry makes a profit on these policies. Furthermore I have never collected a penny on my policy nor do I know anybody who has. None of which is relevant to my decision. If fire insurance is a "suckers bet", call it a bet I'm happy to lose. And the same with travel.

Mike; See the 4th paragraph in my previous post. It asks a simple, non-emotional question that is easy to answer for YOU. I don't attept to answer it for you - I asked YOU to answer it for yourself. I'm not asking you or anyone else to justify their answer. I am mearly asking them to ASK it, and to keep emotions out of it as much as possible. So read that paragraph again and ask yourself if your snotty response to my question was really justified.

Coming back to answer my own question: I bought travel insurance for the first time this year. What prompted this is that an acquaintance of my husband's (a friend of his boss on a trip with his boss and wife), fell and hit her head on a trip to Italy a couple years ago. They did not have travel insurance, and it was going to be tens of thousands to have her flown back to the U.S. for care. In the meantime, she ended up passing away, so they had to pay to have her body flown back to the U.S. Two nights before our flight was to leave to Paris this month, I became very ill and hospitalized (I am in my 30's and this was not pre-existing). I paid extra for flight insurance, and was refunded for my tickets in a matter of 4 days. I am filing with my travel insurance, now, for our vacation rentals (non-refundable) and our few non-refundable tickets we had. I will continue to buy travel insurance. While these particular expenses already gone wouldn't have destroyed me, the reimursement allows me to easily re-plan my trip in a few months. A medical evacuation would devastate me financially. I used Travelex. I can't speak to their claims, yet, but Icelandair refunded my tickets quickly (although their customer service has limited hours and they are not quite warm and fuzzy!) I probably didn't need both policies, but it made me feel better- to have some flexibility with the airline, and then the more comprehensive travel policy.

We bought the travel insurance that US airways offers when you buy a flight and are VERY glad we did it. Our trip was cancelled because of the volcano this last spring. We had already purchased a few train rides and had put a few down payments on places to stay - the company was super helpful and refunded any money we lost. We bought it again for our rescheduled trip.

I can see that my presence here will be somewhat masochistic, but I'm bored at the moment, so... Our family of 5 is a perfect 5 for 5 on international trips. That's 25 "people/trips" without incident. I suppose there are many different types of travelers insurance with many different levels of premiums, but I am happy to have 25x whatever that number would have been, still in my pocket today. Should a child break their leg shortly before departure, we would likely have to forfeit most of our airfare, but that is about all. Should they break their leg shortly after arrival, we would use their superior medical system and adjust our itinerary as necessary. That's an odd thing to plan for, though, since in our combined 120 years on this earth, none of us has broken a large bone. Things do happen of course. Virtually EVERYTHING has happened to somebody sometime. And when it does, those who bought insurance and who were fortunate enough to collect on their policy without hassle will be thrilled by the experience... ...much like a pedestrian who gets hit by a car and happens to be protected by a helmet at the time would be delighted by that protection after the fact. Yet none of us wear helmets while out walking. Why not?

Randy certainly has a point. I always differenciate between medical insurance and travel insurance. I would never ever travel without the extra medical insurance but I have never paid for travel insurance. If something goes wrong outside a medical emergency I'll be out some money. At the most, worst case scenario, somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple of thousand - usually much much less for us as hotels aren't paid up front and neither is food or museums and such. Air tickets are tricky but most of the time you can exchange them for a hefty fee. Medical emergencies are very different as even a "minor" issue can easily rack up bills in the 5 digits and serious incidents move up into the hundreds of thousands. That would be a financial disaster against which I want to protect myself and my family.

Randy mixes some sensible opinions with some very faulty logic. The sensible part is his advice to consider what kinds of travel problems would devastate you financially. The faulty logic is all the stuff about his family members never having broken bones, etc. You can't look at insurance with hindsight and fret about the money you could have saved because you hadn't needed to use it. Most people never have a fire in their homes. On that basis would you advise homeowners to drop their fire insurance? And, yes, insurers make money because they know, thanks to statistical analyses, how much to charge so that they take in more than they pay out. That's completely irrelevant to the question of whether an individual ought to buy. Some of the insurance companies allow you to build a package with just the features you want. This makes it easy to weigh the price against the costs you would suffer if any mishaps befall you. The one thing everybody should have is medical evacuation insurance. Accidents can strike anyone of any age, and medical evacuation can be ruinously expensive.

Keep in mind that there are various flavors of travel insurance ... trip cancellation, trip interruption, medical, medical evacuation, medical repatriation ... etc. Also, look closely at the fine print related to medical evacuation. There is a difference between evacuation (which generally takes you to the nearest acceptable medical facility) and repatriation (which takes you home). I've generally skipped the cancellation and interruption policies figuring that I would just eat those costs. I've also skipped the travel medical coverage because my health insurance covers this as out-of-network (and I have filed a claim after the fact for medical treatment in Europe). In the past, I have not gotten medical evacuation/repatriation when traveling in Europe, but have bought it when travelling to less developed places such as Africa. I've been thinking about changing my approach and signing up for a plan that covers medical repatriation (e.g. medjetassist) even for traveling to Europe. I've read a few too many stories about people having serious accidents on vacation and spending 6 figures getting back to the States.

I used to be somewhat befuddled by so many people in my circle of aquaintences in their late 40's and older who seem to display no real interest in foreign travel. Meanwhile, younger folks have much more interest, they are just less likely to have time or money. It never occurred to me until now that perhaps part of the reason for the difference is that younger people are less afraid of random body parts going defunct while on vacation - or the proverbial "what if I fall and break a hip?" This just further confirms for me we made the right decision a few years ago when we decided to travel while we were younger rather than wait for it to be a retirement goal. If I still feel good about traveling in my 60's or later, great! But if I'm more comfortable reading a good book on my porch and passing on need to consider "repatriation" insurance, I can live with that, too - especially already having visited all the places on my "bucket list" by then.

I am 36 and ended up in the hospital two days before our trip. The day I was released, a friend's 11 year old daughter was admitted to get her appendix out and spent a few days in the hospital. It is everyone's choice what to get (I don't need medical insurance, mine covers out of the country, and my coverage was not pricey and included auto, for our rentals), but just be aware, sudden health problems and accidents aren't limited to those of retirement age. I've been on plenty of trips (family of 6), and this was the first we've had to cancel.

Hi I would like to let you know about my adventure or maybe misadventure. We took a short trip down to California in November, it was only for a week and we debated the idea of skipping the insurance.but quickly remembered the horror of a trip my Dad had without insurance. So we dutifully went to the bank and purchased our insurance. I can not tell you how glad I was we did. I started having light sensitivity problems part way trough our time there. I got worse. I went to what we call a "walk in clinic" and was seen quickly( I have to say I felt very unhappy to listen to the lady next to me that was pleading to have her son look at and she"would bring the remainder of the money right away" I was told to go to the hospital emergency, where again after a short wait I was seen. This doctor contacted on opthomologist and sent me up with an appointment the fist thing the next morning. My insurance covered all my expenses even the prescriptions I had to get. When I look at the cost of the insurance (less than a special coffee each day) to what the bill would have been I swear never again to even think about going away with out coverage. I encourage everyone to weight the costs of not having coverage J. Jacques

I'll buy it for every international trip, for all of the reasons stated so far. It becomes even more important the more people that are traveling with you. My first experience with travel insurance (trip cancellation/interruption) was the first time I could have used it: my parents-in-law needed to deal with a major family crisis that occurred 1 week before our departure date. My father-in-law experienced some heart-rhythm problems as a result of the stress of really wanting to stay close to home and NOT be traveling to Europe at that time (he was already a heart patient...). Therefore, he (and my mother-in-law) actually 'got' to stay home due to his health problem. Because my husband and I were also planning to travel with them, WE TOO could have cancelled OUR trip with no penalty (we actually continued with our travel plans; he couldn't get the time off from work later). The insurance company paid my in-laws promptly and without any aggravation. We used Access America. I buy it when purchasing my airline tickets from American Airlines. As of my last trip (policies may have changed), Access America would allow me to also add non-refundable train tickets and hotel reservations to my policy. I just needed to call them each time I made a reservation - of course, it would add a bit to my total price for insurance, but it was slightly more than pennies on the dollar. Considering how many reservations we had, it was well worth it to us. Don't even get me started on the health insurance benefits...they've been well-covered already in previous posts. If you believe in using good-quality guidebooks and a moneybelt, then travel insurance (trip & health) is just another form of 'insurance'. Doing otherwise, I think, is being penny wise, pound foolish.

Jaye, you described the perfect reason why nobody should travel outside their home country without travel medical insurance. However, it has nothing to do with all the other varieties of travel insurance discussed here, in particular trip cancellation/interruption.

I would be interested in hearing more about trip cancellation/interruption insurance. My boyfriend and I are planning a trip to the UK in a couple of months-- his mother is elderly and needs round the clock care for both physical and mental issues, though she does not have any particular condition or disease (if that's what a "pre-existing" condition is). My boyfriend fears he may need to cancel or come home early if there are any major issues, hospitalizations or death. I've read that the insurance package deals aren't always worth it-- so is it possible just to get cancellation/interruption insurance only? Or possibly with medical evacuation (for ourselves) in addition? What companies allow you to do this?

Diane, I had a trip planned to Germany in December. A week before departure, my husband suffered a stroke and we were unable to go. I had purchased cancellation insurance through Travel Insured International. After jumping through a lot of hoops of paperwork, they deducted the amount Lufthansa had reimbursed us and reimbursed us for the entire amount. I just received my check last week. I am very grateful I had purchased it.