10 Tips for Filing a Successful Travel Insurance Claim

There are various risks that a travel insurance policy covers including trip cancellation, baggage delay, hijack distress, a medical emergency in a foreign land etc.

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You can follow the below-mentioned steps to successfully lodge a claim for both international and domestic travel insurance policies. Whether you are travelling for a personal trip or a corporate trip these tips should help you out-

1. First and foremost, make sure that you read your travel insurance blueprint before the purchase.  It is easy to go through the policy terms and conditions online on the insurer’s site. You can easily download it and read it carefully.
2. Look for policy limitations that might apply to your trip. Also, note that any kind of pre-existing ailments won’t be permissible for reimbursement.
3. In case any of your belongings are stolen, immediately file a report with the nearest police station, local authorities, airlines, and hotel. Get a written report. In any emergency that may result in a claim, contact the insurance agency quickly, too. Check the time limit in your policy wordings for filing a claim in case of an emergency.
4. Also, provide the insurer’s helpline number to your emergency contact and vice versa. It is helpful when an emergency strikes and you cannot make a call on your own.
5. All the travel insurance companies ask for receipts as monetary proof.  Before filing a claim make sure that you all the receipts handy for the purchased if they are stolen or lost. Also, do not forget to keep the receipts of the meals, medicines, and tickets purchased in case of flight delay or trip curtailment.  Digital transactions prove to be helpful in such cases.
6. Keep the paperwork of other policies also handy.  Make sure that you have your medical insurance and other insurance documents handy.  Firstly, you would need to file a claim with your health insurance provider or travel agency or the airline and then your travel insurance provider. In such cases, the travel insurance company might want to ascertain the terms and conditions of other insurance policies that you have.
7. Do not forget to keep everything dated.  Keep a record of the time and date including the purchase receipts and police reports (if any)
8. Check with your other insurance providers. Sometimes, your medical insurance policy covers accidents and illness that take place while you are on a trip. In such cases, most of the travel insurers will expect you to file a medical claim first. If this is not the case, the also working with both the insurance providers will turn out to be more beneficial for you.
9. File your claim as soon as possible. When emergency strikes during a trip make sure that you keep everything aside and give it a priority. In fact, most of the travel insurance companies have deadlines for filing a claim and you need to lodge your claim within the stipulated time. Make sure that you check with your travel insurance provider. In some special cases, the insurer may allow claiming later on.
10. If the insurer rejects your claim, do not hesitate to ask why? It is not necessary that if the insurer has denied compensation in the first place, you cannot seek refilling of the claim. You can ask the re-filing procedure and if more paperwork is required.

Do's of Travel Insurance Claims

Make sure that you take care of the following parameters for successful travel claims:

• Share complete and relevant information about the incident and file a claim on the claim form to enable. It will allow a better understanding of the scenario and fast processing of the claims.
• Retain and collect all the original receipts of any purchases that you made during the international trip that will help you in filing a travel insurance claim.
• Seek discounts on hospitalization or on medical consultations as it will be required while filing reimbursement claims.
• Inform the insurer about any hospitalization or medical emergency
• Notify the insurer immediately when you receive any emails regarding payment from hospitals or recovery agencies overseas
• In case of any emergency repatriation or medical evacuation inform the insurer without wasting time. It will allow you to get the timely assistance.
• Always provide your insurer alternative contact number of your friends and family as an emergency point of contact.

Don'ts of Travel Insurance Claims

• Make sure that you do not ignore any emails from the recovery agency
• Refrain from direct negotiation with the service providers
• Direct arrangement for emergency repatriation and medical evacuation and repatriation without informing the travel insurance company

Travel insurance only cost a few hundred or thousand rupees and potentially saves you much more when an emergency strikes. Though, it's your duty to inform the insurer in time and also make your case clear to the travel insurance company. If you hold a clear understanding of your travel insurance policy, sincerely do the paperwork, and share all the necessary details then you can benefit the most from your policy.

Over to you!

Travel insurance only cost a few hundred or thousand rupees and potentially saves you much more when an emergency strikes. Though, it's your duty to inform the insurer in time and also make your case clear to the travel insurance company. If you hold a clear understanding of your travel insurance policy, sincerely do the paperwork, and share all the necessary details then you can benefit the most from your policy.