What You Need to Know About Student Travel Insurance?

What exactly does the student travel insurance policy do? It covers the sudden expenses that come out of emergency hospitalisation, where the hospital charges would be considerably high in abroad. It covers the expenses that you go through in case of lost luggage or baggage. Bail bonds and tuition fee compensations will also be covered. If the delay in fight or cancellation in flight leads you to pay more, that also will be covered by the student travel insurance. If the passport or any travel document gets lost, the travel insurance will come in handy and help you in getting new documents done or retrieving the old documents soon.

Why should one Need Travel Insurance?

If you are someone who is going to travel alone to a place and stay on your own, the possibilities of things to go wrong is uncertain. A back up at this kind of a time is a boon in disguise. The student travel insurance plan will cover all these expenses and you would end up spending a very little amount in the place where you would be spending a bomb if you don’t have an insurance cover. Also the parents can sleep a little better at night if they know that their child’s tenure at a strange new place is cushioned by the insurance. When your child is applying for an university, make sure you read the documents carefully and because universities demand an insurance plan for the students who enrol there. And the common misconception is that the insurance should be got from the universities itself and this leads the parents to start looking at insurance plans the university themselves offer. But the university plans will again be a lot more expensive. And it is also not mandate that the university’s insurance plans have to be opted. The insurance options can be finalised and purchased in India itself as almost all the universities accept Indian travel insurance.

What you should know before Choosing Insurance?

If you are all set to get a student travel insurance, the next step that you have to do is compare a lot of options available in the market and on the internet and choose wisely with various factors in mind – like the country you are going to, what all needs to covered from your prospective, how well you can modify an insurance according to your needs and demands as certain insurance companies do offer customisation, etc.. Here’s a list of things you have to vigilantly check for while getting a student travel insurance.

• A person of the age 16 is eligible for student travel insurance but while a 35 year old cannot get a student travel insurance at that age. Age is the utmost option that needs to be kept in mind. Also check for the end age till which the student travel insurance can be carried forward or renewed.
• Once you decide upon the universities and country, make sure you go through their requirements. Certain universities have it as a mandate that the student travel insurance should also cover health insurance. So go for an insurance option, which offers both.
• Check for the nominal premium options. Because at the end of the day the premium should not be much higher that it puts us in a financial constraint.
• Many universities have made it a compulsory option for the insurance to have coverage over specific risks like drug dependency, nervous or mental disorders, alcoholism, and damages due to inter-collegiate sports, pregnancy, mammography and treatment against cancer. So this is another point that has to be kept in mind before choosing a student travel insurance.
• Make sure you carry all the documents with respect to the student travel insurance so that you can submit them as proof when the university asks you to get coverage from them for health. This would be useful to inform them that you have already paid the fees to the university which would cover the coverage.
• Check for the clause where easy renewal is possible before choosing the travel insurance. Easy renewal also means less hassle and less cost. Time and money saved.
• Check whether the insurance covers the situation where a student has to take a break from the college for over a month due to medical emergencies. And also whether the expenses of travelling back to their home country is getting covered in case of any death of a family member. These two clauses will come in handy when we least expect it.
• One should also know that, before embarking on a journey, the student can cancel his or her trip anytime but a valid reason has to be provided. Fifteen day prior notices along with the policy number and the valid reason have to be submitted with the insurance provider and the insurer will verify your passport to make sure that the student didn’t get on that journey and will start processing your cancellation.
• Also some insurance companies will offer you a premium refund upon returning early.
• You should also be aware of the fact that buying insurance online can save up money considerably. Buying an insurance plan immediately after booking the tickets will also get you the lowest premium and maximum coverage.
• The case of a sudden death and the coverage that the insurance offers should also be taken into account. Ideally choose the policy that covers both of these clauses – the first one being the situation where the student has to travel back to their hometown due to some sudden death in their family, and the second one being the situation where the student dies and his mortal remains have to be transferred back to the home town. These clauses, if included in the policies will be so useful when an unfortunate event occurs.
• A detailed check whether the policy covers the pre-ailing diseases and the charges that might raise in future should be done. Even if the base plan does not cover this clause, the policies can be modified or customised in a way that this is covered as an add-on
• Policy deductibles and Co-payments – these are the two terms that are important to know about before signing up a student travel insurance. Policy deductibles is the amount which the insurance will deduct before paying out any claim and the co-payment is the amount which the student pays along with the insurance for his every visit to the hospital or a doctor. A detailed knowledge about these two factors with respect to the insurance plan selected is a must.
• The overall claim settlement ratio should be known before choosing a plan with any insurance office. You don’t want to end up with a zero claim after paying a huge amount as a premium.
• With every insurance claim, we would need to pay an amount to file the claim. You can opt to pay a higher excess amount which will in turn reduce your premium amount that you pay at the beginning.
• If you have an existing insurance provider at your hometown, it’s better to stck with them because they would know you well and would suggest the best travel insurance plan which would suit your study period rather than some random insurance provider whose sole aim would be to make you get an insurance with higher claim.
• The destination always decide the premium amount. Countries where the health care and hospital expenses are more, the premium will be automatically high. Check and cross check.

These all may seem to be a bit over-whelming. But if this is going to ensure our safety and ensure that our study experience would be hassle less and tension free, why not go ahead and make it a point to book student travel insurance as soon as the college and country is decided? Choose and lock the student travel insurance plan and forget about any issues and get set study!