We all know how it feels, the torture of having to do something you don’t want to do, but know that its really in your best interests to do it.
Like doing your homework.
You’d much rather be doing something a little more fun.
The excitement of your travel departure date is just around the corner, your clothes are packed, your visas are pasted into your passports, your itinerary is sorted, and your money is just waiting to be spent.
Except, before you go you have to take some of that money and spend it on travel insurance.
Ugh. What a let down!
“Why do I need this? Do I really have to get it? I probably won’t need it anyway. Maybe I’ll just take the risk and not worry,” all the thoughts race through our head trying to convince ourselves that it is an unnecessary purchase.
“It’s just not sexy is it?” a friend recently said as we discussed the banes of insurance.
It’s hard to hand over your cash for something you really aren’t going to enjoy, and actually don’t want to have to use.
Is Travel Insurance Sexy?
Maybe we have to look at insurance in another way to ease the pain of purchasing it.
After all it does offer us peace of mind. And that can be sexy, can’t it?
I bet the mother whose daughter just drank a cocktail filled with chemicals in Bali, and had to be flown back to Australia at a price of $50,000, would now loved to have thought that travel insurance was sexy. Because that car she dreamed of buying or future planned holidays is now gone.
Ouch!
I know when we lost our passports in the US, we thought insurance was pretty sexy as it saved us from forking out half a grand on replacements. That was money we could now enjoy on our travels through China.
Laptops, cameras, iphones, it is a digital world we live in and many of us can’t travel anymore without our gadgets.
I’d feel pretty unsexy if I had to wear rags from the second hand store, as all my money now had to go to replacing my uninsured electronics that were stolen from my hotel room.
or worse…
… had to pay thousands for an unintended doctor’s visit in the States.
Actually, they think travel insurance is that sexy they won’t let you enter the country without it.
When you think of it in terms of this, insurance can look pretty glamorous, as it can save you from having your bank account wiped out.
We never think of insurance in terms of this because we like to be the eternal optimists. Nothing bad will happen to me and we don’t like to spend money on the slight odds that something bad will happen.
And its great to be an optimist.
But, the slight chance, for many is not enough to risk it.
When you travel you want to enjoy yourself and not leave anything to chance. You don’t want that grey cloud of “I’m not insured” hanging over your head. A cloud that might stop you from doing fun things like white water rafting, sky diving and even hiring a motorbike to go cruising.
And that’s what makes insurace sexy. Yes, go on, take the pain away that you feel when you hear that and allow yourself to think great things about it.
It is peace of mind
And for a family there is nothing we want more than to know our children can travel with us somewhat secure.
We hopefully will not use it, but I want to make sure if something happens I don’t want to have “I can’t afford the medical bills that can save my child’s life” hanging over my head.
We’ve never travelled without insurance, even though we have wanted to and we have researched why we should. For us the risk was just too great for what could potentially be a small hand over of cash.
Really, who wants their holidays or travels ruined from not having it?
Now that would totally be UN-sexy!
What about you? Do you purchase travel insurance and do you find it sexy? Has it covered your ass on occasions?..
This post is sponsored by CoverMore insurance who graciously allowed us to feel sexy during our recent visit to New Zealand.
When I read the title of this post, I thought someone might have taken over your blog. Now I get it
You just reminded me that I need to re-new mine!
So glad we could remind you Stephanie in time! Could have been a problem
I only insure things where potential losses are financially devastating – nothing related to travel comes close to that magnitude. If I can manage the cost of a new laptop, or plane ticket, or whatever, I don’t want to pay an insurance company a premium to carry that risk. I basically self insure for everything I can and keep my deductibles high on everything else.
One area where fulltime travelers often skip insurance that I think is a big mistake is for health care (this only applies to Americans). Health care costs in the U.S. can be so large that only the extremely wealthy can self insure. Having a good health care plan with guaranteed renewal is one policy I think is an absolute must.
Great comment Brian, you do have to consider the potential losses. We never get those extra insurances that Best Buy and those places offer you when you buy an electrical good, that is so not worth it.
I agree about the health care. Not worth the risk at all. The costs in America are downright scary!
We’ve never travelled without insurance too. Insurance is so cheap, but our peace of mind is so expensive!
Peace of mind is the most important thing that is for sure. It will hurt a whole lot more in the long run if something goes wrong and you can’t cover it.
Sexy! A total turn on! Talk travel insurance to me baby! well, maybe not, but travel insurance is a must for any traveler… always have protection!
Ha ha! This comment made me laugh Jeremy
Don’t know that it is sexy but it is certainly essential.
Ha Ha. Definitely difficult to get the sex part of insurance! Although…
I almost always buy travel insurance for exactly those reasons. I would much rather spend $50 for a week or two and most likely never use the insurance than wipe out my bank account if something did happen. Medical insurance is a fact of life, especially in the States!
It is a small price to pay. Medical insurance in the States is an absolute necessity. I hated paying health insurance there as the premiums were high and we are both really healthy and rarely go to the doctor. But if some emergency happened then we would have been screwed without it.
Hell yeah, travel insurance is sexy! I was really thankful I had it when I plummeted 20 feet off of a cliff while in Turkey. Fortunately, I wasn’t injured enough to need medical assistance, but it certainly was nice to know I wouldn’t have lost my entire life savings b/c I didn’t have insurance. It’s a necessity — and now I don’t travel internationally without it. There are too many “what ifs” to not put myself out the small amount it costs to be insured.
Wow!! Insurance sure was sexy for you. What a fall. Glad you were okay
Exactly- far too many what ifs to take the chance. I’d rather have a good nights sleep
I rarely pick anything up beyond the insurance on my credit card when I book my flight, and the flight based travel insurance. That said, I know i really need to. Especially for longer trips. Thanks for the writeup.
No worries Alex. As long as you have your health covered
I usually never buy travel insurance, but I am thinking I might do so on our next big trip only because I am worried about my new cameras health!
When I travelled through SE Asia without health insurance, I would just go to local hospitals, and luckily my condition was not very severe, and the hospital was relatively clean.
Also when I was in Costa Rica, the doctors gave us free health care as a thanks for the volunteering we were doing in the community.
But here in Australia I dont have any health insurance. Boyfriend gets it for free because he is British, but I am Canadian so I am out of luck. But in NZ I didn’t have any insurance either and I managed to survive. (aka, i luckily ended up only getting sick when I went to Malaysia and hospitals are cheap there!)
Do you have a type of insurance that you recomend for electronics?
I’ve never had any travel insurance specific to electronics. We’ve always got it included in our comprehensive insurance packages.
I have no idea what medical care would cost in Australia without insurance. Never had to think about it, but it would be no where near as crazy as the US. not sure how it compares to Canada. I think with health though its’ probably not worth the risk just in case something major happens.
With electronics etc you know you can recover and by what amount.
I loved this blog. I am definitely one of those people that will try my luck without insurance but i am heading to USA, Canada and Honduras I only recently thought i better fork out that few hundred dollars because i couldnt afford to be forking out a few thousand dollars if anything did go wrong.
The only thing i wish for in travel insurance is that if you didnt need it/use it during your trip you could get some of refunded on a safe arrival home. If that was the case I would always get it for my trips.
Now that would be the perfect travel insurance. I love that idea! If only…
When I first started traveling on my own in college, I had no idea that travel insurance existed. Now I can’t imagine traveling without it! So far I haven’t had to use any of the policies I’ve purchased but just knowing that they’re there (and taking the time to figure out what they actually cover) makes me a happier, more carefree traveler. As you said, it’s peace of mind and that’s so worth the money.
Peace of mind is priceless. Gives you more time to enjoy your travels, after all that is why we are travelling
After what happen to me last night, I will never, ever, ever travel without travel insurance. Get travel insurance. It’s a no brainer.
Oh dear! What happened?
My cameras were stolen, right from out of my backpack. I’m so bummed.