It’s wise to buy yourself a travel insurance in case you’re planning to travel abroad. However, you need to be careful. The best way to make your travel insurance work for your advantage is to read the fine print a hundred times and over.
According to the director of Australian insurance comparison site Natalie Ball, there are “situations” that your insurance company will not cover. Some of these situations include luggage and personal effects, situations which, to most travelers, are very frustrating, especially because it is one of the most popular travel insurance coverages.
In Australia, a travel insurance company reports over 7,500 customers file claims a year and 40 percent of these claims are luggage and personal effects. But there are always complains from customers about unpaid claims for luggage and personal effects. The reasons of insurance company denying these claims include unattended luggage or lack of information about the lost luggage.
Ball said being denied can be avoided especially when travelers spend time studying the tiniest details in their travel insurance plan.
By definition, luggage and personal effects pertain to things owned by you and you take with you. It also means items designed to be worn or carried around and you bought while on a journey. It includes jewelries, clothing, photo and video equipment, or electrical devices, or any portable equipment.
Travelers have this misleading belief that if their luggage and personal effects get lost in a restaurant, in the back of a taxi, on an airport conveyor, or any part in between while traveling are generally covered by the insurance company. That is not the case, however, as insurance companies will only cover belongings lost, stolen, or damaged during your trip as you were wearing or using them, stolen cash (with detailed police report), delayed luggage over a time specified by the insurer and you needed to buy clothes or food as a result, lost or stolen travel documents, and more.
Remember that the insurer will require certain documentations that will make your claim 101 percent plausible.
