A lot of money is being invested today in traveling. Cruise lines, resort package deals, and air travel can easily run into thousands of dollars. You may have invested some of that money on your trip and can risk losing it all. Some people either don't think of getting travel insurance or they just don't want to. Some may think they are in perfect health and they are physically active, what could go wrong? If something does, they will deal with it then.

Why should you buy travel insurance?

Why not? It's relatively inexpensive. The cost is typically about five to ten percent of the total outlay for the trip. There are literally hundreds of things that can go wrong on a vacation, from a cancelled flight to a serious illness. In some rare cases an act of terrorism or the financial default of a travel supplier can cost money you had originally planned to spend in more enjoyable ways. An illness, accident or other unforeseen circumstance can force a traveler to cancel or interrupt their plans. In that instance they face two major losses: nonrefundable deposits and medical expenses not covered by insurance

Suppose you find yourself in some mishap that leaves you far from home with no money and unable to keep the reservation you already made with no refunds available. This is when it makes sense to purchase travel insurance.

Most trip/travel insurance will cover trip cancellation, trip interruption or delays, medical, dental, emergency medical transportation, lost luggage, accidental death, financial default of airlines, and cruise lines.

Here are some common questions often asked by travelers

What happens if a traveler must cancel their vacation?

Often times a traveler could lose nonrefundable deposits and prepayments that add up to hundreds if not thousands of dollars. A good travel insurance plan should provide trip cancellation coverage for the traveler's vacation investment and the insurance company should reimburse the traveler for all pre-paid, nonrefundable expenses.

How does trip cancellation and interruption coverage work?

It reimburses for forfeited, nonrefundable, unused payments or deposits if the traveler must cancel or interrupt their trip due to a covered reason.

Does travel insurance cover acts of terrorism?

Some travel insurance policies do not cover terrorism. They may only cover terrorist acts that occur in foreign countries. Others can cover terrorist incidents both in the United States and abroad.

What is the cost of travel insurance?

The cost of travel insurance is based on the value of the trip. It normally will run between 5 and 10 percent, based on the age of the traveler. Typically, the average cost runs around five to seven percent of the trip cost.

What if the airline, cruise line or tour operations goes default?

Almost all travel insurance policies include financial default coverage if the program is purchased within 15 days of making the initial trip deposit.

Always check for duplicate coverage

There are a few types of insurance related to travel that you may not need because you are covered from other sources. Your health insurance, life insurance or even your car insurance polices may have limited coverage. Thus, you could be buying duplicate coverage. It is important to always compare with your existing insurance policies to insure there are no duplications.

Be sure to check the ?fine print? for hidden limitations on these existing policies. After researching your current polices, it may seem you are already covered on the surface, but the fine print could limit certain conditions, circumstances, situations or locations. The fine print is written in ?legalese? that is hard to understand.