What made you decide to purchase insurance? What made you consider purchasing it? Insurance can serve a lot of purposes, and a lot of them are overlooked. Here are some common, inaccurate mindsets about investing in insurance coverage, and how to fix them so that you can see what the coverage is truly worth.
"It's a bad deal." Of course competitive prices are important, but don’t forget about competitive service. Some of what determines how good a deal is revolves around the value of your trip compared to the cost of the coverage. But don’t also forget the invaluable service that can be available to you. Insurance becomes less of a bad deal when you look at all the benefits with a fresh eye, including the ones not listed, like sincere customer service. Make sure the insurance you purchase is valuable all around.
"Insurance companies are just game-playing tricksters." It’s easy to think of an insurance company as a trickster, until you beat them to the game by reading the policy. Truth is, that policy is as much about us as it is about you. You may not be covered for the exclusions, but we also must pay the benefits. So, the better you know the policy, the less surprises you’ll have, and the fewer “tricks” you’ll find.
"Insurance is something for only unhealthy people." If you’re buying travel insurance and wondering if you should purchase some medical coverage, it’s never a bad idea! We tend to think of travel medical insurance as something only unhealthy people need, because the odds of us getting sick during our 3-week trip is unlikely. But, if you think about it, traveling puts you at a higher risk for getting sick. You could eat something your body is not used to, you could get sick because of the stress of travel, you could fall during your hike through the mountains… it’s all possible! Unhealthy and healthy people alike can benefit from the extra insurance.
"It's just too much effort." You’ve heard the horror stories... Claims taking a year to be paid, a big claim being denied, hours spent on hold waiting to find out the status of your claim… Claims can be complicated, but half the effort can be alleviated just by using the resources at hand. There are lots of ways to make insurance less tedious – enroll online, online chat instead of calling in about your claim, emailing your claim instead of making copies to mail in, etc. It doesn’t have to be that much work if you take advantage of every benefit you’re offered.
"It's too big of an investment." In a world like this, it can be hard to invest in someone and ask them to impress you. But it does happen! Insurance is one of those things that you may feel neutral about if you don’t have to use it, but the second something goes wrong, you may regret not getting it, or cherish the coverage if you did get it. So let the investment impress you once, and you’ll realize that there are a million great ways to look at insurance.
