Your travel itinerary might not go according to plan. An emergency might interrupt your entire vacation and send you into a complete panic. Your luggage could get lost on a flight. You could get in an accident while driving a rental car. Your passport could get stolen halfway through your trip.
How can you prepare for travel emergencies like this?
Get Travel Insurance
Travel insurance can offer you coverage for the financial losses that come with various travel emergencies, including delayed flights, canceled flights, delayed luggage, lost luggage, car rental problems and medical emergencies. Investing in this type of insurance could save you from a lot of financial strain when something goes wrong.
Where can you get travel insurance? Your credit card might offer travel insurance. Check your card’s policy to see what protections it might offer. The card may require you to pay for all of your flights and travel bookings (hotels, rental cars, cruises, etc.) with that specific credit card in order to be eligible for coverage. Some cards will give you protection if you only purchase a portion of the trip expenses with your card.
What if your credit card doesn’t offer travel insurance? You’re not out of luck. You can sign up for a private travel insurance plan before your big vacation.
Build an Emergency Fund
Even with insurance coverage, you’ll want to have an accessible financial safety net for when something goes wrong during your travels. At the very least, you can use the emergency fund to handle your immediate expenses and then use the receipts to make an insurance claim later on. Your emergency fund can also help you cover urgent expenses that your insurance policy can’t help you with.
If you don’t have an emergency fund, you should aspire to start one before you go on your trip. Even a small safety net is better than nothing at all.
What if you don’t have enough emergency savings? If you don’t have enough savings, you could opt for a personal loan as an alternative payment method. It is a fast and easy to use solution with a simple application process that you can turn to in an emergency. As long as you meet the eligibility requirements, you can fill out an application online. You could get approved for the loan!
Make Copies
You don’t want to be far away from home and realize that your passport is missing. The best way to prepare for this emergency is to make photocopies of your passport (specifically the identification page). The Department of Homeland Security recommends doing this and stashing it in a different location than your physical passport when you travel.
Why? You will need a passport to leave the country and get back home. You can’t depart without one. If you lose your passport, you will have to go to the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate and issue a replacement as soon as possible. Having a photocopy of the passport should speed up the entire process.
You should also make photocopies of the credit cards that you intend to bring on your trip and stash them in a separate part of your luggage. If you don’t want to make photocopies, you could simply write down the relevant information from your credit cards, including the company’s contact numbers for assistance. This information will come in handy if your wallet gets pickpocketed or you lose a credit card during your trip.
You can’t prevent travel emergencies from happening, but you can prepare for them. Make these preparations before you go on vacation!
