My wife and I are planning an international holiday next month. Besides health insurance, what other protection do travel insurance policies offer? Is the premium country-specific?
International travel insurance products cover passport loss, baggage delay and loss, emergency evacuation, personal liability, trip delay (only if delayed by more than 12 hours), hijacking (pay a distress allowance), in-hospital indemnity (daily benefit if you are hospitalised due to injury or illness), sickness dental relief (dental treatment due to sudden acute pain, tooth filling or surgery) and automatic-extension of the policy (can be extended for up to seven days from the date of expiry).
The premium is not country-specific but zone-specific. There are two main zones: America (North and South America) and excluding America. Premiums depend on which zone the insured is travelling to, the cover asked for, age of the insured and duration of the trip.
I recently moved to India from Singapore and am living in a house provided by the company, which has its structure and contents insured. Does that mean the electronic items I have brought along are also covered? If not, how can I get them included and how will these be valued?
Your equipment may be covered depending on the nature of the house insurance policy taken by your employer. If the policy covers all the contents within the household, it is likely that your electronic items are protected.
If the policy covers only a specific list or type of goods, or, if it specifically excludes electronic items, you may need to get a separate policy for your gadgets. In this case, you could opt for a householder policy, electronic equipment policy or an all-risk policy. It would be advisable to check the terms and conditions as the cover can vary across insurance companies.
If I transfer my health insurance policy from one company to another, can I carry over my no-claim bonus, too?
There are a few plans which allow porting the no-claim bonus and pre-existing diseases. If the company you are shifting to offers a no-claim bonus facility, you can carry forward the cumulative bonus earned from the continuous renewals of the old policy.
Remember, a no-claim bonus would be allowed to carry forward only if the policy is renewed within a specified period of time, before the expiry of the previous policy.
The customer may need to submit documentary evidence — a no-claim bonus certificate from the previous insurer — to the new company, so that the bonus can be carried forward.
The writer is the managing director and CEO of Tata AIG General Insurance. The views expressed are his own. You can send your queries to yourmoney@bsmail.in
