You've just been robbed of your wallet, the airline still hasn't located your baggage and while you were being mugged, you sustained some injuries and need a doctor to take a look. The worst part is that you're all alone and all this happened away from home, in another country. This is the ideal scenario to have travel insurance. Not that this is an ideal scenario in life, in general. But when the worst can take place, it's always best to be prepared to handle it with dignity. A travel insurance policy can help you deal with your medical expenses and reimburse you with some money for your use in case you have lost access to your finances. It is useful if you are travelling within the country or even overseas. The best way to shop for this insurance is to determine what kind of traveller you are or travelling you will be doing. Accordingly, get the policy that will suit your needs.

When you are travelling, basic questions to ask yourself are: will you be travelling alone? Will you be travelling abroad or are you sticking to a domestic sector? Are you going to be involved in some extreme physical action like sports? Will you be able to afford your ticket back home? Are you going to be staying in a safe area or will you be in a big city where there is the high possibility for crime? The cost for this insurance for travel within India will be less than if you're travelling internationally. Some domestic airlines offer a basic insurance to safeguard against lost baggage or flight cancellations, or even missed flights. This is a basic insurance that covers trip cancellation, flight change, delays, illness or injury or weather-created problems. The basic insurance can be upgraded for an extra cost to include other risks like terrorism, robbery and theft, accidents, etc. It is usually better to get this insurance from someone other than the airline, since, in case it faces a financial loss, it would not be able to reimburse you.

Some international countries like the USA require medical insurance in order to be able to travel. But this is not any ordinary medical insurance. It is known as travel health insurance. Most international travel insurance usually includes some basic medical insurance in its policy. For this you don't need to undergo any tests and will be reimbursed up to a point. Most student traveling insurance also include this feature. Nowadays you can buy and register your traveling insurance online, so even if your wallet with the insurance card gets robbed, you can access it anywhere.