Gap Year Travel Insurance

Gap year travel insurance is something so commonly forgot.  You got your camera, your visa, your passport, kissed mom and dad good bye,  school contact list, i-pad, every phone number imaginable, sleeping eye mask and extra comfy sweats for the flight...glancing at your watch every 30 seconds like it's going to slow down time. You know you need to be at the airport 2 hours before international flights depart.

Gap Year Travel Insurance & Your Check List: Don't Forget Insurance

And in the back of your mind you feel like you forgot something but for the life of you, you can't quite put a finger on it.

So you pull out your check list AGAIN and go over it, by this time it looks like something a dog has chewed on yet everything appear so be in order.

Out the door you fly like a dog after the mailman. One not so small thing overlooked. Travel insurance. It's easy to overlook. Heck, your teaching contract you signed has health insurance right. Right. It's health insurance and not travel insurance. You're not there yet. Health insurance may not apply.You lose your bags and your i-pad or they get ripped off while you're waiting for your connecting flight to Tokyo and it's pretty much your loss if you don't have any type of travel coverage.

Gap Year Travel Insurance - Buy What You Need, Not What They Tell You You Need

What you actually need and what an insurance company will tell you you need are two different things.

Understanding The Game
Travel insurance or insurance in general is a bit like playing black jack in Vegas. The house wins most of the time. They stay in business because the casino player at the table, can spot the sucker, knows the odds and rigged the game to win in a tie. The dealer has an advantage right from the start.

So in buying travel insurance for your gap year adventure, some companies will try to sell you a policy for extreme injuries and stuff that is outside of what you would normally run into.  They make money on this. So be realistic about what you actually need.  So in other words, It's your job to place your bet when you sit at the table.

Buy what is within the range of normal. World Nomads is a standard go to no no nonsense insurer with a wide (and we mean wide in a big big sense here) range of travel insurance that will fit any gap year adventure you plan on.

5,4,3,2,1, Click the Shutter or Lose it!

If the extent of your adventure is climbing Mt. Fuji and timing  your arrival at the peak  to  to take a cool shot of you and the new cool friend you met at your brand spanking new  job teaching English in Osaka, you don't need extreme insurance to cover deep sea diving or bungee jumping.

Gap Year Travel Insurance: What you Actually Need - The Common Stuff

Okay then, if you're not going to be jumping out of an airplane what do you need? 

•  Believe it or not, the most common claim is lost luggage, stolen luggage and stolen wallets / passports.
  
  
• Then there is the $4,000 Persian rug you bought in India. Only you never actually went there. Your credit card did. But not all by itself - it had some help from credit card thieves.
  

For Women Travelers 
From Amazon, here are some anti-theft, RFID technology based travel wallets to keep those critical documents and information safe. 

Big #2 stolen credit cards

We know what you're thinking. "If I have my credit cards and passport buried deep inside of my carry on right at the bottom of the bag , there is no way anyone can get to it. After all it is strapped across my body so I am safe."

Wrong.  If a thief wants your credit card information he/she doesn't have to touch your bag. They can do an electronic pick-pocket using RFID technology to pull the information off of your credit cards using Radio Frequency Identification Technology. If your credit card has a RFID chip in it, it can be read.

Gap Year Travel Insurance & Keeping CC# Info. Safe

So if  you think about it, when you are waiting in line at an airport how often are you 6 inches away from the next person in a line? Often is the answer. Credit card fraud is a 16 billion dollar a year problem in the U.S. 

Here's how it works. Security expert Walt Augustinowicz explains that basically the thief carries a card reading device concealed in an iPad case or really any type of case and merely holds it up to a pocket or purse to detect the card number, which then pops up on a laptop he holds. The range is not insane like 10 meters or something but it can swiftly yank information from about 1 to 6 or 8 inches away.

So How Big of a Problem is it?

• Credit card fraud was ranked #1 kind of Identity theft fraud - accounting for 35.4% of all identity theft fraud in 2018. 
  
  
• In 2017 14.2 million credit cards were stolen. 
  
  
• The most common targets are children and the elderly. 
  
  
• So what are my odds of getting ripped off? 1 in 15 people get their information ripped. More 2019 info. here.

Anti Theft Accessories For Safe Travel

Does Travel Insurance Cover Losses via Theft?

Make sure to read your PDS carefully but in general travel insurance covers theft by reimbursing a traveler for the direct loss of items as long as it is actually in the traveler's  possession during their trip. Travel insurance covers theft that occurs in the airport (including checked luggage), in the hotel, and while the traveler is in transit, i.e., in a taxi, on a bus, etc.

Gap Year Travel Insurance & Illness / Injury

Illness or injury is the next biggest one. It's good to remember that the Japanese health care system is generally pretty good. But this doesn't cover you when you sprain your ankle climbing Mt. Fuji or wipe out because you drank 1 too many beers.

Gap Year Travel Insurance Coverage Does Have Limits

Gap year travel insurance coverage related to teaching is something that would be covered.

For example during the summer, the school asks you to go on a camping trip with your high school students and you agree because they threw a bunch of money at you.

And hey when you're nearly broke how can you say "no!"??  During your summer adventure, you get bit by snake setting up the tent.  Bit by a snake that was meaner than that kid in kindergarten who made you eat paste. But nonetheless bit in the line of duty. This  is covered. 

But there is a line. Killing a case of beer in one night or power-shooting Jello shots on a Saturday night isn't covered ...even if your students are buying.

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