Basic Differences between Student Travel Insurance and Travel Insurance

Posted on: Feb 18, 2019 | 3 mins | Written by: HDFC ERGO Team

Basic Differences between Student Travel Insurance and Travel Insurance

Be it for the purpose of seeing exotic locations on a vacation or to explore opportunities on a business trip, many people visit foreign destinations.Similarly, many students travel great lengths to earn their degree from a reputed foreign university to give a boost to their career prospects. With different reasons to travel abroad, there are different travel insurances available too. But many youngsters remain confused about how the international travel insurance for students is different from the general travel insurances.

What is travel insurance?

While travelling in a foreign country, any kind of injury or sickness can skyrocket your expenses given the costly medical facilities abroad. To defend yourself and your loved ones from such unforeseen expenses, opt for a travel insurance policy. HDFC ERGO provides ‘Pay Per Day’ schemes that take care of loss of baggage, flight delays, hospitalization expenses, compensation of damages to be paid to a third party, etc. With per day pricing you can cover your travel plan as per the specific number of days. For example instead of taking a travel insurance for 4 days for a one day meeting at the US you can take travel insurance for just a day and pay less.

What is student travel insurance?

A recent data released by the government says that around 6 lakh Indian students are currently studying in more than 80 different countries. The parents are always concerned about their safety in a foreign land. A Student Travel Insurance works as a shield during medical emergencies, financial problems, situational difficulties like luggage theft, misplaced documents, etc. HDFC ERGO, for example, offers schemes at an affordable price that cover accidental death where the nominee is paid the insurance amount, medical bill reimbursement in cases of hospitalization with injuries or sickness, legal support, loss of baggage or passport, etc.

But what’s difference?

Well, as you would have guessed by now, travel insurance is meant for people who are going to be in a foreign country for a short while, like a week or fortnight. But if the idea is to stay there for months or years to study, the travel insurance plan meant specifically for students is a must.

Additionally, a student travel insurance plan pays for the tuition fee for the time when studies are interrupted due to hospitalization. It also reimburses the advance payment if the insured is forced to terminate his studies due to illness, death of family members, etc. It even pays for sponsoring the travel and stay of one family member when the policy holder requires hospitalization for more than a week (and there's no family member already present in vicinity). It even pays the remaining tuition fees of the insured in the event of accidental death of insured’s sponsor and even looks after the cost for the student’s treatment of mental and nervous disorders including alcoholism and drug dependency.

As for the simpler travel insurance, it offers schemes that cover loss or damage of the things at your home back in India caused by theft or fire, something a student travel plan won’t give. So, now the choice is all yours!

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