Terrorism Insurance

Most insurance policies exclude such Really Bad Day items as…

(a) Nuclear war

(b) Hazardous chemical disasters

(c) Political unrest

…and—you guessed it

(d) Terrorism.

But in the current travel climate, special policies and riders have been developed to protect you from losing the money you’ve paid for your trip if a terrorist act prevents you from going.

It’s a variant on trip interruption and cancellation insurance.

Turkey is a pretty safe place to travel. In fact, most of the world is a pretty safe place to travel. But terrorism is, by its nature, unpredictable. It could happen anywhere, anytime.

An event may have repercussions far beyond its locus: You may not be able to go on your trip because connecting flights through a third country are cancelled.

So here’s the real question: if there were a terrorist incident in, say, Istanbul a few days or weeks before you were scheduled to go there, would you want to (or have to) cancel your trip? If so, would you lose money for plane tickets, hotel reservations, tours, rental cars and other arrangements?

Could you afford the loss? Is it a risk you’re willing to take?

Actually, you might say that immediately after a terror incident is the safest time to visit a place: police are everywhere, everyone’s on guard, and yet most if not all services and businesses are probably operating as usual, and tourism businesses especially will welcome you and thank you for coming. Many may waive their normal cancellation penalties under these special circumstances, may allow you to rebook at a later time.

But nothing is certain….

Terror insurance may cost about 1+% of the cost of your trip. If you’ve made arrangements costing, say, $3000, the cost of terror insurance may be around $30 or $40.

Here’s my advice:

1. Figure out what you stand to lose if you don’t go;

2. Decide whether news of a terror event would probably cause you to cancel, or whether you’d go anyway;

3. Decide how much peace of mind is worth to you.

You may decide to self-insure.

United Kingdom & Europe: contact JS Insurance for coverage of trip cancellation, medical, mobile phone, computer, scuba diving and other travel insurance.

USA: contact InsureMyTrip.com for no-obligation price quotes on all sorts of policies.