Trip insurance: You can recoup costs of an upcoming trip if your house is destroyed in natural disaster
Trip insurance generally pays out if your destination is flattened by a hurricane or destroyed by an earthquake. But what if those same things happen to your home before an upcoming trip?
Most comprehensive travel insurance policies carry a little-known benefit that covers future flights, cruises, tours, etc., if your primary residence is destroyed or rendered inaccessible.
“It allows you to cancel your trip and get your money back if your home is damaged bad enough that you have to stay home and make repairs,” said Julie Loffredi, travel editor of online insurance company InsureMyTrip.
This likely would apply to people who lost homes this week in Northern California’s deadly wildfires or in recent hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico.
In addition to damage to your home by natural disasters — flooding, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, fires and wildfires, or blizzards, according to one policy — it also covers things such as damage because of vandalism or a burglary.
Of course, you have to have bought trip insurance before the unforeseen events happen on the homefront. And this would also apply if you bought insurance that allows you to cancel for any reason.
“[I]t’s probably a rare occasion that a disaster occurs at your home, causing damage that would keep you from traveling. Even so, this is one of those times you’d be thanking your lucky stars you invested in a travel insurance plan,” says an InsureMyTrip blog post.
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