This Article was fact checked and last updated for accuracy on August 27, 2022 by Mani Karthik
My friend came from India last summer to meet me and to take a tour of America. However, he ended up with his visitor’s insurance, which he had bought for 3 months initially, expiring during his stay in the US. Since he intended to stay for longer in the US, he wanted to extend his visitor’s insurance plan for another 2 months.
There was a lot of confusion about whether he should renew the existing plan or buy a new one. From our experience, I am sharing some useful information that will help you decide if you are even in a similar situation.
Extending Visitor’s Insurance is Better
Given the rising health care costs in America, equipping yourself with a visitor’s insurance plan that provides adequate coverage for injuries and illnesses that could occur while in this country has become more than important.
Between buying new visitor’s insurance and renewing an already existing one, it is the extension of the existing one that offers bigger benefits.
Let’s say you decide to buy a new insurance plan and then end up falling sick 10 days later during your trip in the US. And what if the ailment is due to a medical condition that you were experiencing for the past one month. In such cases, the new policy will not cover you, since you have bought the insurance just 10 days ago and are suffering from this medical condition much before that. They’ll consider this ailment a pre-existing medical condition, which unfortunately is not covered under most visitor’s insurance plans.
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However, in case you decide to renew the existing policy and then face the above situation, you’ll get covered since your insurance has been valid for the past three months and 10 days now.
What is the Procedure to Renew Travel Insurance?
The good news is that most visitors’ insurance plans can be renewed. This can be done through some simple steps online. When extending the policy, you can also update details like your phone number, mailing address and email address, depending on the product type.
Visitor’s insurance plans from Seven Corners, HCCMIS, IMG, Trawick, Travel Insurance Services are all good for renewal.
However, stay prepared for a nominal renewal fee and an increase in the premium after policy renewal. The reason could be that the price of that specific policy has been increased for everyone who buys it or due to the fact that the person has aged since they bought the policy and now falls under a higher charged age group.
Click on this link to learn about options to get almost all types of visitor’s insurance plan renewed.
Do remember to get the insurance renewed at least one day before the expiration date, since you cannot get the policy renewed once it is expired. However, for IMG polices, the expiration date of the policy is one day after the last date of coverage. There will not be any coverage from the expiration date. Hence, even in this case, you must get the policy renewed before the expiration date.
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