Travel insurance gets negative criticism. It’s very confusing as many tourists see it as a money-sucking game —an upsell with such a lot of fine print it’s basically useless. Now it’s very much in demand; with the right policy, you can avoid getting stuck in a foreign country with a serious illness, loss of personal belongings or flight cancellation and the list goes on. That’s why many countries have included travel health insurance as part of their visa prerequisites.

A few days ago, my cousin and I were talking about Takaful and insurance. He shared his experience of how Salaam Takaful helped him a lot when he was going to Istanbul, Turkey to attend a seminar. He is a religious person and does nothing outside of Shariah and Islam. Since travel insurance was mandatory, he preferred to take only Takaful instead of any other conventional insurance. He bought the policy because it was a mandatory requirement. Unfortunately, his world spun when he arrived in Istanbul and suddenly had difficulty in breathing and got hospitalized. At that moment, he realized that all of his savings would be gone. During his journey, he was constantly receiving updates about his travels, such as weather and flight details and by that time he got a chance to install Salaam Takaful app as well. He contacted Salaam Takaful’s international partner Swan, according to him within just a couple of hours he got out of it without paying a single penny to the hospital.

Sometimes this is an effective way to protect your investment, especially when things go wrong. People can save their hard-earned money. Such policies can sometimes be lifesaving depending on what you pay and what you can get.

ZANISH AHSAN,

Karachi.