Insurance is meant to help after unexpected events, but you may not be aware of all the ways insurance can come to the rescue. Here are five less-known types of insurance.
Tuition insurance
If the thought of paying thousands upon thousands of dollars for college is hard to swallow, imagine losing the money if your student withdraws because of an injury or illness.
Tuition insurance can take that financial blow for you. It can reimburse you for tuition, room and board, and school fees that you lose under certain circumstances. The policies generally cover school withdrawal because injury and illness, including mental conditions such as depression. The death of the person paying tuition or the student is also usually covered.
2. Flood insurance
Are you a homeowner? If you have only home insurance you’d have to pay for flood damage yourself. While home insurance generally covers water damage such as burst pipes, it doesn’t cover floods.
Hurricane flood waters, storm surges, overflowing streams and even flooding from heavy rain need different insurance: Flood insurance.
Most people who have flood insurance buy it through the National Flood Insurance Program, a federal plan, but it’s also sold by private insurers such as Wright Flood.
3. Wedding insurance
Getting married? If you’re getting nervous about plunking down deposits for a venue, caterer, photographer, DJ, and more, wedding insurance can relieve some of the stress. It can reimburse you in cases of no-show vendors, severe weather that causes cancellation, and other circumstances that force you to postpone or cancel the big day.
In addition, some wedding venues require you to buy your own liability insurance for the event, and wedding insurance providers can help.
4. Pet injury coverage on car insurance
If your dog likes to ride shotgun with you, you may be interested in pet injury coverage on your car insurance policy. If you’re in an accident, a typical auto insurance policy doesn’t cover a pet who was in the car. But with pet injury coverage, the auto insurer will pay for vet bills (or a pet death benefit) up to a certain limit, such as $1,000.
For example, Progressive Insurance includes pet injury coverage at no extra charge for customers who have collision insurance. Chubb, Erie, Nationwide and Safeco are some of the other auto insurers offering pet injury coverage.
The chance of a pet being injured if there’s a car crash is 14%, according to filings made to state insurance departments by Safeco.
5. Mexican auto insurance
If you’re driving into Mexico, don’t assume your U.S. car insurance goes with you. Many U.S. auto policies have limited or no coverage once you cross the border.
“Limited” Mexico coverage on your policy would be OK for a short trip to Tijuana -- limited coverage often extends within 25 miles of the U.S. border and a trip of 10 days or less. But anything farther or longer and you’ll want to make sure you have Mexican auto insurance so you don’t end up in jail south of the border.