Sallie Mae Insurance Services Offers Travel Insurance to Shield Students against Spring Break Risks

As millions of college students prepare to head off to spring break, Sallie Mae, the nation’s No. 1 financial services company specializing in education, offers students and their parents greater peace of mind through its travel insurance program.

“Spring break should be a well-deserved time of fun and relaxation for college students,” said Charlie Rocha, senior vice president, Sallie Mae. “Travel insurance gives students and their parents the security of knowing that their vacation plans, and more importantly their safety, can be well protected.”

Offered through the recently launched Sallie Mae Insurance Services, travel insurance includes the critical benefit of trip interruption insurance and other services to meet the needs of a typical college student. A sudden late snow storm or stomach bug can turn a welcome break from the books into a loss of thousands of dollars. Generally costing 4 percent of total trip cost, travel insurance is a small investment to protect the cost of a trip. In fact, students can purchase travel insurance right up until their departure date.

Sallie Mae’s travel insurance benefits include:

• Cash reimbursement that airlines and cruise companies may not provide in event of trip cancellation.
  Most airline rescheduling policies and cruise companies’ own insurance policies strictly limit allowable reasons for trip cancellation and offer credit only with a deadline and no cash reimbursement. Reasons for trip cancellation covered by the Sallie Mae Insurance Services policy can include weather, natural disaster, sickness, injury, death in the family, and trip delay.

• Protection for medical events—and from disastrous medical expenses.
  Health insurance may not protect students from the potentially catastrophic expense of medical treatment while traveling, especially outside of the United States. Travel insurance covers medical expenses and medical evacuation to return home.

• Baggage protection that regular policies may not provide.
  Travel insurance covers the expenses from baggage loss, delay, theft and damage that a homeowner’s policy and credit card may not cover.

• Value-added travel assistance services.
  Travel assistance services, such as ID theft recovery and emergency cash advance, provide students with additional security and convenience at no extra cost.

Sallie Mae’s travel insurance helps ensure that students’ needs will be met in the event of a trip cut short due to weather conditions or when the fun comes to an end because of a medical issue. To learn more, visit www.SallieMae.com/insurance.

Sallie Mae (NASDAQ: SLM) is the nation’s No. 1 financial services company specializing in education. Whether college is a long way off or just around the corner, Sallie Mae turns education dreams into reality for its 25 million customers. With products and services that include college savings programs, scholarship search tools, education loans, tuition insurance, and online banking, Sallie Mae offers solutions that help families save, plan, and pay for college. Sallie Mae also provides financial services to hundreds of college campuses as well as to federal and state governments. Learn more at SallieMae.com. Commonly known as Sallie Mae, SLM Corporation and its subsidiaries are not sponsored by or agencies of the United States of America.