Keeping Your Valuables Safe While Traveling

When you go on any type of trip, whether business or pleasure, you will usually bring some of your valuables with you. For example, you may need to bring cash, your passport, or your credit cards. Whatever the valuables may be, you should consider the following tips to keep them safe while traveling:

• Obtain travel insurance for your valuables before you leave on your trip through BancorpSouth Insurance Services. You may also be able to purchase insurance through the airline with whom you are flying if you are concerned about your luggage en route.
• Choose a hotel that has a safe in the room as well as security features that make you feel comfortable. Be sure to keep any valuables you cannot carry with you, or you choose not to carry with you, in the safe at all times. You may wish to request a hotel room between the third and seventh floors. A room on one of these floors will prevent outsiders from entering your room through a window, balcony or patio, and it will allow you to leave safely in the case of an emergency. Remember, only take those valuables that are most necessary on your trip. The less you take, the better. Then, try to carry your valuables with you at all times.
• Choose a rental car that has a full trunk. Avoid renting any car with a hatch back as you can see through to any valuables you may be carrying, and it can be accessed easily from the front of the car.
• When walking around with cash or credit cards of any type, try to keep them in your front pocket. Additionally, you may want to consider carrying a fanny pack around your waist to keep everything in front of you and in your sight at all times. You can also safety pin the money directly to a belt loop or other hidden piece of clothing.
• It is suggested that when you travel to a foreign country, you make four copies of your itinerary and passport: one to carry on you at all times, one to keep in your room, one to leave with a designated person at home, and one to keep in an obvious place in your home. If you do not have a safe in your room, and you have a passport, keep it with you. If you cannot, put your passport and travel itinerary inside the pages of a book or magazine.
• Take only the money you will need with you each day when you leave your hotel room. Put the rest in a safe or divide up the cash and put it within the pages of a book or magazine.
• Be sure to keep your hotel room door locked at all times and do not open it for strangers or newly met “friends”. Plan to meet them in the lobby or bar. Many times a robber or burglar will befriend victims in order to gain access to their valuables.

While this is not a complete list of safety tips, nor does it guarantee your safe travel, it does give you some precautionary steps to take so you can have a great trip and keep your valuables safe.

Always consider BancorpSouth Insurance Services when traveling to protect your valuables. Visit www.bancorpsouth.insuranceaisle.com for a quote today.