A Quick Guide To Travel Insurance

Research by Moneysupermarket.com has found over 60% of Britons opt out of getting travel insurance cover when they go abroad, while 8% confess to never taking out cover. That’s a serious amount of people going abroad every year and taking unnecessary risks! Travel insurance isn’t expensive, and it can give you peace of mind when you’re away; safe in the knowledge that if something did go wrong (fingers crossed it won’t) then you’d be covered. If yourself or one of your group fell ill while you’re away then it’s not ideal, but consider how you’d feel if you had to fit the bill! Travel insurance shouldn’t be considered as an added extra, rather it’s an essential to your trip that you shouldn’t do without. Here are a few headings for any reliable check-list.

Check What Cover You Already Have

Before you wade into the travel insurance market, hunting down the best type of package for you, make sure you check bank accounts and credit cards to see if they already offer you cover. Many credit card and bank account providers have benefits for ‘premier’ customers, and it’s possible that you may already be one of these and therefore already have a policy. If you’re not sure, then call your bank to find out what they can offer. Paying a monthly fee for having a premium account is unlikely to be worth it in the long run, but it’s possible you could upgrade for free if you’re a particularly good customer and the bank wants to give you incentive to stay on. If you can get one of these deals, then great, but also make sure your holiday destination is covered.

Any Special Circumstances?

Be careful if you or anyone in your travelling party has special circumstances – it’s possible that prices will be higher as a consequence. Special circumstances include a history of serious illness, pregnancy or being over 65 – all of which present higher risks for insurers. Specialist insurers such as SAGA may be able to help you here, but should you not be able to find a decent quote, you may be able to forego your clause about any history of illness – just remember it’ll be on your head should anything go wrong. Also if you are travelling in the EU, make sure you have an EHIC card. This will provide you with the same amount of cover as a citizen of the country you are visiting, which will mean you will get free or discounted treatment should you fall ill or be injured.

Don’t Over Cover

When making the efforts to find a fair policy, it’s important to understand what kind of cover you need. If you just take the first policy you find, you’re likely to either be substantially over-insuring yourself, or perhaps even under-insuring. Be particularly wary of premium insurance deals offering extremely high amounts of cover when you don’t really need it. For instance, do you really need £50 million worth of medical insurance cover? The answer is almost certainly not. In fact, it’s probably best to go for something more towards the £2 million mark for maximum medical expenses cover, while you should go towards £1 million for personal liability. Flight cancellation is also worth considering too – no one wants to be in the nightmare scenario of not being able to go on holiday for whatever reason, but then having to cough up at a later stage anyway.

By: Derek Lakes

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