Travel Insurance Essentials

If you broke your leg on the ski slopes what would you do? What would happen if you became ill in the US and needed to be hospitalised? If you had insurance you could be airlifted to safety or be able to rest up in a hospital bed until you were feeling well enough to return home.

What would happen however, if you hadn't bought travel insurance before going on holiday? You would either be left stranded and sick or you'd be signing mighty big cheques to pay for your treatment.

Many people don't bother getting holiday insurance, especially if they are holidaying within Europe. You should be aware though that your European Health Card won't be enough if you have very serious accident. Trying to claim money back from the NHS can also be an unnecessarily long and drawn out process.

Travelling further afield, particularly to America, usually encourages people to take out insurance. But, sure enough people will buy based on price alone and the chosen cover isn't comprehensive enough to insure you against injury from the kind of activities you will be engaged in.

This makes getting adequate level of cover crucially important. Backpackers for example, tend to do some crazy, high-risk activities, such as jumping out of planes and off of bridges, rafting down rapids and leaving their belongings in usually unsecured backpacks in unsecured hostels. If this is the kind of travel you are going to be doing it is essential you take out backpacker insurance.

Winter sports also have a high injury rate and the accompanying treatment can be particularly expensive. Many standard insurance policies won't cover you in certain circumstances such as in off-piste areas or on particularly challenging pistes. So again, you will need to get specific insurance.

Should you get an annual policy with a high level of cover if you only ski every other year? Or should you just buy a policy for a specific holiday? This depends on your needs and how often you go away, but annual policies do tend to be better value for money.

Check with your insurer whether you can bolt on extras for specific high-risk holidays. If you are only doing an activity holiday every now and then this will save you money. Furthermore, it still may be cheaper to get an annual ski policy if you are skiing for at least seven days a year.

Be sure to check that your holiday insurance covers you in the event of company going under. In recent years, the number of holiday and flight companies that have gone bust has increased due to the increasing pressures caused by the recession.

By: Arlie Ourth

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