Travel Insurance Guide
What is Travel Insurance?
Travel insurance is designed to provide cover against a range of risks involved with travelling, either in the UK or abroad. This can include some very expensive items, like being repatriated to the UK in the event of sickness or accident or third party liability eg if you injure somebody else, so is well worth thinking about.
Travel insurance usually comes in two types:
- Annual Travel Insurance; or
- Single Trip Travel Insurance.
Travel Insurance covers a large range of different risks
right from cancellation of your trip due to circumstances outside of your
control and loss or damage to personal belongings which you take with you.
Some policies can be extended to cover things like golf holidays (including the
cost of a round of drinks if you get a hole in one!) and winter sports cover.
Who is it suitable
for?
- Annual travel insurance and single trip insurance cover pretty much the same types of risks, so the main consideration is whether you will be travelling more than once in a year, in which case annual travel insurance may be better value.
- If you're pretty certain that you will only be travelling once, then a single trip policy should be fine. It's a good idea to take out the cover as soon as you book your trip, because of the benefit of the cancellation cover.
- Annual travel insurance can seem like good value if you intend to travel more than once. This usually covers any pre-booked accommodation for a minimum number of nights eg 2 nights.
What should you look
out for?
With travel insurance in particular you need to make sure
that the cover matches your needs. These can be determined by where you are
going and what you intend to do when you get there.
- Hazardous activities
If you're going diving off the Great
Barrier Reef or trekking through the jungles of Borneo, you'll need more cover
than if you're lounging by the pool in Majorca.
Your policy will probably cover a range of basic activities as standard. Often
these are very explicit e.g. horse riding may be covered, but not if it
involves jumping. Anything more hazardous must be disclosed to the insurance
company so your policy can be upgraded. Have a good look at the policy to make
sure your planned activities are covered.
- Location
Your policy will provide cover
for specific locations, eg Europe only, Worldwide or Worldwide excluding USA. Cover for
the USA will probably cost
more due to the increased level of personal liability claims and high medical
expenses bills in the US.
So if you're going to Canada
and are planning a trip to the States, it would be a good idea to get cover
that is valid there,
- Trip Duration
Make sure that your policy covers
the full duration of your journey. Both annual travel insurance and single trip
cover will have restrictions on the number of day's cover granted.
- Detailed terms of the policy
Insurance companies will stick
rigidly to the terms of the policy, so make sure you understand these. Reading
the policy document from cover to cover may take the shine off your holiday,
but it could save you a lot of grief. For example, if the policy says you need
a full UK
driving licence to use a moped, you won't be covered if you've only got a
provisional licence.
Some cheap travel insurance
policies simply don't have sufficient cover. Its well worth comparing a cheap
quote with a more expensive one so you can see the things are not covered. That
extra £30 could be the best money you ever spent.
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