Travel Insurance

Travel insurance may be somewhat boring to research but can save your holiday from disaster should the unexpected happen. So just what should you be looking for from a good travel insurance policy?

The two main areas to look at are the scope of the cover, and the price that you have to pay for the policy. These two are of course heavily interconnected, as you need to ensure that you are not paying over the odds for adequate cover, or wasting your money on a cheap travel insurance package that won’t be able to help out when you need it. When looking at the headline price of the policy, you must always remember that insurance that will not pay out is actually worse than no insurance at all, as if you travel without cover you are more likely to at least arrange access to an emergency fund.

Going on holiday without travel insurance is however extremely inadvisable. This is particularly the case when it comes to medical matters. The cost of private medical treatment can easily run into six figures in many countries, meaning that if you escape the ruin of your body you may still preside over the funeral of your finances. Always take expert advice before travelling on exactly what sort of figure constitutes reasonable medical cover for your destination.

Many will be aware of the need for more expensive medical provisions, which cover repatriation and other expensive procedures, when you travel to more far flung locations. However you may be surprised to discover that some of the most developed countries in the world require the most extensive medical cover. The U.S.A. is a perfect example of this, a country where the standard £1 million medical cover – which is adequate for travel in Europe – is simply not enough.

Other important provisions that you may wish to think about regard the cancellation of flights, accommodation or even the entire holiday package. Some of the mid-priced travel insurance deals out there will have arrangements to cover the cost of rescheduling elements of your holiday, but you need to be very careful with looking at the exceptions in the policy. The volcanic ash cloud that ruined so many holidays last year was an event excluded from cover in a great many unhappy cases, as small print meant that not taking a flight abandoned for this reason was classed as a voluntary cancellation. The devil is in the detail.

You need to make sure that the excess levels do not make the travel insurance effectively worthless. If it will cost more to claim than the cost of replacing lost or stolen items yourself you can be in for a frustrating time when you should be relaxing. Similarly, if you are travelling with the family, avoid policies that will require you to pay multiple excess payments for the same claim event, such as the family baggage going missing in transit. There are now plenty of resources online that can help you find the information you need about different levels of cover, including the websites of providers of travel insurance.

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