We might begrudge parting with our hard earned cash when it comes to insurance but in some areas it really is a necessity. Travel insurance is one of these situations, when planning your next getaway, the last thing on your mind is forking out cash to cover you for a – hopefully – unlikely event.
Yet, if something were to go amiss whilst you are travelling, the resultant medical bills, potential cancellation fees and possible cost of repatriation could see you hundreds or even thousands of pounds out of pocket if you are not properly covered.
To help you get the most out of your travel insurance policy and make your cash spread that little bit further, here are my 10 top tips of travel insurance:
1: Keep it honest; honesty really is the best policy when it comes to informing a potential insurer of any pre-existing medical conditions. Failing to make an insurer aware of anything which could result in a claim could see your policy voided in the event that you need to use it.
2: Get the EHIC (European Health Insurance Card); if you are a National Insurance card holder in the UK you are eligible for a free European Health Insurance Card which will grant you free or reduced cost emergency medical treatment in the majority of EU member countries. This is always a good back-up if you’ve purchased a budget holiday insurance policy or cannot afford to fork out for one.
3: 2 isn’t always better than one; this is especially the case when it comes to travel insurance, taking out more than one policy will not give you double the protection and, aside from costing you much more, could actually slow down any resultant claim process.
4: Are you already covered; this is one question you should be asking yourself when you come to purchase travel cover. It isn’t uncommon for bank accounts and credit cards to offer customers free protection as part of the package. This is particularly common with monthly fee current bank accounts, so make sure you check what level of cover could be on offer to you if you hold this account type.
5: Shop around; to ensure you get the cheapest policy with the best fit cover and features, make use of price comparison sites such as moneysupermarket.com, gocompare.com, etc to help you to compare a wide variety of policies from several insurers and remove the tiresome legwork.
6: Don’t choose on price alone; when it comes to purchasing your policy, saving some cash and finding a good deal is a must, but be careful not to fall into the trap of choosing cover purely for the effect it will have on your wallet. The aim should be to purchase a policy with comprehensive cover in the areas you most need it at a reasonable price.
7: Minimum cover; the following should be used as a rough guideline when it comes to choosing a holiday insurance policy. Medical cover with a minimum of £2 million in protection (£3 million + for the USA), £1 million personal liability cover, £3-4,000 cancellation cover, £1,500 in baggage cover and cash cover of at least £250.
8: Which policy type is best for you; for those who travel once or twice per year, a single trip policy taken out before each journey will most probably be the best option in terms of both cost and duration of cover. If you are a frequent traveller (3+ trips per year) then an annual or multi-trip policy should be the most cost effective option and save you from having to find cover each time you travel. For the backpackers amongst you, don’t panic, there is a policy just for you which will cover you for extended duration trips and for those with children, a family policy should save you a great deal of money over purchasing separate policies.
9: Exclusions, exclusions; keep your eye on the small print when you purchase a new policy. All policies have their exclusions and you can ill afford to find that you have one in an area in which cover is vital. One common exclusion on travel insurance policies is the lack of cover for dangerous activities such as; skiing, scuba-diving, bungee jumping and rock climbing.
10: Policy Excesses; it is virtually inevitable that you will encounter some form of excess payment when claiming on any type of insurance policy. To those not in the know, an excess is a sum of money you will need to pay your insurer to facilitate a claim, i.e. £50 to be able to claim on the theft of £250 holiday money. This is designed to deter policy holders from claiming unless absolutely necessary. Cheaper travel insurance policies tend to have a higher number of high value excesses.
This post is sponsored by MoneySupermarket.com. The article was written by the staff of MoneySupermarket.com, but the pictures were added by Vagabond3. While this post was submitted to us, we totally believe travel insurance is a very important consideration when taking on a long term trip.
