If you are going away on holiday, or for business, travel insurance is essential. Although we would all like to hope and assume that everything will go to plan, without the right travel insurance cover, we could end up liable to pay for overseas medical treatment, or lose money should an airline go bust or when the holiday is cancelled for one reason or another. Just to get an idea of the kind of money that you could have to spend without travel insurance, whilst we have the NHS in the UK, elsewhere in the world, medical bills could be tens of thousands of pounds.
It’s unsurprising that many people are put off by the idea of travel insurance when they get a quote from their travel agents. However, you can save money by buying your travel insurance from an experienced insurance broker.
The basics of choosing a travel insurance policy:
Travel premiums can be extremely varied, both in price and level of cover. However, whilst you will want to make sure you get the best value for money, you should always make sure you get the level of cover to suit your needs.
Whilst you can add extra cover to a travel insurance policy, any basic travel insurance premium should include the following:
• Cancellation – If for whatever reason you are forced to cut short or cancel your holiday altogether, it’s important that your travel insurance covers this. You should always check the small print to be sure which possible events you can claim against, for example, whilst an insurer may pay out if you had to cancel your holiday due to a family member falling ill, they may not if a close personal friend fell ill.
• Flight Delays – If you are flying to your destination, your cover should ensure that you are compensated if your flight is delayed for longer than 12 hours.
• Baggage and Personal Belongings – A travel insurance policy should pay out as much as £1,500 should you lose your luggage or personal possessions. However, most insurers also put a limit on individual valuable items.
• Medical Cover – If you don’t want to have to pay a huge medical bill, you should always make sure you have medical cover whilst abroad, in case you have an accident or fall ill. In most cases, £2m of medical cover is sufficient, including medical care and repatriation, should you have to be flown back to the UK.
• Personal Liability – As well as medical cover, you should make sure you are covered should you injure someone else, or damage their property. If someone else makes a claim against you, it’s important that you have insurance cover to avoid having to pay for any damages or medical treatment.
Different Types of Policies
There are two main types of travel insurance policy; single-trip and annual multi-trip polices. As is suggested by the names, a single trip policy covers you for one trip, whereas a multi-trip policy covers you for every trip that you make over the course of a year. If you are likely to be making several trips over the space of a year, a multi-trip policy can help you to save money. On the other hand, if you only have a single trip planned, then a single-trip policy is the sensible choice to opt for.
If you need advice in choosing the right travel insurance policy for you, you can call P&W Insurance on 01252 343 822.
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