General Tips for Travel Advice

To the average customer looking for a travel insurance deal they may be bombarded with terminology and information of which they find it hard to take in. They know that travel insurance is worthwhile – peace of mind it affords is worth the premium alone, but they have no further knowledge. Travel insurance can be quite a specialised and many people are unsure as to what exactly they should be looking for. We have compiled some tips to help in your choices of cover:

Cancellation of holiday – many travel insurance policies can provide compensation if you need, or are forced, to cancel your trip. Whilst the average person may not think of any valid reasons this could occur, the actual range of scenarios are very real. These can include illness or death in your family: if someone is in a critical state or, god-forbid, dies before your holiday then clearly there is just cause to cancel and you can be compensated for this in making an successful claim. Damages can occur to your property or the contents or your property – meaning you have to stay and home in order to organise and resolve problems. Police can even request that you do not leave your home, and this could for any number of reasons. So you can see why being covered in this eventuality is quite important. If you do have to cancel, make sure that you are not ‘out-of pocket’ by not having coverage.

Medical Expenses – this is one of the most vital parts of travel insurance cover. It is vital you are covered for medical expenses. Remember not all countries have a National Health Service, in fact the wide majority of them do not. If you needed access to treatment abroad you would therefore be liable for Doctors fees and related medical bills. If you’ve never seen these, rest assured that they can be quite substantial, even for ‘basic’ treatments. Most travel insurance policies will require an excess (i.e you pay the first sum of money in any claim, up to a given amount), however after that they will pay the benefits if you have to stay in hospital, up to a set amount.

Personal liability – any damage or injury that you inflict on someone else or someone else’s property you may have to pay compensation for or be sued. Travel insurance can cover you for this, and will pay out in settlement should such an eventuality occur.

Personal Accident cover – you should have a close look at this under your proposed insurer’s cover. This will pay out in settlement under two instances. The first is if you are killed on holiday. Whilst this clearly won’t affect you at all (as you will, unfortunately, be dead) it will affect the loved ones you leave behind. If you have dependents such as children they will suffer as significant loss as you are the parent and should be financially compensated for the loss (at least providing for them, monetarily, at the current time and later in life). Should the main ‘bread-winner’ be killed then this would affect dependents even further – so is a good idea to be covered for this under your travel insurance. Settlement is made, secondly, if you are permanently disabled on holiday. This money could be used to provide finances as income can be severely affected if the policyholder could not then work, or go towards home alterations which may be necessary under permanent disability (such as wheelchair access). Again, should this affect income then it will have a knock on affect to any dependents.

Legal Expenses - if you should find it necessary to sue a third party (and this could come up for any number of reasons) as a result of personal injury or death, then the travel insurance company could potentially cover the legal expenses incurred, such as the hiring of lawyers and general costs of going to court.

Personal belongings – the items we take with us when travelling can hold significant value. Whilst the high potential value may not seem obvious (unless of course you travel with a diamond ring or expensive jewellery) it can mount up. Many of us pack suitcases up to the brim, squashing everything we can into them. Should the cases then be stolen then the cost can really add up. Twelve items of clothing for example at forty pound each would mean a loss of four hundred and eighty pounds - quite a substantial loss. Therefore you can see the value in having a travel insurance policy which provides cover for this. If needing to claim for stolen goods you should always report this to the local police and obtain written confirmation this has been done. This is to prove with the travel insurance company that the claim is genuine.