A short guide to travel insurance
Travel Insurance – A Need to Know guide?
Travel insurance protects holiday expenses
against adverse events such as cancellation and interruption and also
reimburses medical expenses, the loss or damage of property and transit delays.
Many millions of travellers and holiday makers
purchase some form of insurance every year, but few people know really what it
is and how it can be defined. If you know what is included, and what is not you
will be able to make the most of your protection, and get reimbursed fairly.
There are four main categories of travel
insurance:
1. Health and Medical reasons
Emergency evacuation: This garuantees emergency
transportation to either a local hospital in the event that the traveller is
unable to get there by themselves or back to a hospital near the traveller’s
home town. If family members are covered on the same policy they can travel
back home also.
Medical reasons: This reimburses emergency
medical and dental costs. Nearly all holiday insurance plans work by
reimbursing the traveller after they have paid locally for treatment. Claims
are usually paid within 7 – 10 working days. Pre-existing medical conditions
are covered by most policies if the policy is purchased within (at the most) 21
days from the date the traveller made the first payment or deposit.
2. Delays and cancellation or
curtailment
Cancellation: Re-imbursement comes into effect
if travellers have booked and paid for a holiday, but are unable to embark
because of personal illness or injury, death (of the individual or of a family
member), adverse weather conditions, transport strikes, terrorism, bankruptcy,
sudden unemployment, jury duty or by sustaining serious damage to their home
causing it to be uninhabitable due to fire or flooding.
Delay: This reimburses travellers for hotel,
food or clothing expenses in the event of a flight delay. Some plans also cover
costs associated with catching up with a cruise should another delay cause the
traveller to miss embarkation.
Interruption: Insurance companies pay money to
policy holders abroad if they have to cut short their trip due to illness,
death (of the traveller or a family member), terrorism, weather, airline
strikes, bankruptcy, sudden unemployment, and other adverse conditions which
mean that, due to events outside the control of the holiday-maker, a trip has
to be curtailed.
3. Death:
Accidental death – covers death or
dismemberment at any time of your trip. Usually garuantees the lowest amount of
coverage due to a higher risk
Air Flight accident – this covers death or
dismemberment during an air flight only. Usually garuantees the highest amount
of coverage due to fairly low likelihood of this occurring.
Common carrier – Covers death or dismemberment
while travelling on public transport such as a plane, ferry, train bus or taxi.
4. Loss or damage of property:
Baggage loss – reimburses travellers for lost,
stolen or damaged personal items. This coverage is usually restricted to the
duration of the trip and not confined to baggage damaged or lost by the
airline. There are two policy limits, total claim and per item maximum. Some
policies also place limits on the type of items that can be claimed for – such
as precious jewellery, laptops and sporting goods
Hire Car damage – This reimburses travellers
for damage or loss to a rental vehicle. It is designed to allow the traveller
to decline collision damage waiver (CDW) coverage offered by the car rental
companies. Liability coverage should still be purchased through the car rental
company. Rental Car Damage coverage is also often included with the credit card
used to pay for the car rental which is often matches the coverage provided in
the policy.
Assistance services – garuantees a 24-hour
collect telephone advice and assistance service to travellers. This service can
be used anytime a traveller needs advice. Make sure you keep a copy of this number
in several places in your luggage or on your person when you move around.
Medical conditions and travel insurance should be taken very seriously and you should research your policy’s medical clauses thoroughly. With many policies, pre-existing medical conditions can be covered for an additional premium or increased excess; while this may seem like an unnecessary expense or extra hassle, is it really worth risking having to pay for something that could have been avoided?
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