Travel Insurance Basics

One of the first things you need to decide before taking out any kind of travel insurance is whether or not want to insure yourself for a one off trip or whether it would be more cost effective to take out a longer term travel insurance policy. Some companies will offer you annual cover for not much more cost than if you buy travel insurance for a one off holiday.

In addition, make sure you don’t have travel insurance with your credit card. Although this kind of travel insurance cover might be rather basic you might decide that it is sufficient for your needs.

When you are buying travel insurance you are looking for three different types of cover:

1) Emergency medical treatment

2) Cancellation / interruption cover

3) Personal belongings

The far most important of the three and the one that would cost you the most if you decided to take a chance and travel without insurance is emergency medical treatment. If you are even half considering travelling without insurance just take a minute to check out the cost of medical care in the country you are travelling to and if you then add to it the cost of the flight home, once you are fit to travel, the whole episode could set you back thousands (even run into tens of thousands) for the sake of an incomparably small insurance premium. One word of warning, you might find that pre-existing conditions aren’t covered by your travel insurance.

Cancellation costs are a good cover to have especially if you’ve purchased an expensive once in a life time holiday. Just check out the coverage on your travel insurance before you buy as the insurance will only pay out if you cancel for a reason that is specifically covered by the travel insurance policy.

It’s not usually worth taking out travel insurance just for baggage so this is generally an ‘add on’ to medical or cancellation cover. Like most insurance the amount of cover will be pre-defined when you take out your travel insurance so you need to make sure you have sufficient cover for your needs, especially if you like travel with everything including the kitchen sink! Valuables aren’t necessarily covered automatically so make sure you add them to your policy.

Finally, the cost of travel insurance is generally insignificant when compared to what you stand to loose if you don’t have it. Many people who have either decided to try and save some money or just forgotten all about travel insurance have learnt their lesson the hard way!