Travel insurance or Holiday Insurance is a
product that has been designed to cover you against a wide range of different
risks whilst you are away from Home. Whilst most policies are purchased to cover
trips abroad, you can buy a Travel Insurance policy to cover you in your own
country. (Although some of the policy sections may not be operative.
A broad range of covers are available to cover different
types of Trips ( Business or Pleasure) and to cover the different types of Traveller.
Some are geared to Family Travel others to Backpackers that are travelling light
with less baggage, whilst some will cover activity holidays including skiing.
Most Travel insurance policies are issued for short period of time. You can buy
a policy that will only last for a few days whilst at the other end of the
scale, some contracts can be extended for period up to 12 months in duration.
Although policies will vary from one insurer to another, they will all have a
very similar core policy wording and levels of indemnity. You can usually view a
Travel Insurance policy before you make a purchase and you will notice
that the document is divided in to different sections.
Some of the sections included under a Basic
Travel Insurance policy are as follows; Cancellation Charges ( sometimes also
including an additional peril curtailment) Medical Expenses, including Emergency
Medical Expenses Assistance and Repatriation cover, Abandonment,
Personal Accident, Personal Liability, Delayed Departure, Missed Departure,
Legal Expenses, Hijack & Mugging cover, Loss of Passport, Loss of Money,
Baggage, Delayed Baggage, Winter Sports ( if required and usually a supplement
has to be paid)
The premium you will pay for your Holiday or Travel Insurance will depend on a
number of factors.1- The duration of your trip, the can from a few days up to a
period of 12 months. You have to be careful when buying an annual Travel
Insurance policy as most will not cover you for trips of up to 12 months in
duration. Most will allow you to travel as many times as you want but will put a
cap on the maximum duration of any one trip. This is usually set at 31 days. You
can obtain cover if will be abroad for the whole 12 months ( in the case
of someone working abroad or simply travelling for example) but these can
cost a considerable amount more. 2- The area to which you are travelling will
also effect the premium. Different companies have different attitudes to risk
areas, many simply use two areas ( Europe & Worldwide) others are more
specific, a comprehensive list of areas would be;
- The United Kingdom
- Europe
- Worldwide
- United States of America & Canada.
For insurance purposes, Europe is usually
considered to be those countries west of the Ural mountains.
Travel insurance policies carry a large number
of terms and conditions and exclusions and its important that any policy
document is studied to make sure it meets with your needs. Because a
standard policy has lots of different sections, its important to study
each one as, each may have its own special conditions. Not all eventualities
will be covered and in many instances , a set procedure has to be followed
before a claim will be considered. Most of the sections will have an
excess ( the first portion of the loss that you will have to pay yourself) as
well as certain limits of cover. These will need to be studied carefully as they
are often quite low. Baggage is a good example, where often the maximum sum
insured is £1500 with a maximum single article limit of £300.00.
Basically, Travel Insurance is not really designed to cover expensive personal
effects such as watches and Jewellery which are usually covered under a
Home Contents Insurance. Many UK Contents insurance policies will have an
All Risks section which will cover you for items taken away from the home. Its
possible that the All Risks section of a home policy is already extended
to cover a trip abroad but you should always check before travelling.
