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Travel Insurance Guide

Introduction

Travel insurance? Isn’t it something one simply gets from an agent at the time of booking a foreign trip? Or a last-minute optional extra to be picked up at the airport, along with magazines for the flight out, a blockbuster novel and films for the camera?

It is not too difficult to understand why travel cover can generate such feelings of ennui. The wonderful thing about a holiday is that it should liberate you from the drudgery of everyday life, of which any type of insurance is most definitely a part.

And in any event, is it really necessary, particularly for holidays within Europe?

Do you need travel insurance?

Most of us, thankfully, take it for granted that if we step outside Europe we will want protection of some sort: there are too many stories of huge hospital bills, or of being sued for millions by victims of a car accident, for people to ignore taking out travel insurance.

As for Europe, you are entitled to reciprocal state-provided health services within the European Economic Area (EU countries, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway).
For this you need a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), formerly called E111. A form is available from all Post Offices. Or you can call 0845 606 2030.

More details, including what kind of free or reduced-cost care you will receive from each European country you visit, are available from the DirectGov website.

Is this all you need?

The level of treatment you receive is based on what the state provides its own citizens, which may not always be what you could expect here in the UK – although it has been known to be better!

More importantly, an EHIC form will not deliver immediate repatriation in the event of serious injury. Yet the cost of an air ambulance from Spain to the UK alone can be as much as £9,000.

In any event, travel insurance is not only about health. It also covers problems such as liability to third parties, theft, loss of personal possessions, flight cancellation and so on.

On balance, then, we have to conclude that in nearly all cases the answer is: you need to be insured.

Travel operators or your own cover?

More than 50 per cent of people take out insurance offered by travel agents when they book their holiday.

Yet research suggests that travel insurance costs up to twice as much when booked through an operator instead of being bought separately. You also pay 17.5 per cent insurance premium tax, instead of 5 per cent if cover is taken out via an intermediary, or directly from the insurer.

Annual or single travel policy

The explosion of cheap airfares means far more people travel abroad than ever before.

Despite this fact, the Foreign Office found recently that while 13 per cent of UK residents fail to take out adequate insurance in relation to all travel abroad, this rises to 43 per cent of travellers who go on short breaks.

If you are likely to be travelling abroad more than once a year, including short breaks, it makes sense to take out annual cover.

Why? One simple reason: it is much cheaper than taking out cover every time you are about to take off.

More pages

Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Things to watch out for

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