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Travel Insurance Tips

The last thing we want to be thinking about whilst on holiday is what would happen if something goes wrong.

These travel insurance tips will help you to ensure that you have the travel insurance protection you need.

1) An EHIC card is not travel insurance

Your European Health Insurance Card EHIC lets you get state healthcare at a reduced cost or sometimes for free and is valid in all European Economic Area countries including Switzerland. It will cover you for treatment that is needed to allow you to continue your stay until your planned return and for treatment of pre-existing medical conditions. However it is important to remember that there are many things which the EHIC does not cover including the cost of any private medical healthcare, the cost of being flown or driven back to the UK, specialist emergency costs such as mountain rescue or additional costs such as cancellation, loss of baggage, etc.

Please do make sure you have an EHIC (some insurers will insist that you do) but remember that although it provides some protection it does not replace a full travel insurance policy.

2) Disclose your pre-existing conditions.

If you have any pre-existing medical conditions or are undergoing any kind of medical treatment then your travel insurance company will want to know. They will invariably ask you to ring a confidential helpline, discuss your medical history with you and will then decide whether or not they can offer you travel insurance and if so at what terms.

It is essential that you declare your medical conditions to insurers. Failure to do so could leave with a very nasty surprise should you be unfortunate enough to have to make a claim.

3) Consider an annual policy

If you are going to be going away two or more times in a year then it might be worth your while to look at an annual policy.

4) Cancellation cover from the time of booking

Make sure that you have travel insurance in place from the time you book your holiday. This will mean that if you have to cancel the holiday prior to the departure date due to illness, bereavement, or similar, then the amount you have paid for your holiday should be covered (subject of course to terms and conditions, excesses, etc).

5) Are you insured to do the things you are going to be doing?

Some travel insurance policies will restrict the activities that they will provide cover for. So if you are skiing or taking part in other winter-sports, planning on deep-sea diving, bungee jumping, back-packing around the world or going on a trek you need to check your policy to see if you are covered to carry out these activities.

6) Can your house insurance policy save you money?

Some house insurance policies cover your personal belongings and money whilst you are abroad. Before you purchase your travel insurance policy check your home insurance as removing this duplication in cover could give you a sizeable discount from your travel premium.