Keep of the high street for the deals (Travel Insurance in general)

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Product:	Travel Insurance in general
Date:	22/02/01 (578 review reads)
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Advantages: Travel magazines

Disadvantages: Highstreet

I have done a lot of travelling in the last ten years and I would say that insurance is where the travel agents really slot a few tenners in the back pocket. Package tours and bargains on the high street that look so sexy nearly always include their insurance to get the price.
I think it’s their second biggest rip off out side of the dreaded single room supplement. Not forgetting of course the fact that your hotel bares little resemblance to the one in the brochure in substance or quality.
As most of my travelling is three months or more its not cost effective to use the high street travel agents that can charge up to 60 pounds a week for a family of four. The general insurance companies like Colonnade etc again offer non-competitive rates to back packers and independent travelers.
I use the ones at the back of travel mags like Wanderlust and Adventure travel that are way cheaper than the big names as they have less over heads being in small upstairs offices etc.
Columbus direct is probably the best know one offering around 20 pound a month for Europe up to 35-40 worldwide. As one in 197 people in America are trained as lawyers it has the highest premiums by far, even higher than South Africa, which is slightly safer than Israel at the moment.
I used Downunder Worldwide travel insurance first for my American cross-country six monther in 1997, which worked out at about 130 odd for six months. Not fully comp, but covering the all-important medical and A and E up to four million.
When you go to the Southern Hemisphere its best to take out a little extra premium of 35 pound or so if you are going to Bungee or something similar as the general premium wont cover it.
The second time I used a cheapy was when I was in The Republic of South Africa which is not safe at all for traveler’s and you need insurance full stop.I was mugged in Joburg on my second day in Africa,not the best feeling for the remaining eight months used Worldwid
e travel insurance which was Lloyds underwritten etc and offered all the basics cover for a war zone.
At a starter of 11-50 per month for Europe it was not to be sniffed at so I managed to cover six months for less than 120 quid.
I was robbed twice in South Africa and had to get a police report for the first for evidence which you must get these days as theres a lot of fraud out there and you wont get paid also took the page of The Joburg Citizen which contained the statistic of me being the first English tourist of the year to be robbed.
Always get evidence of a claim or you could be twiddling your thumbs on your return folks.
Read the small print as a lot of these cheaper deals have limits of payouts on luggage losses and cameras under the contents ploy. You need serial numbers from them to get the total payouts.
One more tip. Photo copy all of your traveler’s cheques and documents at least twice leaving one with your nearest at home and a carry around for the cops on your trip.
You can wait ages in Consulates for temp passports and they charge you nearly as much as a new one for them.

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