Best Advice on buying Travel Insurance (Travel Insurance in general)

Member Name: doyoureally

Product:	Travel Insurance in general
Date:	24/02/03 (1563 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Impartial Advice, Reminders of Important Facts, Useful Links

Disadvantages: Think before you buy

How to buy the right cover?

It would be easy to simply suggest that anyone going on any trip abroad buys the right travel insurance policy for them and the kind of trip they are making. But how?

Firstly, almost certainly price is not the only thing you should consider - and anything that is free won't be if you are left with an unpaid claim.

We all take something in case it rains - but amazingly many don't take insurance. If it rains- the worst is you get wet. If you fall ill - the bill for just one day in intensive care abroad is thousands.

It is clear that:-

- not all policies are identical in what they offer
- price is only one factor - but an important one - we all want VFM
- there is little point in buying a policy if it doesn't cover you

That may all seem obvious, but many people (as some reviews bear out), simply look to find the cheapest premium. This is strange becase I doubt that they looked for the cheapest holiday / flight / hotel without also considering the quality of what they were going to get.

True of even more of us is that we fail to read even the summary of cover and exclusion well - so we have paid our premium and don't even know if the policy would pay for us?

Insurance is simply put a promise that if you pay a premium, an insurer will in a defined set of cirumstances reimburse you for some or all of a loss that occurs.

Rather than try and fail to be expert and impartial - I share below the following links to websites which contain very useful guides and advice on travel insurance - if you are not sure what you are buying - check out these first (cut and paste the following www. addresses into your address bar):-

1) UK Government Official site - also lists some insurers who signed up to their Know Before You Go campaign >> www.fco.gov.uk - then follow the Know Before You Go Link - and check out Current Partners

2) General
Insurance Selling Council - will become part of the FSA - offers basic advice >> www.gisc.co.uk/publications/july2001/TravelGuidNot es.pdf but will be under www.fsa.gov.uk from 2004 I assume.

3) The Assosciation of British Insurers produces a guide too > http://www.abi.org.uk/Public/Consumer/Holiday/

Hope the above is useful background - remember you don't always buy the cheapest wine for good reason! Equally, if you can cut out the middlemen - you may save loads.

As an absolute minimum - look for a GISC logo -which means the insuers agrees to perate by a failry tight industry code of practice and make sure you are not excldued by the "pre-existing medical conditions. That is not enough but probably two top items to check for.


I always buy my cover online because it offers the best value and it is easier to compare the cover. Also if you buy online - most decent companies offer a 14 day money back of you change you mind (so long as you haven't travelled that is).

Summary: