Accessibility options

Guide to travel insurance

Beach

Search: Travel insurance tips

- Travel insurance quotes
- Great cover deals for all your insurance needs

No-one wants the unexpected to happen when they go abroad, but unfortunately there is no such thing as a totally risk-free holiday. Last year Britons made 867,000 travel insurance claims worth a total of £352 million.

Travel insurance is not so much an optional extra as an integral part of any break. Policies need to cover the obvious problems, such as a stolen wallet or purse, an accident or an illness.

But good policies will also provide compensation for delays and cancellation, for damaged or lost luggage, and even a telephone help line for emergencies.

What Type of Cover?

The simplest way to buy travel insurance might seem to be through a travel agent or tour operator, although these policies may be expensive.

Travel agents are no longer allowed to insist that holiday makers book insurance through them, and it's almost always possible to find a better deal by shopping around.

The traditional way to buy travel insurance is to take out cover for each trip, and this is usually how tour operators sell their cover.

If you only make one trip abroad a year, this might be the best option, but a growing number of travellers are now opting for annual travel insurance, as the difference in price is minimal.

Annual Multi Trip Travel Insurance The advantage of an annual policy is that there is no need to worry about arranging cover for each journey, and it is usually better value than buying individual policies for two or three trips a year.

Most annual policies will cover trips of a month or more, and they can be bought to cover Europe or world-wide travel. It's usually possible to add business cover or insurance for sports such as ski-ing for an additional charge.

Annual travel insurance is an even better deal for families. Insurance for a couple will be cheaper than for two single adults, and cover for a family with children under 18 is not usually much more expensive than cover for a couple. Do watch, though, for restrictions on how the cover works.

Some family travel policies only cover the family if everyone travels together. The best policies will cover each adult travelling on his or her own, and even unaccompanied trips by the children.

Important!

Unlike a standard single trip policy, in order to obtain cover for cancellation, with annual travel insurance the policy start date needs to be the date on which you book your first trip or decide to purchase the policy rather than the date that you intend to travel.


Related links

No related links.
Woman having breakfast
Features
Top quality expert analysis of the burning money issues of the day
Sales sign
Consumer
Latest consumer issues and trends - from rip-offs and pensions to political angles and rising prices
Share prices
Shares news
Latest news effecting share prices and the stockmarket - you snooze you lose

Free newsletter

Enter your email address below and receive your Free money newsletter.

 
 

Please login to leave a comment or report a postComments

Added: 1 February 2010 12:17
M Heardman says:
would like to see help on travel insurance for those with significant health problems,ie cancer and heart problems

Page: 1

Please login to leave a comment or report a post

Terms and Conditions of Use for comments

Advertisement starts


Advertisement

Advertisement ends

Your credit rating

Pound coins
Free credit report

Applying for credit? Click here for your free Experian credit report to find out what lenders see about you

Compare utilities

Compare gas and electricity:
 

Type of quote:


Do you have one supplier for gas and electricity?

Free newsletter

Enter your email address below and receive your Free money newsletter.

 
 
 

Advertisement starts



Advertisement ends

Page Footer


Access keys


You will need to use different key combinations in order to use access keys depending on your internet browser, find out which on our accessibility page.
  • (0) Navigate to Accessibility page.
  • (1) Navigate to Home page.
  • (2) Navigate to My email.
  • (3) Navigate to My Account.
  • (4) Navigate to Site Map page.
  • (5) Navigate to Contact us page.
  • (6) Navigate to Members channel.
  • (7) Navigate to Services channel.
  • (8) Navigate to News & Info channel.
  • (9) Navigate to Entertainment channel.
  • ([) Skip down to the Primary navigation block.
  • (]) Skip down to the more links within this section block.
  • (=) Bypass all navigation and jump to the content.
  • (x) Text only version of this page.