Travel Insurance

What is travel insurance? 

Travel insurance is insurance designed to protect people financially while they are on holiday. Travel insurance looks after a customer’s health costs, accommodation, flights and belongings while they are on holiday. 

Whilst travel insurance is not compulsory, it is a very important form of insurance for those going abroad, and can save the customer hundreds of thousands of pounds. 

Why do I need travel insurance? 

Travel insurance is hugely important for those going on holiday, because should anything go wrong that is out of your control, your travel insurance will be able to pay for any rearrangement. 

One of the most common problems on holiday is delayed or cancelled flights, or accommodation that is double booked, or has gone bust. Your travel insurance will compensate you for time lost as a result of a delay, and will pay for alternate flights, or rearranged accommodation. 

The biggest reason to take out travel insurance when you travel abroad is the health costs benefits. Whilst in the UK we are used to one of the best free healthcare services in the world, this is not always the case when we travel aboard, and often as foreigners, we would be expected to pay, even if locals do not. 

Medical care can cost as awful lot of money, and an operation and treatment for something as simple as a broken arm or leg can cost tens of thousands of pounds. Without travel insurance you would be liable to pay those costs, and many countries will not let you come home until you have cleared any outstanding medical debts. 

In the past, families have had to club together life savings and run fund raising events, just to get the money together to get home an injured traveller who didn’t take out travel insurance. 

Types of travel insurance 

Travel insurance comes in many different forms, with single trip or annual travel insurance being the two most common. As a rule, if you go on holiday twice in a year or more, then annual travel insurance is thought to be cheaper.

You can buy travel insurance specific to where you are going, and this can be cheaper than worldwide travel insurance. Specific insurance, like ski insurance is also available for those going on very specific trips with their own unique risks.