An important but boring one. I is for Insurance because you need travel insurance!
This is my mum’s favourite subject. She loves to read the paper and see the angry faces of people who went off on luxury holidays without insurance and are now furious that after a skiing accident or recurrence of a pre-existing serious illness, they’re expected to pay for treatment or that they don’t get flown home for free or anything at all. This is what travel insurance is for.
Ok, it’s for lots of things. You’ve booked a holiday and now you can’t go because you’ve got covid/a volcanic eruption has grounded all planes/your boss won’t let you have the time off. You may be able to reclaim the cost of the holiday on your insurance.
The airline has lost your luggage. Insurance. Your flight has been delayed and you have to stay an extra night. Insurance. You’ve had an accident and need medical treatment. Insurance.
There’s plenty to check out when you buy insurance. Does it cover the place you’re going to? Mine is Europe only (which means anywhere west of the Ural Mountains and all countries bordering the Mediterranean). My mum isn’t allowed to go to Spain, Malta or Cyprus on her European insurance – that’s for medical reasons rather than the insurance company having a really weird idea of Europe, so beware of that.
Does your insurance cover travel within the country where you live? Does it cover what it considers dangerous activities, like most adventure activities – skiing, paragliding, bungee jumping etc? Does it cover cruises? Does it cover “acts of God” and natural disasters? Back in 2014, when Bárðarbunga was rumbling and I was in Iceland, I decided it was best to get “volcanic eruption disruption” cover added to my insurance and I’ve kept that on ever since. I’ve also added hazardous activities. For me personally, I don’t need cruise cover, winter sports cover, business cover or golf cover. At work, back in the day, we had kidnap & ransom cover added to our travel insurance because of where our commercial team tended to travel to. Make sure you’ve got everything you need.
If you have a pre-existing health condition, you have to declare it otherwise your insurance could be invalidated – effectively, it’s fraud. Mine has seven clauses under “we will not cover you if…”, which include lying to them, medical tourism or waiting lists. Some insurance companies won’t cover certain conditions and as I said above, some won’t cover certain conditions in certain countries. For the right price, you can almost always find a company that will so if at first you don’t succeed, keep looking. The medical side of insurance is one of the most important so make sure you get it right. Deciding to skip the insurance and playing to probability with crowdfunding is a bad idea. Get insurance.
So, insurance covers places, activities and medical. It covers cancellations, belongings and luggage, the money you have in your pocket, personal liability and a lot of other good things. If you book insurance partway through a trip, it probably won’t cover that trip. It probably won’t cover trips to places official organisations are advising against visiting.
How much does insurance cost? Let’s use mine as an example. I have no medical conditions and I’m not within an age bracket where I’m considered higher risk. I use Insure & Go and the name on my insurance document is Zurich Insurance. That’s neither an advert nor sponsored – it’s all very well talking about insurance but we need to put some numbers against it and of course, the only numbers I have are my own. I can neither recommend nor malign Insure & Go – I’ve never had to make a claim and have no idea how helpful or difficult they might be in that event.
I have a Silver policy, multi-trip for a year within Europe zone 8 (as detailed above), I’ve added natural disaster and hazardous activities cover and I paid £81.69 for it. Basic Silver, without the add-ons, is £56.96 today. Budget is £41.86. Upgrade to Gold for £81.46 or Black for £115.42. If I add my extras to Black, it comes to £151.22. The four levels are much the same but you get different amounts covered for each. For example, hospital expenses as you go up through the four levels are £100, £1000, £1500 and £2000. You can’t add cruise or pet care to Budget. Personal money – it covers up to £200, £500 and £750 of personal money depending on what level you get. In short, the more you pay, the more you’re covered for. It’s up to you to decide how much you need and how much you’re willing to pay for the extra cover.
Just out of interest, I got a quote for a single trip – my trip to Finland in the summer. £8.09 on Budget, up to £22.21 on Black. For an imaginary ten or so day trip to Iceland, it ranges from £20.18 to £55.34. I like the ease of having it run for a whole year – I don’t have to remember to get travel insurance every time I book a flight! – and if you travel a lot, it’ll probably work out cheaper. The cost per trip will depend on the length and the destination so it’s hard to say “Well, if I travel four/six/ten times, it’ll be cheaper to go for annual cover” but that’s what I’d go for if I was planning to travel more than twice. Yeah, I let it lapse during the pandemic. No point paying to cover travel that’s not happening.
Even if you only get the very most basic insurance, it’s better than nothing. But obviously, it’s best to get what you need. I’m inclined to say if you can’t afford the insurance, you can’t afford the trip – because you certainly won’t be able to afford to pay out what the insurance would have covered. Do you have any idea what emergency medical repatriation costs out of pocket? Insurance covers so much and it gives you a certain amount of peace of mind.