Should You Purchase Travel Insurance?

Author: Steve Cogger

The determination of whether you should purchase travel insurance is a determination of whether you want to assume nothing bad can happen during your travels, or whether should something bad happen you can adequately resolve these unforeseen events.

None of us think something bad will happen. We assume incorrectly that fire, flood, earthquake and terrorism will happen to others. We assume we won't have a heart attack or stroke, we won't be felled by illness. We assume wrong.

The question, "should you purchase travel insurance" is perhaps answered by asking yourself why you purchased homeowners insurance, or medical insurance or life insurance. You purchased them so that your consistent small payments would assure you of having someone else provide help in case of a catastrophic event for which you are unprepared. Purchasing travel insurance, just like purchasing any other insurance, is not just about receiving the funds to recover. It's also about having the professional assistance of those who know what has to happen for you and your family to recover, and who do make that happen. It's about cooler heads prevailing.

Should you purchase travel insurance? Well, let's look at a few things that could, and do happen, to overseas and even domestic travelers. Then, you decide if you should purchase travel insurance.

You're from Minnesota. You've never been to the ocean. You book a hotel room in Florida for a week but you are then ordered to evacuate due to an expected hurricane. But you have non-refundable airline tickets, and your hotel and rental car are already paid for. How do you replace the airline tickets and get reimbursed for your stay? If you had known this was going to happen, what would your answer have been to the question, "Should you purchase travel insurance?"

You're on an island in the Caribbean, ready for your cruise back home. You find out that the cruise ship company has gone bankrupt and there will be no return cruise. What do you do? How do you get your money back? Most importantly, how do you get back home? If you had known this was going to happen, what would your answer have been to the question, "Should you purchase travel insurance?"

You're ready to take your family on a much-needed vacation to Hawaii. Your daughter is felled by an attack of appendicitis and must have immediate surgery. But your airline tickets are non-refundable. How do you get your money back? If you had known this was going to happen, what would your answer have been to the question, "Should you purchase travel insurance?"

About the author:
Steve Cogger is an avid traveler offering a wealth of travel information. For more information or to purchase travel insurance visit http://www.1-Happy-Traveller.com.

Travel Insurance – How to Get the Best Deal

Author: chris rowlands

Taking out travel insurance before heading off for a holiday outside the UK should be an easy task. But how do you ensure that you get a good deal?

There are two key ways of doing so.

The first is always to shop around. Prices vary considerably between insurers and your personal circumstances can make a huge difference to the policy.

The second is to ask yourself how many times you intend to travel within a year. If you are certain you will only travel once, then cheap travel insurance can quite easily be found in the form of a single-trip policy for as little as £9.

If you intend to travel two or more times then this could prove to be expensive, especially for families.

This is where a multi-trip policy will come to your rescue. Many family policies cover not just the adult couple but several children. They can be found for as little as £23 for a single person and allow you to make several trips abroad during the year.

As you can imagine, if you intend to travel abroad three times a year and pay £9 each time, while a multi-trip comes in at around £23 per person, you’ve just saved £4.

This might sound like a small saving but as you start to increase the number of trips per year and the number of people travelling on one policy, the saving you make on your travel insurance becomes much bigger.

However, there is one crucial point to remember. While we all like to find the cheapest travel insurance before we go abroad, we shouldn’t lose sight of the reasons for buying the cover in the first place.

It can be easy to look only for the cheapest policy in an effort to save money, but the reality is you could be missing out on vital aspects of cover.

For example, you must remember to check a prospective holiday insurance policy to ensure all the features you require are covered. You should look to have cover in the following areas: cancellation, medical and emergency, baggage, theft and personal liability.

You should seek medical cover to the value of £1 million when travelling in Europe and £2 million in the USA. Hospital bills can escalate extremely quickly and it is not unheard of for tourists to be quite literally bankrupted.

Of course some of these options can be taken off the policy if you do not need them, such as baggage cover and cancellation, although I suggest you think carefully about this beforehand.

One tip that may be worth remembering is that some household insurance policies also offer cover for personal items that are taken out of the home. In turn, this means you may be able to do without the same cover on your travel insurance policy, making it slightly cheaper - but do check your home and contents terms and conditions first.

Finally, remember that all insurers base the cover they offer on what is called “utmost good faith”. This means that for them to pay out on a claim they must be satisfied you were completely honest with them when you took out the policy.

The two key areas where this applies is in previous medical conditions, which should be declared at the outset, or the insurer may not pay out. Also, don’t fall for the temptation to over-claim for a loss: adding a non-existent MP3 player or an iPod to the claim could render your policy void.

To recap on the main points: shop around to find the best prices, choose a policy type according to your travel frequency, be sure you have the level of cover you require and last but not least, remember to be honest with all details given.

About the Author:

Chris Rowlands is a UK-based author with experience within the financial sector centering on insurance.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Travel Insurance – How to Get the Best Deal

Cheap Holiday Insurance

Author: Stuart Smith

Now that Christmas and New Year are over, it’s time to start planning your holiday. With the credit crunch biting hard it’s a good idea to start shopping around for good value travel insurance. Don’t just go for the cheapest, take time choosing which cheap holiday insurance best suits your requirements and check the cover first before you buy.

There are many types of cheap holiday policies available- single trip travel insurance covers you for a one off trip, annual multi-trip travel insurance is probably better value if you’re a regular traveller and travel more than once a year, whilst backpacking travel insurance is ideal if you’re planning a trip lasting more than a month. 24/7 travel insurance provides you with all three cheap holiday insurance types and offers the protection and peace of mind that you need when travelling abroad. 24/7 travel insurance has been set up with one main aim – to provide online customers with flexible cheap travel insurance cover at the best price possible.

Without adequate cheap holiday insurance, the costs for emergency medical treatment and repatriation costs could land you with a hefty medical bill running into many thousands of pounds as these figures demonstrate:

£35-45,000 - air ambulance from USA’s East coast

£12-16,000 - air ambulance from the Canary Islands

£15-20,000 - scheduled flight, stretcher and Doctor escort from Australia

Figures supplied by FirstAssist Services Ltd.

In Britain we’re used to a good standard of state healthcare which may differ from the healthcare offered in other countries. Medical treatment abroad is likely to be of a lower standard but having cheap holiday insurance will ensure you receive the best medical care available in the event of a medical emergency.

The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) which replaced the old E111 form on 1st Jan 2006 may entitle you to free or discounted medical treatment in a European Union country but remember, it’s no substitute for holiday travel insurance as it does not cover baggage, repatriation or cancellation.

Remember your cheap holiday insurance policy may become invalidated if you had an accident or if a situation arose and you went against recommended travel advice. Always check the Foreign Commonwealth Office for information regarding your holiday destination before you travel.

When choosing your cheap holiday insurance policy make sure it covers you for cancellation and curtailment. Imagine your disappointment if after months of saving up your hard earned cash, an unexpected medical condition or a situation arose causing you to cancel your holiday or you had to curtail your trip. So be smart and purchase value for money cheap travel insurance as soon as you book your holiday.

It’s also a good idea to check that your cheap holiday insurance policy covers your personal possessions and valuable items in the unlucky event they do then get lost or stolen. Misplacing your expensive digital camera can be distressing, sadly the photos capturing your holiday memories cannot be retrieved but at least you may get some comfort in knowing there is a good chance your camera can be replaced by making an insurance claim. Check your household contents insurance policy first as your personal possessions may well be covered already, as some cheap holiday insurance policies will give you a discount if you remove personal possession cover.

If you plan on participating in adventurous activities on your trip, make sure you have read your cheap holiday insurance policy summary (Keyfacts) and policy wording beforehand to check you are actually covered to do these. You should also ensure you are covered for personal liability- causing damage to property or a fellow holiday maker can lead to a very expensive court case and medical bill.

With the use of the internet these days it is so much easier to compare cheap travel insurance on websites such as Moneysupermarket or confused.com, so you don’t have to buy expensive travel insurance from your travel agent.

24/7 travel insurance offers great deals on all cheap holiday insurance types. Single trip discount travel insurance is available for under £5* so well worth a look!

For cheap travel insurance get a quote from 24/7 travel insurance

* Premium £4.86 includes Insurance Premium Tax based on an individual traveller aged under 55 taking out a ‘standard’ single-trip policy for 3 days to Europe, travelling within 14 days of departure. Cover details and prices are correct at the time of going to press (January 2009) and are subject to change.

About the Author:

The author who is enjoying the benefits of Cheap Holiday insurance recommends you to visit http://www.247travelinsurance.co.uk/

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Cheap Holiday Insurance

Have a great Florida vacation!