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February
11

Travel insurance: why it works

Posted by editor

Of course, if you don’t foresee any upcoming trips in the future, then maybe yo won’t be needing travel insurance for awhile. However for prolific traveler, having travel insurance is important.

You’ve probably experience a time when your airline misplaced your bags and told you that while they were sorry for the unfortunate mix up, you need to wait for a couple of days before they can return your stuff. You are effectively stuck then, with just the clothes on your back. Having travel insurance allows to to make claims for any purchases for essential like clothes while your bags and baggage aren’t returned to you.

Travel insurance also helps a lot when you get sick in another country. Whatever medical costs you incur there are usually not covered by your health care plan, so you need to have something to fall back on.

Comments (2)
Information
  1. February 11th, 2009 at 10:34 36
    H Michael

    I have faithfully purchased travel insurance for many years now for that “just in case” time but luckily until this year i have not needed to claim.
    Earlier this year just prior to flying to Bulgaria where i own a holiday home i was diagnosed with cancer and because the treatment had to start immediately i was forced to cancel my holiday.
    I obtained a letter from my consultant surgeon and sent this to my insurers with a completed claim form. This was not enough, they needed a letter from my GP to say that my condition was not pre-existing. This was also duly sent.
    Because my home is reasonably remote i require a hire car for the duration of the holiday and i claimed the 75% loss of this as well as 75% loss of my air fares.No accomodation costs were claimed.
    Initially i received a letter from my insurers stating that due to my excess i was not entitled to any refund but upon querying this i received a cheque for £1.58
    I am still unable to find the “small print” that relates to this but the cheque plus the obvious waste of specialist medical staff time i find to be an absolute disgrace as well as a personal insult.
    Because i now have a “pre-existing” complaint i would probably be very lucky to find an insurer who would offer me cover but if this is the attitude of insurance companies i say why bother with insurance at all? All they want to do is take your premiums and then look for “get-out” clauses should you ever need to claim.
    Although i would not wish my condition on anyone i can only hope that some of these faceless wonders end up in a similar situation themselves one day just so that they know how it feels.

  2. February 11th, 2009 at 10:34 36
    Robert

    Twist your ankle in Italy and OOPS, you didn’t have travel insurance. There goes a few grand…

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