Travel Insurance
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Gapyear.com guide to buying travel insuranceWhat is travel insurance? In simplistic terms travel insurance is something you pay for to help you pay for things should anything go wrong. Car insurance will pay for accidents you have such as scratching the side of the car, or if someone smashes your window to nick your mobile. House insurance covers break-ins, damage from leaving the taps on. Travel insurance therefore covers you for when things go wrong overseas. - Some shifty individual nicks your backpack - insurance pays for a new one - You drop your camera in the sea - insurance pays for a new one - You slip on a rock, break your leg and the Spanish doctor wants £9,000 to fix it - the insurance company pays - You die overseas - the insurance company pays for your body to be flown back etc. All sounds a bit gruesome and yes, the jokes are true, insurance guys are some of the most boring people on Earth, so stay well away from them at parties and in shops! How does it work? So I pay £150 and if I have an accident that leads to £500,000 of medical bills. Do they pay it? As long as you are 'covered'- yes! Insurance companies make their money from people not claiming i.e. 100,000 people buy insurance for £150 and no one claims = £15 million to them. The insurance companies are also insured, so if they do get hit for some biggies, someone else helps them pay.  Insurance is sold in policies, so you are buying an individual product. Most policies are bulk standard and so the same, but if you need other things added like adventure sports, skiing etc, then you will probably buy an upgraded version of the basic policy.If you have things like a medical condition, an unusual expensive bit of equipment or something you are unlikely to be covered for most insurance companies will create a special policy and price for you e.g. you simply need to ring their staff, explain your circumstances and they will head off and create something special for you. If they can't, they will let you know and advise you from there.  Why do you need insurance?Most people think you need insurance to pay for things if they get nicked or damaged, like your backpack, camera or favourite pair of pants. Wrong, it is more serious than that. In short you need insurance to prevent your little accidents resulting in your parents, family or friends becoming bankrupt, losing their house and their life savings. You think I'm joking right? Ok, let us explain why. God forbid but you have a bad accident in the States (where medical treatment is expensive) or up a mountain in Nepal where it is going to cost more than a tenner to get you down and into hospital. Within 24 hours you could have racked up a £200,000 bill (helicopters and removing bits of scooter out of your left buttock aren't cheap you know). If you have no insurance, someone has to pay the bill as there is no wriggling out. Imagine your parents or family being faced with this? People have been known to sell their house and lose all their life savings - all for the price of a few hundred quid now! Feeling invincible? It is not just the major dramas that cost. A lad fell off his donkey in Spain, it cost £9,000 for a broken thigh. A mosquito bite lead to £13,000 of malaria treatment and an air ambulance in South Africa will cost £18,000. The largest medical bill was $1.2 million (about £900,000) - imagine asking your folks to sort that one out for you!! I'll be blunt. Insurance - it is not law to take it (yet), but you need it. If you travel without it you are selfish and you are putting your family and friends' houses and savings at risk. Enough said. What if I travel without it? Not only are you stupid, you are selfish.  What do I need to be covered for and why?Jargon buster time here: 'Being covered'. In short this means that you may buy insurance, do something (like fall off a motorbike and eat tarmac), go to claim from your insurance company for the cost of having your arms and legs sewn back on, and suddenly find you are 'not covered' i.e. they won't pay for it. This is probably due to the fact that you were riding a motorbike over 50cc, which they see as more of a risk and so say that, on this insurance, they won't pay for anything if you have an accident whilst riding a bike over 50cc. The insurance company will tell you what they will cover you for and, more importantly, what they won't, in the terms or small print. There is a 'Guide to small print' in this section. Many people get caught out with the following: Riding a high powered moped or motorbike (as above); having a camera worth more than the limit the insurance company sets; Scuba diving deeper than the insurance company set limits; doing unforeseen adventure sports that they haven't got insurance to do - i.e. an unexpected ski trip in New Zealand in the middle of summer... do you get the idea? It is vital therefore that you make a list of everything you think you may do on your trip and ensure you 'are covered' for the lot. Oh, and a top tip here - smart arses may think it is smart to lie to get a cheaper deal. Think about it guys... you will be found out the day you come to claim, will get nothing and then have to fork out the £50,000 yourself. Think about it... ACTION POINT: Make a list of all the things you are potentially going to do on your trip. Use the lists below as a guide. When you come to get a quote, make sure you ask the right questions. - Things you may not be covered for: Bungy jumping, jetboating, jetskiing, parascending (a parachute attached behind boat), Scuba diving, white water rafting, windsurfing (lake and sea) and yacht racing. - Things you need to be covered for: Medical expenses and treatment, repatriation costs, cancellation of trip, third party liability (e.g. you injure someone else), loss of passport and legal expenses. Don't get on a plane without this lot. - Things we would suggest you get cover for: Getting your parents flown out in an emergency, cancellation if you think you might have to re-take some exams and being able to make a quick trip home if you need to come back in an emergency i.e. grandparent in hospital as opposed to sale on at Selfridges. - Things you generally have to pay a bit more for: Travel delay and delayed baggage, missed departure, baggage/belongings cover; plus more 'dangerous'/hazardous sports, e.g. cycle touring, horse jumping, motorcycle touring, parachuting, paragliding, parasailing (like paracending but not attached to the boat) and sky-diving. - Things you may forget that you need cover for: Money - believe it or not, people often don't insure their cash. Documents, i.e. rail tickets, or even your mobile phone, PDA or Gameboy. Just a word of caution, do you really need that expensive new digital camera in the jungle? Would a cheaper one do the job and be less attractive to a robber? - Things you may have to ask the insurance company to cover you especially for: Do you have a pre-existing medical condition, eg. Asthma, Diabetes that you wish to be covered for. Typically they will require a medical form to be completed to completely understand the condition and add a suitable cost. - Things you will NEVER get cover for: Canyoning (e.g. going down water rapids with just a crash helmet on,) ice climbing, bungee jumping without the bungee etc. Some extreme sports insurance specialists may give you cover, but is it worth ruining a year out for ten minutes thrill. You decide. Golden rule - if the idea scares your mum, do it; if it scares your mates, check your travel insurance covers you for it first !  Buying tipsThe first thing you need to do is make a list of everything you think you may do on your trip. If there is the remotest possibility that you may bungee jump, raft, ride a moped, Scuba dive, ski etc, get it all down. You then need to work out what you are taking with you that is of value - camera, binoculars, laptop, golf clubs, girlfriend etc. Next work out roughly, if you don't know yet, where you are going. The insurance company needs to know this as America, the top of Everest and hiking to the North Pole may affect the policy you need. 1. Don't lie to save money - you will be found out in the end 2. Be wary of marketing tools - 'Buy one get one free' may sound good, until you both need to use it to helicopter out of Macchu Pichu and you are not covered. Ask yourself - why do they need to flog it? 3. 'Unlimited medical cover' may sound great, but it is a pure marketing tool. £3-5 million is more than enough. The largest ever claim was £900,000. Think about it - how much does it cost to hire a jumbo, a team of doctors, nurses, ambulances and medical staff? 4. Shop around. Get a quote and base the others on it. Click here >> to print off the 'Your Insurance Requirements' sheet to work out what you need and what you don't... 5. Use a checklist to compare them all at a glance. Click here >> to print off the 'Insurance Quote Assistant' to help you compare policies 6. Use this insurance comparison zone fully - it's what we wrote it for! What you can and can't do and still be covered The biggest 'don't' of all, is don't 'assume' you are covered. If in doubt, check, it could save you a lot of money and trouble. NB most insurers will put a limit on the number of times you can bungy jump or go sub aqua, if you are planning to surf for 48 weeks out of 52, you need to tell them (your chances of meeting a shark are substantially increased!) Don't act as if the insurance company will pay for everything and anything, as often they don't, in fact a sensible plan is to behave as if you are NOT insured, as this can save you a lot of hassle and grief later, even if you do get you money and rucksack back, you need your stuff now! Do take time to get quotes and read and understand the differences between them. The Policy Summary is often a rapid way to cross check, see the comparison and help yourself make the best choice. Guide to small print Why is it called small print? It is called small print usually because it is written in smaller print than the other documents and stuff you will receive. Why is this? The obvious reason is because there is usually quite a lot of it, and so if it was in normal size print it would take up 10-20 pages as opposed to the one, two or four that it normally does. This would put people off and kill a lot of trees. Most of the small print is the usual stuff that the insurance companies have to put in to cover their asses in case you try and take them to court over certain issues. The thing is when you sign up to the insurance policy you are buying, you are agreeing to everything included, which includes everything written in the small print. The secret is to flick through the small print and ring the bits you need to know and have a read. Getting a quote over the phone Getting a quote over the phone is quite a good idea as it means you can ask them all the daft questions you are embarrassed to ask (they have heard them all before and, to be honest, this stuff is only easy if you know it!) Best to ask now than regret it later. Getting a quote online If you are getting a quote online make sure that you double check all the boxes you are ticking and the options available to you so you get the right quote. A lot of the policies look and sound similar, so make sure you note down in the Quote Assistant exactly what it is you are looking at and getting a quote for e.g. 'Backpacker' vs. 'Backpacker Plus'. Ready to get stuck in? Click here >> to print off the 'Your Insurance Requirements' sheet Click here >> to print off the 'Insurance Quote Assistant' Click here >> for our recommended insurance companies |
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