Don't Trip Up When You Travel!

With the start of the World Cup just over three weeks away, hundreds of thousands of fans will soon be heading for Germany to watch England's (or other teams') progress through the tournament.

Sadly, if past form is anything to go by, a sizeable minority of these fans will be travelling without tickets and will face disappointment when they are turned away at the turnstiles. What's more, many of them will be jetting off to Germany without travel insurance, which is a complete no-no!

In fact, according to the latest annual report on travel insurance from independent financial researcher Defaqto, intense industry competition has brought down premiums to levels last seen four years ago. Around 170 providers of travel insurance are fighting over a market worth £700 million a year, which has led to sustained price falls over the last year.

Unfortunately, cheaper is not always better, so the experts at Defaqto are warning Brits not to be tempted by low single-trip premiums, as many of these polices provide inadequate "budget" or "cutdown" cover. The table below shows typical prices for single-trip and annual multi-trip travel insurance policies:

On the other hand, some policies charge as little as £8 to £9 for a two-week holiday, which suggests that they offer poor value for money, once the very limited cover is taken into account. My advice would be to use the above table as a benchmark to compare policies, because if a premium looks too good to be true, it probably is!

Here's a few more travel tips:

• You may think that you could save yourself a few pounds by not buying travel insurance. However, is it worth exposing yourself to serious losses if, for example, you were hospitalised following an accident or illness?
  
  
• NEVER buy insurance from a tour operator, as these policies can be five (even ten) times as expensive as Best Buy protection! Thanks to increased competition, particularly from Web-based providers, travel agents now sell fewer than half of all travel insurance policies, which is good news, but we could do better...
  
  
• If a premium looks remarkably low, check to see what cover is on offer, as it may not include all of the features that you need.
  
  
• Always declare any existing medical conditions and health problems to your insurer; otherwise your entire policy (and all claims) may be invalidated.
  
  
• Take information on how to claim with you and keep it safe, as you may need to report a claim to police or airlines within 24 hours of any incident.

So, before you book your summer holiday, ski trip, city break or short hop over to the Continent, be sure to shop around for Best Buy travel insurance cover. With premiums at historically low levels, there's absolutely no good reason to travel abroad without it!

More: Check out the great rates in our Insurance centre | Buy now and pay in 2007 with these 0% deals!