FOOL'S EYE VIEW
Get The Right Holiday Insurance

By James Carlisle
August 7, 2002

Insurance is there to cover up for the gaps in your personal finances but, having got everything nicely balanced up in this country, you'll then do something daft like take a holiday.

 

Leaving the safety of our little island can play havoc with your insurance. Not only might you be exposed to additional risks, but it's also quite likely that any insurance you have at home no longer covers you when you travel abroad.

 

Medical expenses

 

The most important thing to consider when you leave the country is your medical situation. To begin with, you lose the back up of the National Health Service but, on top of that, any medical insurance you do have in the UK is unlikely to cover you abroad.

 

The first thing to check is whether the country you're visiting has a 'reciprocal healthcare agreement' with the UK. These operate on a sort of 'you treat mine and I'll treat yours' sort of basis, but the vast majority of countries don't have them: these include USA, Canada, Switzerland, most of the Carribean and all of South America, Africa, the Middle East and the Far East. There's not much left, but you can get the list of countries that do have agreements with the UK from the Health Advice for Travellers section of the Department of Health website.

 

For countries within the European Economic Area (which are the 15 EC member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), you can get free or reduced cost emergency treatment on production of a valid form E111. Have a look at the DOH checklist for what the E111 will do for you in the various countries.

 

Even where there is an agreement, not everything will be covered and you should check to see what sort of documents you need to prove you're a UK citizen and therefore entitled to the benefits (generally a passport will do you).

 

A lot of this will be academic, however, since even if you're going to a country that gives top benefits to UK citizens, you'll probably want to make sure your travel insurance includes medical cover anyway. Getting sick in a foreign country isn't much fun and insurance should enable you to get the best available treatment without a big fuss. Of course, if you're travelling to a country without an agreement, or where it's scope is limited, then medical cover becomes an absolute must.

 

Special considerations

 

Some situations will need specialist insurance. The most obvious example being adventure holidays (diving, skiing, mountaineering or some more esoteric pursuits). The additional cover you need for this sort of thing is freely available, but you need to make sure that you're specific activity is covered, otherwise it won't do you much good.

 

Specific medical conditions might also count you out of the market for mainstream travel insurance, as might age or pregnancy. Make all the necessary disclosures (if you fib you'll only not be covered anyway) and, if you're turned down for any reason, then talk to your travel agent or GP.

 

Motor Insurance

 

Hire cars

 

It can be very tricky doing things in a foreign language, but you need to know exactly what you're getting when you hire a car abroad. A major issue is the 'excess waiver', whereby you can choose whether or not to be covered for the first, say, £500 of any accident. If the relevant figure is likely to cause problems, then you'll want to pay the extra. Otherwise, unless your driving in a particularly dangerous part of the country, it may be worth taking a chance? Over the years, it should work out in your favour.

 

Your own car

 

If you take your own car to an EU country, then all UK insurance policies automatically provide at least third-party insurance or the minimum cover required by the foreign country. The same applies to a number of other countries in Europe.

 

Talk to your UK insurance company about it. They should explain the situation and offer you the opportunity of upgrading your cover abroad to the same level that you have in the UK.

 

It's also worth getting hold of a "green card", which amounts to evidence that you have the minimum insurance required by the country your visiting. At the very least, you should carry your Certificate of Insurance with you.

 

Other areas

 

Travel insurance may or may not cover a whole range of other things, so it's important to shop around and get exactly the cover that you require. An obvious example is insurance for loss of your personal belongings, since your UK insurance policy will probably end at Dover.

 

You can also get insurance for the holiday itself (in case it gets cancelled or you can't go for some reason), but you have to wonder whether it's worth bothering. Sure it's a pain if you end up not being able to go, but it's probably not a financial inconvenience. Instead of organising some windfall compensation in case you can't go, why not make sure that you can!

 

The policy itself

 

It goes without saying that you have to have insurance that covers you for the region of the world that you're travelling to. You also need to decide on the level of cover that's required, particularly for medical expenses. In the USA, for example, you need rather a lot. You're travel agent should be able to advise on a suitable figure.

 

You also need to consider how to bundle the insurance up. If you're travelling with a family, it will probably be cheaper to get insurance for the whole family together rather than covering everyone individually. If you take regular trips abroad, it may also work out cheaper if you get a policy that covers an extended period of time, rather than just a single trip.

 

Once you've decided on the cover that you need, shop around for the best deal. Above all, resist the hard sell by your travel agent. It tends to be far more expensive than equivalent cover from elsewhere.

 

More: Get a travel insurance quote through the Motley Fool's Insurance Centre.