You can, of course,  especially if you want to save money on your travel costs.

But does it make sense?

Are you looking for cheap travel insurance or are you thinking about cutting it out altogether?

Before you do anything, spend a little time on . . .

• Why you need travel insurance.
• What to think about before you buy it.
• What to avoid
• Where to look for the right travel insurance for you.

Here we’ve produced a list of the things you should look at to make sure you get the right level of cover for you at an affordable price.

This might seem a long list but checking it out can be the difference between getting the right level of cover at the right price, and cheap insurance hoping it covers you when you need it. So spend a little time deciding what you need then look for the best value and just pay a little extra attention to anything where you see the word “Cheap”.

Cheap doesn’t always mean best value.

Because “Cheap Insurance” is one of the most searched phrases on the Internet, many companies focus on “cheap”, selling their insurance on price instead of what is best value for their customers. Cheap insurance is often set at a basic level and may have exclusions and low levels of cover.

So when looking for your travel insurance make sure you get it from an established, reputable company that is providing the best level of cover you need.

When planning a vacation or business trip, travel insurance is often one of the last things you think about, if at all, yet it’s one of the most important things to ensure your trip is stress free.

You carefully plan your holiday making sure you get exactly what you want and the best deal, but what if things go wrong?  You never know what might happen.

At home you have a pretty good idea how things work, what risks you can take and where to get help when you need it. But when you travel it’s quite different especially if you’re traveling abroad but also in your own country.
Here are some things you need to protect yourself against if you’re to have a safe, enjoyable and stress free trip.

What can go wrong?

• Things do go missing, lost or stolen
• You can have an accident or become ill and need medical attention.
• Your travel arrangements can get cancelled or changed by your tour company
• Bad weather can affect your plans. Recent events across the world, floods, storms, cyclones, earthquakes etc have affected thousands of people’s plans resulting in additional travel costs, extra accommodation etc.
• Travel companies do go out of business
• You may incur legal expenses
• Things can go wrong back home and you may need to return
• Things like medical attention, dental treatment etc often cost a lot more abroad than they do at home, especially in the United States.
• You may need foreign help, with language or legal situations.
• You may need to change your plans for many different reasons.
• The world is unstable with terrorist threats and actions, and countries and regions do become unsafe.
• Hired equipment such as skis, snowboards, surfboards, bikes etc do get broken.
• Luggage does get damaged or lost.
• Family illness etc can prevent you going on holiday.
• If you run your own business and can’t return, who will run it for you?
• And finally, the thing no-one likes to talk about, what happens if you or member of your family is injured or dies?.

So your travel insurance will give you peace of mind that if anything goes wrong, you have the protection and help you need.

Where do you start looking for the best value travel insurance and how do you find what’s right for you?
Do you take advice or recommendations from friends? Is it from your own previous experience or do you rely on flyers and leaflets, or the advertisements that appear everywhere in brochures, magazines and newspapers?

Even worse, are you buying your insurance from the travel company or the travel agent, who is on commission. With both of these it’s unlikely you’re getting the best value for what you need?.

What about the Internet.  A Google search for “travel insurance” produces more than 24 million results, so where do you start?

Insurance is big business with huge marketing budgets all aimed at getting you to buy their insurance policies, and there’s a confusing array of promotions online and offline.
How often does your mail include flyers for insuring your house, your domestic products, your car and yourself. And travel insurance is right up there with the big ones.

Companies use many ways to get your attention and it’s most important you get the cover you need without paying for cover you don’t need.

What to think about before you buy

• First decide what insurance you actually need. How often you are going to travel, if you will travel alone or with your family, what you want to insure against and what cover you already have.
• Do you need to insure for a single trip or are you likely to travel more than once a year? Check if annual or multi-trip insurance is likely to be the most cost effective.
• How long you will be away. Many policies limit each trip to 31 days so check you can extend it if you need to.
• Make sure you’re covered for the countries to plan to visit. Many places are unsafe these days so understand the risks and take the advice your Government is giving. Will your insurance cover you if you are advised not to travel to a certain place?
• Again, check what your insurance covers. Policies all have lists of what is included, what is excluded and what can be covered as an additional option.
• Activities such as winter sports, scuba diving etc can usually be easily covered but it’s a different matter if you want insurance for mountain climbing, wild country trekking or motor sports. The list is endless so check your policy carefully.
• Don’t under insure but also don’t pay for insurance you don’t need. Companies often have special policies for senior citizens, families, singles, disabled, and pre-existing medical conditions.

Don’t over insure. Check what insurance you already have. You may be already covered.

Finally, if you can’t afford travel insurance, can you really afford to travel?

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Cliff Chapman
www.traveljunkies.com
Great travel deals around the world

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