The UK Insurance Blog

In the article “Holiday nightmares” we are reminded of how ticking those boxes too quickly on a travel insurance form may come back to haunt us one of these days.

It turns out that some people (and we know who we are) who are generally sensible when it comes to booking a holiday online, noting down all the reference numbers and dates and printing out duplicates for her records always neglect the travel insurance forms. We tend to quickly stick a couple of ticks in what seem to be the appropriate places ensuring the most inexpensive cover is acquired. How easily this can go wrong. This type of attitude toward insurance forms could end up giving you nightmares.

First of all, when about to travel, research various types of travel insurance and consider with care the terms and conditions of the policy. No more should you have a quick look through to ensure you are covered for the usual things (luggage that goes missing and theft).

There’s more to it than that.

There are some particular things to look out for on a travel insurance form. It could turn out that you are not actually covered when you think you are.

If you are likely to be bungee jumping (for example) and many are, you need to make sure you are covered for it. About one in six British holidaymakers knowing they will be participating in adventure sports, in the event of injury, will not be covered by insurance, according to Esure. Many actually believe that a standard travel insurance policy automatically covers them for things like bungee jumping and white water rafting. Next time you look at a travel insurance form, you will see that many have exclusions which generally include those more extreme activities. In the event that your policy does cover adventure sports, check the fine print for terms and conditions. Don’t be too surprised to find provisos such as ‘hiking only covered when below a specific altitude’ or ‘scuba diving only to a certain depth will be covered’.

Next, always check the small print. If in any doubt contact your insurance company well in advance of your travel arrangements.

The article recommended the reading of “The Passport to Extreme Fun” prior to an extreme adventure holiday. Published by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office it provides information that you really need to know before you go! For example, an accident under the effects of alcohol may not be covered. Many insurance companies don’t! It can go either way whether an insurance company will pay up for a fall under the influence of alcohol as the decision pretty much depends on what the insurance company defines as ‘under the influence’.

Another plus for travel insurance coming up! The biggie is, if your holiday gets cancelled, travel insurance will ensure you don’t lose all your money. In 2006, over the summer holidays, £6 billion was lost in cancelled holidays by British passengers. If only they were not leaving their travel insurance to the last minute, they would have been compensated. According to More Th>n, an average cancelled holiday pay out by the insurance company was £856 per person. You never can tell what’s around the corner so don’t keep leaving that travel insurance to the last minute.

Another red light here. What if you are travelling to one of the World’s more dangerous areas? If travelling to a trouble spot against advice from the Foreign Office, your insurance could become invalid. Then again, if you don’t go to a trouble spot without the Foreign Office telling you not to, your insurance company will not pay your expenses. Watch out for this, you may find that civil war zones are not the only landmines to worry about.

The last word is, save yourself loads of money and do your homework before you go away! To avoid holiday disasters becoming nightmares, stop leaving important things like travel insurance forms to the last minute!

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In these trying times of soaring oil prices there are likely to be some business casualties according to Richard Branson in the article ‘Britons left at risk if airlines collapse!’.

Why we are not protecting ourselves in the event of an airline going bust is not as straightforward as it may seem! There is at the moment, a great risk of airlines going bust and we desperately need to protect ourselves.

In the last six months, over twelve carriers have lost the battle to stay afloat through these difficult times including Eos the business travel airline. This virus of airline insolvency is not something that is going to go away and passengers need to look into protecting themselves against being stranded without a flight as well as losing money.

Passengers need to be aware their insurance will not always bail them out of trouble should they get caught in the crossfire of a collapsed airline. This is not the case. The people most at risk are those who arrange their own holidays without going through an agent or if buying flights direct from an airline instead of through a tour operator.

When the UK business airline Silverjet ceased flying in May, passengers who booked their flights directly through the airline were not able to get compensation as well as having to pay out for an additional ticket to fly home.

In a comprehensive report, TravelMail inform passengers of their rights when an airline collapses. The report reveals how a thirty percent of travellers falsely believe their travel insurance policy will cover every eventuality. The report goes on to state that many insurance policies do not protect passengers from airline insolvency as standard. Not only this but worryingly report how difficult it is to get an insurance company to commit to protection against airline insolvency. The report even goes on to suggest that while customers are in the dark, the insurance companies too are ‘ignorant’ of their policies in the event of an airline collapse. We need to assert ourselves and our concerns to our insurers until they provide us the paying customer with the assurances we need.

Two interesting reports on UK gap year travellers were brought to my attention by travelbite.co.uk. AA travel insurance reports that with backpackers carrying electronic instruments such as mobile phones, digital cameras, MP3 players and laptops, the value of an average backpack and its contents has risen to around £450. The AA estimate that at any given time backpackers from the UK are wandering around the world with £1.7 billion worth of electronic gadgetry stowed in their rucksacks. When you consider the low security of many cheap hotels and even the possibility of sleeping under the starts, it’s essential to hold a valid travel insurance policy. They warn that you must look for the correct type of policy which is a long stay or backpacker policy rather than an annual policy that runs for a year but each trip is limited to something like 28 days.

Around the same time as the AA report, American Express Travel Insurance published the results of a poll of 10,000 of their customers. Bizarrely, they say that one third of all gap years are taken by the over 55s. Now I’m not disputing that people of that age might well decide to take a trip around the world whilst they still have the energy and desire to want to do it, but it surely can’t be a gap year…a gap from what ?. Hell, they’re on the verge of retirement and there’s no scope for a gap year unless it’s the year between work and retirement, but then we normally call that early retirement don’t we?. Anyhow the poll showed that more than half of gap year travellers from the UK are over 25. Presumably those in their twenties and thirties are taking a gap between jobs or between freedom and parenthood which is still stretching the accepted definition of the term “gap year”.

Hardly surprisingly, American Express Travel Insurance were quick to point out the importance of arranging travel insurance before setting off on your big journey. Their advice was :