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Travel Insurance

What to watch out for when purchasing travel insurance

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Travel insurance policies can be complicated, particularly if it’s your first time purchasing them. There are numerous guidelines to read and understand, and determining what you need to insure for your travel can be overwhelming. To help you get the best cover, here are four things to watch out for when buying best value travel insurance.

1. Exclusions

Providers structure travel insurance around risk mitigation. This means they only cover you to the extent that doesn’t compromise their business (profits and gains). So, it’s normal to find insurers restricting coverage in certain situations like extreme sports and losses incurred due to intoxication.

Hence, when buying travel insurance, identify the exclusions stated in the fine print and whether you can buy an additional policy to cover them.

2. Exceptions

Travel insurance exceptions are circumstances in which your insurer doesn’t cover all the expenses incurred as a result of a particular emergency or accident. For instance, while your insurer might cover a medical evacuation, they may not cover the actual treatment of your injuries.

So, it’s vital to examine the exceptions listed in your policy to learn about hidden additional costs.

3. Destinations covered

If you’re visiting more than one country, be sure to check that your policy covers every place you intend to visit. Travel insurers tend to avoid covering certain countries, especially if they’re known for having a high crime rate, to mitigate risks.

4. Duration of your trip

This might sound simple, but if you miscalculate your trip and are away for more days than your policy covers, it automatically becomes invalid. Therefore, if you lose any luggage or fall ill on the additional days, don’t expect to be reimbursed.

Calculate the days you’ll be away as accurately as possible, factoring in time zones and delays to ensure that you’re covered throughout your trip.

Bottom line

Travel insurance policies can be hard to decipher, but with these tips, you can ensure you get the coverage you need. Similarly, you can get the right cover by comparing policies and quotes from different providers.

Use Compare Insurance today to compare travel insurance products from top brands.

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Categories
Travel Insurance

A simple guide to travel insurance policies

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The variation in travel medical insurance can be as complex as deciding where to go on holiday. Be incredibly wary of policies that appear surprisingly cheap and make sure you fully understand what you are paying for! A cheap policy generally means poor levels of cover and high excesses. There are good deals out there, they just require a little more time and diligence to find. The following guide aims to make this a little easier for you.

Are you an avid traveller?

If so, it doesn’t make logical sense to take out a new policy every time you make a trip abroad, so look into multi-trip policies. These will cover all the trips you may make in a calendar year. If you tend to holiday more than the average person/family, it would be foolish to look past the various multi-trip options. Bear in mind, however, that these policies often include limits regarding the length of each trip.

Read the exclusions!

If you’re not a fan of reading more than you have to and normally skip the small print, you may want to revise this. Travel insurance policies all include a list of sporting activities or pursuits that are automatically covered, but lookout for the one’s that aren’t! This isn’t necessarily ad-hoc and is a common staple of many travel policies. However, some have exclusions for relatively ordinary activities such as hiking. This is where you could get caught out, so read the policy properly.

Protection against airlines and operators

Providing coverage in case an airline or holiday operator ceases to trade is not something that many people think about, but that doesn’t stop it happening and leaving travellers out of pocket. This is often not included in your average travel policy, so again, make sure you analyse your potential policies correctly.

There are many more methods for making sure you take out the most appropriate policy, so do your research, tailor your coverage, and make sure you don’t get caught out if something goes wrong!

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Health Insurance

How to find the best health insurance for kids

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No-one likes to think about their children needing medical treatment, but it’s always good to be prepared. Children’s health insurance helps pay for private healthcare for your kids if they need it, but what should you look for?

Different types of policy

You can choose to take out family health insurance only for your child. This will give you peace of mind that they’re covered should anything happen, and it may be that the adults in your household are already covered by other policies. It is also possible to include children on a plan that covers your whole family.

Child health care plans can also work in a number of ways. There’s the standard insurance model in which you pay a monthly premium and then pay an excess should you make a claim. You could also choose a cash plan, in which you make a small payment each month and will be paid a small sum to cover events like a trip to the dentist, for example.

Different levels of cover

For those on a tight budget, a basic policy generally covers treatment and associated costs when your child has been admitted to hospital. A mid-level child insurance policy is likely to also cover outpatient costs. Comprehensive cover includes all of the above plus extra treatments such as physiotherapy, homoeopathy and mental health treatment.

Be aware of exclusions

Many health care plans will have certain exclusions – things that are not covered. It could be that a policy does not cover treatment for pre-existing conditions, or for conditions such as diabetes. It’s important to check all of this before you choose a policy.

Dental cover and optician costs

Most plans will not include dental cover and optician costs as standard, but will offer these on as optional extras. Before adding extras like these, make sure you compare them with alternative quotes to make sure you’re getting the best deal.

Comparing child health insurance plans is easy thanks to Compare Insurance’s comparison tool. Simply tell us a bit about you and we’ll show you the best health care plans for your kids.

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