Travel Tips: How to save money on travel insurance
It’s surprising how many people get their travel insurance from the agent they booked their holiday with.
However, a little bit of time and research would show them just how much they could save on travel insurance. Here are Your Travel Planner’s travel insurance tips:
1. Are you already covered?
One way to save on your travel insurance is to make sure that you’re not already covered. Check your home insurance policy. Many have clauses that already cover personal belongings outside the home. Also, check your private medical insurance policy, if you have one. It may already cover the cost of treatment incurred abroad.
2. Obtain a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC)
This has replaced the old E111 forms and gives you reduced-cost or free medical treatment in EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The EHIC is free from ehic.org.uk or ask at your local Post Office.
It’s not a substitute for travel insurance as only treatment provided under the state scheme is covered. Nor will it cover repatriation costs or lost money, baggage or cancellation, but the EHIC has been useful to me in the past. Remember to have the card with you though.
3. Buy an annual policy
The biggest tip on how to save money on travel insurance has got be: buy an annual policy. Annual worldwide multi-trip policies always make sense if you go on more than one trip a year. Remember, a ‘trip’ can usually include two or more consecutive nights away in the UK at prepaid accommodation.
A quick search today on one of the comparison sites (www.moneysupermarket.com/travelinsurance is the one I use most) shows annual multi-trip policies for a family of 4 starting from £33, compared to £16 for a single trip to Italy.
Obviously, you need to decide what level of cover you want as your circumstances will determine what level is cheapest and best for you.
4. Buy joint or family cover
Joint cover or family insurance policies are generally cheaper than individually covering all your family members.
5. Buy European only if Worldwide is not required
If you are unlikely to travel outside of Europe, a Europe only policy is often much cheaper than worldwide cover. Look out for Europe only policies that can be extended to give you future flexibility.
6. Shop around
Save on travel insurance by shopping around. Travel insurance from the agent you book your holiday with is often not the best deal. It does pay to shop around and with the good comparison sites online, there really isn’t any reason to pay more than you need to.
Which comparison sites do you use? Do you have any travel insurance tips? Share them with us at Your Travel Planner by posting a comment.
1
Andy
Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
I think it’s quite easy to get worldwide insurance for the whole family for around £99 right now which I personally believe to be a good deal. Good site.