Why you should buy travel insurance before a holiday

The biggest decisions when planning a holiday are, where will we go, and how will we get there? But despite it being a duller element of planning a holiday we would recommend you add buying travel insurance as another one of the important question that need to be addressed. In most cases, buying travel insurance to cover the non-refundable expenditures is a wise decision. Let’s consider why that is true.

Consider first these possible holiday unforeseen events,

• Unexpected medical visits and transport
• Terrorism

Is it really worth taking the risk? The world we live in today is dangerous and unpredictable and we never know when we could suffer health deterioration. Having fully coverage with your travel insurance can offer peace of mind, in the knowledge that you will be taken care of in any event.

This becomes increasingly important if you are travelling with a pre-existing medical condition, even though the cost of travel insurance increases with such conditions there are still travel insurance options when you have heart conditions.

Without insurance the cost of overseas treatment averages at around £1300, but can easily be higher (Source: ABI)

Consider this example, a UK holiday goer was required to take an air ambulance back to Britain after having numerous fractures as well as an artery tear in the United States. The cost of this came to a staggering £500k.

Factors to consider:

• Receiving medical care while abroad could easily cost far over thousands of pounds.
• It is essential to get cover that will get you home in an emergency as well as the medical expenses.
• Do not presume that other forms of insurance such as, credit card and private health care covers you, because 99% do not cover you in these instances.
• If you attempt to get away without insurance do not think that the British consulate will intervene, they are very unlikely to help you.

Does having an EHIC (European Health Insurance Card) cover you?

Having an EHIC does provide a basic level of care whatever EU country you are in, however the downside of this is that the local level of medical care is often well below what you may expect even from our NHS system. Another drawback is that EHIC will not cover your costs for getting home.

So, while it is worth getting an EHIC, do not presume this will be enough, always make sure you get the extra protection that comes from travel insurance.

Is travel insurance value for money?

Without a doubt, the main benefit of getting insurance is to cover having an emergency situation on holiday.

• Just think about a skiing holiday, chances of broken limbs are quite high, and then what about that helicopter ride back down the slopes?
• What if one of children got sick? Is it worth taking the chance when medical costs are so high throughout the world, especially in the US.

It is easy to see the benefits of travel insurance when you stop to consider all the possible pitfalls. Yes, chances are you will not need to use the insurance cover you have paid for. But peace of mind is worth paying for.