Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Top Five Travel Insurance Tips

Travel insurance is one of those things that most of us reluctantly buy, hoping we will never actually need.

It's an annoying but often necessary expense if you are planning a business trip or holiday abroad. And like many other aspects of insurance, it can be confusing, costly and time consuming to get the right cover. Here are some tips to make the process a little bit easier:

How Much Travel Insurance do you Need?

  • Determine how much coverage you really need and don't be persuaded into taking out more coverage than is necessary. There is actually no legal requirement to have travel insurance when travelling abroad. You should take into account such factors as your destination, length of trip and your age. Families should take out a family policy, which covers adults and children and usually costs less than individual policies. Less than 60 countries actually have reciprocal health agreements with the UK – and those that do mostly operate on an emergency basis only. If you are travelling to Switzerland or a country in the European Economic Area, you are also eligible for free or reduced rate emergency medical care. And if you think your credit card may include travel insurance – check the small print carefully, as the wording is often misleading and you may not be covered under your credit card.

  • Don't assume the insurance offered by your travel agency is always the best value. Travel agents generally receive a commission on each policy sold and their insurance may not be the most competitively priced – in fact it can cost an average of five times as much as it should. And insurance provided by a travel agent or a tour operator isn't regulated by the FSA (Financial Services Authority) whereas most independent insurance companies are members.
  • What Should be Included in Your Travel Insurance?

  • Make sure you have adequate medical insurance – the most important part of any travel insurance policy, and the reason most of us get travel insurance. Apart from treatment abroad, you may need to return to the UK in an emergency, or for specialised treatment. The cost of this can be very expensive – an estimated £30,000 to travel by Air Ambulance from the Eastern US; an estimated £14,000 to return from one of the Mediterranean islands. Ideally, this service should be available 24 hours a day.

  • Adventure trips and holidays featuring extreme sports are more popular than ever these days. Does your travel insurance cover you against such activities as bungee jumping, sky diving and mountaineering? These are just a few of the activities that will normally be excluded unless you specifically request coverage. Skiing and scuba diving – two commonplace activities – are considered dangerous sports too. Winter sports coverage is usually offered as an optional extra or included under a separate policy. Surprisingly though, statistics prove that most accidents abroad actually happen in hotel rooms!

  • Consider trip cancellation insurance. As the name suggests, this insurance covers you in the event of delays or cancellations. Some of the most common reasons you may need this type of insurance are bankruptcy of a cruise line or airline, weather delays and other natural disasters and labour disputes. Most discount air tickets have stiff penalties for changing dates or cancelling them altogether – it may pay to insure against that possibility.

  • It might seem like you're throwing money down the drain that could pay for a nice meal or day trip on your holiday, but good travel insurance doesn't have to be expensive if you know where to look and can be a real life saver if things turn sour, particularly if you're thousands of miles away from home when it does.

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    Sunday, April 08, 2007

    Student Health Insurance - Is It Necessary?

    As a young, healthy college student, it might be alluring to waive the disbursal of wellness insurance. After all, you're young, you're careful and you're not sick. You don't really need wellness insurance, make you?

    Absolutely, state most colleges. In fact, there's a growth tendency among colleges and universities to necessitate wellness insurance for all enrolled students. According the wellness officials, the very things that do dormitory life and college so much merriment for college students are the perfect topographic point for viruses and other unwellnesses to distribute like wildfire through an full dorm. Doctors' bills, equipment costs, prescription costs - even just the costs associated with a simple eruption of the influenza can run into respective hundred dollars. It's not unusual, they say, for an undergraduate student to happen themselves stuck with medical measures totaling respective thousand dollars from one unwellness or injury. In many cases, these measures are absorbed by the university itself through its medical clinic.

    Many students and their parents may mistakenly presume that the student is still covered on their parents' wellness insurance plan. While many wellness insurance programs make screen full-time college students who are on their parent’s plans, many more than bounds that coverage to local docs only. If you're attending school out of state, you may happen yourself with no coverage if you get ill or have got an accident.

    If you've been covered under your parent’s wellness insurance until now, the existent cost of wellness care may come up as a major shock. You may be used to paying a $20 or $25 co-payment for office visits, or $50 for an emergency room visit. Without insurance, a single visit to the emergency room averages about $500 in measures - and that's before any casts, sutures, X-rays Oregon other treatments are added in. Something as simple as a sprained ankle joint can run up measures totaling respective hundred dollars.

    The solution is an low-cost impermanent or student wellness insurance program that's designed specifically to cover unwellnesses for students studying away from home. Many colleges and universities offer their ain wellness insurance plans, or one through a local wellness insurance provider. They take into account the financial state of affairs of most students with extremely low-cost rates through a grouping program for which any student attending the university is eligible. One of the most low-cost options you can find, most wellness insurance programs offered through a university cost less than $1000 annually, and will cover any wellness or accident related disbursals as long as you keep a specific number of hours as a registered student.

    Health insurance isn't something you can afford to waive to salvage a small money. Low-Cost wellness insurance programs through your university can stop up economy you thousands in medical measures if you make end up in an accident or getting sick.

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    Friday, April 06, 2007

    Breakdown Insurance

    Who knows, you are going out for a long drive, and your car breaks down midway. Experts say that there is more than 10% chance of breaking down each year if your car is more than 3 years old. It is worse in the winter. You can avoid breakdowns by taking precautionary measures like re-servicing your vehicle each month. However, getting your breakdown insurance is a good option to protect you financially if your car vehicle breaks down when it is least expected to.

    Types of Breakdown Cover

    Roadside Rescue: If your vehicle breaks down outside a specific distance radius from your home, breakdown insurance would pay for the servicing amount except the charge for new parts. The company will provide you with other helps. However, the incident is at your home or within specified radius of your home, and then it won’t be covered.

    Home Rescue: It covers the same as the roadside rescue; it extends the coverage to your house. It includes getting your vehicle checked at the local garage.

    Recovery Plus: It covers both home and roadside breakdowns. It provides a hire car to either return home or continue your journey. And also it covers the cost of alternative transport to enable your journey or return home to be completed. If the breakdown happens a set of miles away (specified in the policy), accommodation in a local hotel while awaiting completion of repairs will also be provided.

    Continental Cover

    In UK, European Rescue Breakdown covers roadside breakdown in continental driving. It covers the charge of repairing or bringing your car back to UK in case your car can’t be repaired. However, it doesn’t cover the charge of new parts. So, it is always wise to have this insurance, if you are driving across Europe as you can face fees for roadside assistance charge for every kilometer your car is being towed.

    Partners and Family

    Some policies also cover spouse or partner; however check it with the insurance company. Some companies look whether your spouse or partner is living with you at the same address. Family cover includes you, a partner and usually two children under 21 living at the same address as you. Check whether your policy covers all the persons traveling in the car.

    You need to wait nearly 25 minutes to an hour for a roadside assistance. Some policies fix the number of calls to five or six each year. You may get more if you have a joint cover or family cover. If you exceed the limit you must pay for the assistance. Policies do not cover the cost of new parts. Some policies do not cover trailers and caravans. Animals are usually not covered.


    Wednesday, April 04, 2007

    What is Travel Insurance?

    Travel Insurance is designed to protect your health, belongings, and your financial investing in your trip. It supplies peace of head for you and your household while on your vacation.

    If you are travelling abroad, be it on business or pleasance it is a good thought to see taking out travel insurance. Whilst it is not compulsory, most travel companies and circuit operators usually take a firm stand on some word form of insurance as a judicial admission of their holiday product.

    Travel insurance is an insurance merchandise specifically designed to cover you when travelling abroad. We all think about the small things when considering whether to purchase travel insurance, such as as loss of money or having luggage stolen. However there are many other factors to see such as as unwellness & accidents which can also be covered by travel insurance.

    Travel insurance is designed to protect and cover against the possible hazards you may meet when travelling abroad. It is of important importance if you are travelling abroad, especially if you are likely to pay for any medical disbursals that may arise. Other hazards include the loss or theft of possessions, the cost of cancellations or claims made against you.

    Travel insurance is designed to reimburse non-refundable trip sedimentations and payments, medical expenses, supply for emergency emptying or repatriation, screen your personal belongings, baggage and travel delays.

    The chief ground you need travel insurance is that when you travel to different states the healthcare services, among other things, can be very different. Sometimes you never cognize what to anticipate when you travel abroad, and depending on the peculiar country, services offered can change greatly. You have got to be prepared to manage any state of affairs that mightiness arise. If you go on to be ache or go sick in a country that have expensive wellness care you could happen yourself with a measure you did not anticipate and probably cannot afford to pay. If you are in this sort of problem travel insurance suits the measure and guarantees that you have the treatment you need.

    Travel insurance can cover the following expenses:

    Non refundable fees & lost sedimentations owed to cancellation of your trip

    Worldwide illness or accident medical expenses

    Travel and Baggage Delays

    Damage to or loss of luggage and personal belongings

    Loss of Travel Documents

    Additional disbursals caused by wellness problems

    Accidental Death & Dismemberment

    Emergency Emptying and Repatriation

    24 hr Worldwide Emergency Aid Services

    As in all insurance market places, there are many different suppliers of travel insurance. Type of screen and options will change according to the company and policy. There are different types of travel insurance policies which in the chief tin be annual policies or single trip policies. There also different degrees of screen available where different activities such as as skiing are covered. There are also regional differences such as as Worldwide or European cover.

    When choosing a travel insurance policy you will need to do a judgement between the degree of coverage you necessitate and the cost of the policy. Brand certain your policy covers most of the following: Personal Property & Money, Personal Accident, Medical Expenses, Personal Liability and Legal Expenses.

    But retrieve like all other word forms of insurance expression around and check out the options as you can salvage yourself a great deal of money.

    You may freely reissue this article provided the author's life stays intact:

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    Monday, April 02, 2007

    Do I Need Travel Insurance?

    In the United States wellness insurance, unlike many other countries, you can happen tons of Blue Cross Blue Shield plans. Hundreds of regular commercial insurance and so many more than wellness insurance programs like managed-care plans—HMOs, PPOs and PPG's. For some travelers, they may have got got Medicaid, and for those over 65 old age have Medicare. All of these different types of programs have got many assorted benefits, costs, deductibles, exclusions and restrictions.

    So think before you travel and check your existent wellness policy to see what it pays for. It may reimburse you for up to 100% of the cost of emergency medical care when you're come come out of the closet of the closet of the country, of course, excluding any deductibles or copayments.

    For nonemergency care overseas you may be covered but probably will have got got to name your insurance company or wellness maintenance organization in the United States for all for treatments that need to be authorized.

    Check with your wellness program about this before you go forth home because failure to get mandate from your wellness maintenance organization or insurance company may intend you will not get reimbursed if you later register a claim.

    If your wellness insurance policy doesn't cover your medical cost abroad, or you do not have any coverage whatsoever, then you should see buying a travel wellness particular insurance policy.

    Even if your present wellness insurance will pay physician and infirmary measures when you're out of the country, you may desire to purchase a travel insurance policy to get other of import benefits such as as coverage for air ambulance transport and on-site medical disbursal payment.

    With some specific diseases like diabetes, COPD, epilepsy, etc when you're traveling it may not be covered so make certain you first talk we your health insurance agent before you travel and then see what is covered.

    When my male parent travels he makes get travel insurance, not for the benefit of the health insurance, but just in lawsuit he makes get sick and not able to take the trip at the at the clip he supposed to travel. This manner he can get his money back.


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