Latest Travel Insurance News

by: Christine Zafra

If you are planning to go on a trip, make sure you have read the latest news regarding the country you are going to. A lot of people who get contaminated by various diseases from foreign countries are those who do not read the dailies. Bird flu is what’s prevalent today. Check the news what countries are affected by it and as much as possible, try to avoid going to those countries. There is nothing better than being safe.

Perhaps you can schedule for a new destination if you really want to have a get-away. Rescheduling your trip is also a very good idea.

Photo taken from http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk

InsureandGo a travel insurance provider revealed the most-claimed for top five of travel insurance in last year of 2007. The total amounts that travel insurers produced last year was 400milion pounds. That’s came from a 1.75 million claims alone in 2007.

In those claims the most popular claim was the medical treatment with over 500 000 claims made and totaling of 242.3 million pounds in pay-outs. Medical claims cost an roughly average of 477 pounds per claim as opposed to an average of 231 pounds per claim. Lost combined with stolen baggage reach 430 000 claims while costing about 35 million pounds. Cancellation of flight contributed 200 000 claims and cost the insurance company a total of 77 million pounds.

Several teams are set to play at the international rugby games. Rugby fans will clash and alongside with it they are being urged to make sure their travel insurance is ready. The Halifax insurance company advises the fans to check their travel insurance when watching plays at England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Italy and France.

Half of all sales are accounted to single trip travel insurance, and it may seems cheaper to pay for an annual policy rather than multiple and sometimes even a single trip travel coverage. Paul Birkhead of Halifax stated that although eager fans regularly check their tickets and the passports when they goes overseas travel insurance is also vital issue.

Moneysupermarket.com has learned, base on their research conducted, that the annual travel insurance are friendlier on the consumer’s wallet rather than getting single trip coverage for individuals while enjoying on holiday.

Peter Gerrard the Insurance research chief explains and advises the consumers to look for the best deal on travel insurance over single trip policies and is believe to be way cheaper. Peter also explained that not only the cost of the insurance to look for but the payouts of potential problems especially on the medical bills which is essential and at the same time very costly.
The highlight of the website was the case of Flexicor Direct, which offers travel insurance for only 60 pounds to cover family of four on multiple holidays.

In the most recent study about 35% of respondents were found out that they leaving for holiday without travel insurance coverage. That is one in three Britons were fails to get and insurance to protect them to medical emergency cost and loss of personal belongings.

Furthermore, 36 percent of the respondents were doing the same careless attitude once there are away. They keep their valuable possessions to other person rather than the use of safety deposit boxes on the hotel rooms and left their passports and money at the bedside tables. Over 50 percent of the respondents preferred a single trip insurance over the annual policy traveling once a year.

A new private medical insurance product has launched by Groupama HealthCare – Santé.
It was launched in 2006 and focused to serve the corporate SME Sector. Its exlcusive cover provides a full refund on eligible inpatient treatment together with various levels of outpatient cover. Its improvement has extended with additional option for dental and optical insurance. Also the processed of the travel insurance with Groupama has been streamlined.

The head of Groupama Healtcare said that, “The enhancements to Santé by Groupama Healthcare are the direct result of broker feedback, sought both on an individual basis and through our Healthcare Advisory Board.”

A consultation paper was released by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). The paper contains the plans for regulating Connected Travel Insurance or CTI, meaning travel insurance sold during holiday. Previously the FSA already regulates the travel insurances that are directly buy from the insurance company. Base on the paper, the guidelines is to make sure that the companies who are selling the travel insurance are proper and appropriately resourced including its employees.

Consumers should receive adequate, clear, concise, and consistent information about the travel insurers’ services. Those who are looking for advice should also get quality responses from the insurers so that consumers able to make a choice.

Honeymoon packages are often a big ticket item when considering the wedding budget. There’s no better way to protect the money spent on a honeymoon than with honeymoon travel insurance. The reason to purchase insurance only increase if the honeymoon destination is at risk for bad weather or if there’ll participation in dangerous activities that might lead to a medical evacuation.When considering travel insurance, ask if the policy covers: * Bankruptcy of an airline, tour, cruise or other supplier you planned to travel with * Trip cancellation and interruption * Accidents before or during your honeymoon that might prevent travel * Missed connections, travel or baggage delays * Emergency assistance.   

The American Express Insurance Services recently launched to the European market Essential which is a flexible annual travel insurance package that offers protection for policyholders from 18 to 65 years of age. The new travel insurance package also provides family policies.

Essential offers flexible and wide ranging optional add-on features which include but is not limited to winter sports and golf coverage. It also has coverage for baggage loss, cancellation, curtailment limit and will provide additional discount on premiums for those who have European health insurance cards. According to American Express, the Essential combines comprehensive coverage with keen premiums which often becomes a setback for most insurance providers.

In purchasing travel insurance, four common terms are frequently encountered which at times can lead to confusion for the average traveler. To clarify thing, we will try and define each of these terms. Let us start with Pre-existing Condition; basically, this is any medical illness you have prior to your trip. Some insurance companies though may have a specific time frame for determining what a pre-existing condition is. Primary Coverage means that you are covered from the initial dollar and above while Secondary Coverage pays only for most medical bills that are not shouldered by your private health insurance. Lastly, Initial Trip Deposit can either be your initial payment or that which represents your full payment.