Compare Travel Insurance

Archive for July, 2009

Your multiple country trip to destinations in Europe, Asia and the Middle East require a worldwide travel insurance policy. To purchase separate policies for all of your international destinations not only would be very cumbersome, but next to impossible and extremely costly to procure. Almost every single travel insurance provider offers worldwide travel insurance. If you are looking for Canadian travel insurance, European travel insurance or Australian travel insurance you can save a great deal of money by finding an insurance company that offers those specific products versus coverage for a much wider geographical area like worldwide travel insurance.

All of the major insurance companies in leading population center like the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States provide worldwide travel insurance to travelers from their own country as well as international travelers and visitors. Other considerations are if you are a student who is traveling abroad, the Visa requirements mean you have to carry worldwide medical insurance as a requirement to obtaining a Visa for your prospective destination.

Pricing will vary widely depending on the duration of your visit and how many different countries you may be visiting. Certain countries are not covered under standard policies and if you want coverage to areas that have a history of terrorism, you may not be able to get a policy at all (Iraq, Iran, North Korea, etc.). As a student you have to be aware that the expense of having treatment for injuries or illness sustained while abroad can be prohibitively expensive. If you want to save some money your best bet is not to forgo insurance, but to choose a policy that has lower upper limits and higher deductibles. In the case of medical emergency, you will be covered and will be able to be transported to a medical facility that can handle your illness or injury in a professional manner.

Tesco Travel Insurance offers new for old replacement insurance for equipment damaged or lost while on vacation, but excludes clothing. There standard coverage for worldwide travel insurance includes up to two million pounds (2,000,000) for medical expenses, up to two million pounds (2,000,000) for personal liability with a one hundred pound deductible, up to fifteen thousand pound in legal expenses (including holiday contractual disputes), trip cancellation or interruption up to twenty five hundred pounds (500), loss of personal money up to four hundred pounds (400) and up to one hundred pounds (100) of personal item replacement insurance.

In addition Tesco has many other available options for winter holidays and other extreme sports holidays. Specific activities covered under the general heading of winter sports are: skiing and snowboarding (both on and off trails), cross country skiing, ice skating and curling. They will cover closure of the resort, loss or damage of ski equipment and the rental of replacement equipment along with the cost of your ski pass or passes and fees. To make the most informed decision for worldwide travel insurance you should do some research and go to sites that allow you to compare the various policies available.

To keep your insurance costs in line with expectations, make sure you are only purchasing as much coverage as you need. If you are only going to travel to Europe, then buy travel insurance to Europe. If only traveling to the United States, only purchase travel insurance to USA. That way you are not paying for coverage in countries where you will not be traveling (waste of money).

Travel insurance to Europe has seen rates coming down over the years as its use has become more commonplace. Are you planning on taking a holiday or business trip to Europe? With the problems that many lesser travel companies face including lack of funding or too much debt, you may want to make sure you have trip cancellation coverage that will reimburse you the cost of your trip in the event that your ravel company goes bankrupt. I have addressed many options in previous articles when it comes to world travel insurance, European travel insurance, Canadian travel insurance and Australian travel insurance. Here I will discuss many of the changes over the last several years with the advent of the European Union and how it has changed the landscape for travel insurance in Europe.

While the monetary landscape has changed dramatically the insurance industry has resisted making blanket changes to their travel insurance to Europe. All companies I have investigated require you to input your place of residence (by country, except for Canada - province) and the country or countries you are planning on visiting. There are companies that offer just travel insurance to Europe, but they are not easy to find. You can use Google or one of your favorite search engines and type in “Travel Insurance Europe” and see what comes up. My latest trip to the Internet and using this search of Google resulted in seven sponsored results and over thirty eight million hits for results.

Ask.com came up with 10 sponsored results and several hundred pages (29,000,000) of regular web results for travel insurance Europe. The top 4 results for Google and Ask.com were the same, Insure My Trip, Quote Wright, Commonwealth Insurance Group and Travel Guard. Some of the companies that offer insurance through some of these insurance portals include, Tesco Online Travel Insurance, Boots Travel Insurance, Thomas Cook and Sainsbury Travel Insurance.

Thomas Cook is an international travel agent and offers travel insurance to Europe for any of the packages they sell. They also will provide travel insurance for trips that they do not sell directly. Thomas Cook has policies that have received both 4 and 5 star ratings for their range of coverage and affordability compared to other insurers. They have specific coverage for travel insurance in Europe. Below are some of the results of my quote for a couple traveling to Europe from the United Kingdom where both adults are under the age of 59.

For a single trip to Europe with a duration of between 6 and 9 days, the costs for coverage range from thirty four pounds for the economy policy to forty five pounds for gold coverage. For less than ten pounds you get a much greater array or protection from the standard policy provisions. You get hospital benefits, trip delay coverage (up to 12 hours), missed departure, hijack and mugging benefits, carrier failure coverage, kennel coverage and loss of hotel coverage. In addition, these coverages are available for persons traveling up to the age of eighty four (84) where the coverage stops at age sixty four (64) on the economy policy. If you are buying the multi trip policy then the age limit comes down to sixty nine (69) for both the Gold and Traveller policies.