Why Do I Need Travel Insurance? Personal Experiences
By Philip
Suter
For
many people the thought of paying out for insurance is unnecessary.
This situation will never happen to me is very common. Certain
types of insurance are compulsory regardless – car insurance,
business insurance etc, but many people just think it is a “waste
of money” to buy insurance for their freezer, TV, health, legal
costs on rental property or vacation, this will never happen
to me. Sure you can be lucky and dine out a few times on what
you could have paid out, but what happens when a disaster strikes?
A
few years ago my family was going to take a late summer holiday
with my late father in law who lived in Dublin, Ireland going
to join him in the Algarve in Portugal. We had booked this through
a package company and naturally they encouraged you to purchase
Travel Insurance. 24 hours before the trip we received a call
from Ireland to say that he had been taken into hospital. The
holiday had to be immediately cancelled and the warm weather
clothing unpacked and appropriate clothing for Ireland packed
instead. The Travel Insurance at least covered the cost of the
lost Portuguese holiday and we were able to take this with him
in the early summer the following year.
Some
time later we were off on a summer holiday to Ireland, this
was in the early era of low cost budget airlines in the UK and
we set off for London Luton airport in what we thought would
be plenty of time. Normally there would have been plenty of
time as this is a journey we had done on numerous occasions.
On this particular Sunday Luton was holding its Half marathon
and trying to get anywhere need the airport from the Dunstable
side was near impossible. We just sat in traffic and eventually
arrived at the airport..too late! The flight had gone and the
next one that day was fully booked. We were able to book on
a flight for the next morning (naturally at an additional charge)
and had to go back home again for 24 hours. Fortunately, although
we lost a day’s holiday, we were only staying with relatives
and did not lose out too much. No we had not taken out Travel
Insurance.
In
2001 we decided to spend Christmas in the sunny South of France.
When it was not raining it was sunny and very pleasant. We set
off to return home via Nice airport and discovered all the flights
to the south of England were cancelled. It was covered in a
blanket of snow. We spent the entire day at the airport waiting
for news. The flights going into London Heathrow were eventually
going out as they had cleared the runway, but our flight for
London Luton was not even at the airport, as it had never left
its destination that morning. Luton never opened that day and
we could not even get booked on a flight for the following day
as we had gone low cost and the earliest flight was the day
after.
We
had to hire a car again and stay on for two more nights. We
eventually arrived back to a London Luton (and that was still
touch and go as only the runway and approach roads did not have
snow on them) and got safely home. This time we had Travel insurance
– an annual policy and this kicked in and covered some of our
additional costs.
It
is most important that you do have travel insurance – you never
know when you might need it, particularly if you are making
your own booking arrangements. Most travel companies insist
that you take out a policy, however if you are booking a weekend
away, or going self catering booking the accommodation and travel
yourself, you might forget or just think it is a waste of money.
On a recent visit to Amsterdam, The Netherlands the holiday
we booked into on line stated (and as I also saw with some other
Dutch hotels) that a “non refundable” deposit would have to
be made at the time of booking. If for example the booking had
been made three months in advance and you change your travel
plans – well there goes the deposit you paid!
Most
Travel policies will cover the following: Holiday delayed -
Missed departure - Lost your passport -Personal money stolen
-Damaged your ski equipment - Personal Accident -Abandon your
holiday before you leave your country of residence – Catastrophe
(fire, flood, earthquake or storm) - Medical Emergency - Hospital
- Emergency Dental Treatment -Legal Advice –Mugging. You must
always check exactly what the insurance provider is exactly
offering and covering. Most insurers offer a single trip, multi
trip 90 day policy and annual policy. A lot even offer people
on their “year out” travelling a “back packers policy”. Enjoy
your travels, but remember your travel insurance.
Philip
Suter is a Director of JML Property Services http://www.jml-property-insurance.co.uk
a UK based company offering Insurance products on line and a
holiday home advertising service and management training with
in the uk. He is a very experienced property consultant with
over 30 years work in the Residential letting business and served
in the national council of ARLA. He is a Fellow of the National
Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) and a Member of The association
of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA)
Article
Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Philip_Suter
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