What kind of things are covered by worldwide travel insurance?

A good worldwide travel insurance policy should cover you against every possible eventuality beyond your control on your travels. But there needs to be limits to this, and you'll find that most worldwide insurance policies will be unlikely to put too much risk on themselves for covering you throughout the year for personal liability.

Thus, you should be insured for your own health if you were to go motorcycling, but you probably won't be covered for personal liability. You should also be insured for driving a car on your worldwide insurance policy, but any personal liability cover should be provided for you by the car rental company or on the insurance policy of the car owner. Should you buy a car while you are away, obviously you will have to purchase separate car insurance.

To cover further risks, your worldwide travel insurance will be likely to limit your dental cover to a total of around £500 for the year, and is very unlikely not to cover cosmetic treatment. You may also find that whilst your spectacles are covered by worldwide travel insurance, your contact lenses may not be.

Some people go travelling without even buying a return ticket. If you have a one-way ticket you can still get travel insurance cover as long as you intend to go back eventually to your starting point, as long as that return is within a specified duration limit.

In a further effort to control risk, most worldwide travel insurance companies will be unlikely to allow you to take very valuable items away with you on a long-stay trip. You will probably be expected to put those valuables on an all-risks policy for household contents. You are also unlikely to be covered for any money. You shouldn't leave anything unattended or in the interior of any car.

Whoever you choose for your worldwide travel insurance, you do need to make sure that the company has a 24-hour emergency phone number you can call, with multi-lingual staff who will be able to help you wherever you are in the world. You only need a certain amount of medical cover, and you should remember that the largest ever recorded medical claim is for less than £1m. Thus, you probably only need up to £5m cover without being over insured.

Bear in mind that if you are not going to the USA or Canada, you should be able to get cheaper worldwide travel insurance, as you will not be exposed to the massively higher medical bills in the USA and Canada.

Finally, leave a copy of your documents with your family. They can help deal with your insurance company should anything happen and you need to make a claim from a long way away.

© AskFinancially.com 2008

Travel Insurance

Insurance & Loans

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What kind of things are covered by worldwide travel insurance?

© AskFinancially.com 2008

Travel Insurance

Insurance & Loans

Copyright