5 Tips To Save Money On Your Travel Insurance

According to Money Saving Expert’s Martin Lewis, arranging travel insurance for any trip abroad is as important as remembering to take your passport – it is something you might not want to go without.

Essential it may be, but the market offers a huge choice of travel insurance products and there are key ways of saving money on the cover you may need to suit your particular needs and circumstances.

Here are just five tips:

1. Standalone

• taking to heart the advice of making sure to arrange travel insurance, you may be tempted simply to tick the box to opt in to the travel company’s insurance scheme;

• practically every airline and travel booking site lets you buy travel insurance just by ticking the appropriate box;

• however, this rarely gives you the chance to read about the cover you have actually bought – and therefore whether it is suitable for your needs and requirements;

• perhaps most important of all, you miss out on the opportunity to shop around for more appropriate, and cheaper, travel insurance from independent specialists such as BengoTravel;

2. Shop around

• if you want to choose between independent insurance providers, there are a number of ways of shopping around;

• one resource, for example, may be the website of the Consumer Association’s magazine Which? – where products supplied by BengoTravel also feature in listings for the best rate for European travel;

3. Health cover

• one of the most important elements of travel insurance is cover against accidents, illness and the need for expensive medical care and attention overseas;

• when arranging the limits of medical cover you need, however, you may still want to keep in mind the benefits of a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) – which is available free from the NHS and remains valid for up to five years;

• an EHIC grants you free or discounted health care in public hospitals for a number of medical conditions if you are travelling anywhere in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland – and access to such services may influence your decision as to the level of health care insurance you need;

• as the NHS warns, however, an EHIC is by no means a substitute for travel insurance, since the former does not cover any private health treatment, mountain rescue during winter sports, or repatriation to the UK;

4. Excess

• when shopping around for your travel insurance, you might want to pay particular attention to the level of excess attached to any claim;

• a high excess, for instance, may lead to apparently cheaper premiums, but if you are liable to pay all or the substantial first part of any claim, the policy may become next to useless;

5. Annual cover

• if you are a frequent traveller – you go abroad more than, say, three times a year – you are likely to gain significant discounts on the cost of your insurance by purchasing annual cover;

• this provides year round protection for as many trips as you decide to make (up to an agreed maximum number of days) and is likely to prove on a trip by trip basis than insurance for a single period of travel.

Although these might be described as our top five tips, it is by no means an exhaustive list and you may be able to discover other ways of saving money on your travel insurance by planning ahead, shopping around and making sure that you are aware of the policy wording before you set out on your travels.