Travel Insurance
Posted on 16. Aug, 2010 by Kirsty in Blog, Planning
We think travel insurance is pretty costly, at least £500 for both of us, although it is expensive, we both agreed that it is mainly about insuring our peace of mind. Kirsty is pretty accident prone (only she could go skiing and injure herself on the first slope) and her medical costs could easily rack up into the tens of thousands. We’re also taking some pretty expensive stuff and would like to be covered if it gets lost or stolen and finally, we’re planning to do some dangerous sports so overall for our own good, mainly Kirsty’s, £500 is well worth spending.
What types of travel insurance are there
- Single Trip – cover for a short period of time usually up to 90 days
- Multi Trip – Annual cover for people who travel regularly, usually limited to 31days
- Backpacking – cover which is specifically aimed at people who will be travelling for a prolonged period of time.
Backpacking definitely sounded like us, so we started to research further into companies that were recommended for travellers. Straight to an insurance comparison website to have a look at all the different providers there are. The quotes at July 2010 were:
Companies
All quotes are for 12 months
World Nomads - £341 each
Sta travel – £101 each
ACE Holiday Insurance – £178 each
Down Under Travel Insurance – £187
Outbacker Travel Insurance – £124 each
Essential Travel Insurance – £142.99 each
Insurefortravel.co.uk - £181.69
Globe Link Travel Insurance – £165 each
Should you always pick the cheapest?
It depends, it’s all about checking the small print! Sometimes a cheaper policy charges higher excesses or they may not cover every activity you plan to do. We made sure we got insurance which will cover you for every eventuality rather than the cheapest.
We checked our insurance policy and the review sites to see if:
- We needed to be in your home country when you take out the policy and when it finishes
- It covered cancellations and bankruptcy
- It covered all the countries we are likely to go to
- What the average response time if we do make a claim
- Can we specify how long we will be in the more expensive countries (USA)
- Are we able to tailor the policy if our plans change
- Does it cover us, if we are planning to work
- What extreme sports are covered, do we need to pay extra?
Sooo, who did we go for??
It has been difficult to chose some of the cheaper travel insurance plans as we have little set plans and insurance companies want to know everything up front. World nomads offer flexibility on the road that is brilliant for us, if we decide to do something that is not covered by the policy we can just add it!
We are planning to insure ourselves at first for the cheapest cover with them, and then build on this if we need to. For example, when we go scuba diving about 5/6 months into our trip we will just change our policy online to cover us, doing this will save us over £100.
We are an affiliate of World Nomads, so any click throughs leading to sales will help to support this blog. Thanks
An English couple travelling China and South East Asia since August 2010. 
Nick Laborde
17. Aug, 2010
Thanks for the list, World Nomads seems to be a popular choice.
Shopping for insurance isn’t exactly the most exciting thing in the world.
Kirsty
17. Aug, 2010
it certainly isn’t and it takes soooooo long. It took me the best part of half a day to get all the quotes above and they can’t be direct comparisons as some have more in their basic than others.
It’s a minefield!!!!
Ian [EagerExistence]
17. Aug, 2010
Very smart with WorldNomads
Did you check that it covers adventure sports? When I was looking at travel insurance, I noticed that skiing was not covered in some T&Cs.
Also, insuring all the flashpacking gear really takes a chunk out of the budget :-s but like you said, its peace of mind if anything happens to it.
Some credit cards offer included travel insurance, and some up to 6 months travel (none for a year though). It may be worth looking at a combination of cover for a reduced price. Although, I’ve never tried making a claim with a credit card insurer.
Kirsty
17. Aug, 2010
i think the basic cover with world nomads covers some adventure sports but the step up covers for many more. We figured that we wont be doing much adventure sports until thailand where we will be scuba diving so we’ll add it on then.
We’ve chosen credit cards that gve us good rates whilst abroad, but no other benefits.I’ve never really looked into insurance with them as most i have seen do 30 das and then you have to return to claim
Erica
17. Aug, 2010
Ew. I am not looking forward to researching this… especially because we like to try our hands at surfing, snowboarding, etc.
Thank you so much for this information guys, it is incredibly useful.
Kirsty
17. Aug, 2010
it is soooo confusing!!! you have to read alll the small print! not nice
ayngelina
17. Aug, 2010
One thing I will suggest, as I am now trying to claim theft, if that for both medical and theft over 500 they ask you to provide a notarized letter that you have no other insurance.
I really wish I knew this before I left .
Poi & Kirsty
18. Aug, 2010
I dont even know what a notorized letter is! I’ll research now!!
AdventureRob
17. Aug, 2010
It seems no-one can match WorldNomads for being able to renew on the move/outside your home country, which is a shame as they are clearly charging more (double or more in most examples you’ve given) than the going rate.
I think they are overpriced and I’ve given them over £400 personally. Also they changed their terms between my renewal so I had to sign up for a new policy rather than renew an old one so didn’t get any no claims benefit.
I made one claim and they rejected it on a technicality and didn’t want to know me afterwards, which is a shame as I only heard good things about them previously.
At the end of the day they are an insurance company who wants your money and not to pay out (that’s how they exist), so if you want insurance be sure to check all the small writing or consider yourself and items uninsured.
I’m going with STA travel next time, at least they are competitive on price. With the saving you can buy a new netbook, flight or smart phone.
Poi & Kirsty
18. Aug, 2010
Thats a good call actually! We were just thinking about how easy it is to add on extra stuff etc. But it is pretty much twice the price of everything else.
I reckon i may have to read up about STA see if they give the same amount of cover. I’ve heard it is pretty difficult to claim back stolen goods from most of them until your back home (something we’re not planning on doing for a while)
Andi
17. Aug, 2010
Great list! I’m super accident prone too, but I’ve found that health care is so cheap in the countries that I travel to, that I’ve never thought about getting coverage. I broke my ankle in Peru one time and had to spend LOTS of time in the hospital and I think after all was said and done it only ended up costing me around $200.
Poi & Kirsty
18. Aug, 2010
That’s extremely cheap, my whole family keep asking if ihave insurance and wishing poi the best of luck now he has to look after me!!
Caz Makepeace
19. Aug, 2010
I’ve had insurance before and had to visit doctors or hospitals and found it really cheap, like Andi said. It was so inexpensive that I couldn’t claim it on insurance anyway because it was below excess. You need to have it though in case big things might happen. It’s one of those necessary evils I guess.
We’ve been with World Nomads for years, and had one big claim with lost passports. We only got some of our money back though. Long story but it involved emergency passports, and they only covered us for those costs. They refused to cover us for when it came time to actually get real replacements.
I’d definitely look at STA a little bit more and see if you can save more money.
A very helpful post guys!