5 Important Travel Insurance Features To Watch For
5 Important Travel Insurance Features To Watch For
Hospital Fees - Do you have to pay upfront?
When travelling internationally and need to receive medical treatment at a doctor or hospital your travel insurance won't always payout upfront. Quite often you'll need lodge a claim afterwards. Before going to a doctor, or as soon as you can if its an emergency, contact the insurance company and inform them what is happening. They'll be able to tell you if they have a recommended medical provide and what you need to do to claim the costs back.
Ideally the travel insurance company will pay for your medical costs upfront as this means you won't need to but the entire costs on your credit car or attempting to organise the money from friends or family, especially if its an expensive accident.
Overseas Emergency Assistance - Who to call?
All travel insurance companies have some form procedure for being notified of emergency events and how to handle them. Always look for a policy that offers local phone numbers that you can call in a large number of countries. This will make it simple to contact them if you encounter problems. Reverse charge calling doesn't work in all countries so should be avoided if you are travelling anywhere slightly off the beaten track. Phoning back to your own country can end up being very expensive depending where you are.
Always ensure you have the emergency contact information with you at all times while on holiday and store a separate copy in your baggage and in an internet storage or email account.
Excess
A low or no excess is very useful for comprehensive travel insurance because it allows you to claim on a wider range of items. Many policies offer an excess buyout for a fee (reduces the excess to $0). This is often a very good idea as it means that you are able to claim on anything that you are able to and will get the total amount back. If you are going for a budget or hospital only travel insurance policy the excess will be less important as you will most likely only claim for high cost events where the excess is just a small percentage of the total amount.
Sports and adventure activity coverage
Certain adventurous activities are automatically covered by travel insurance companies, these are usually low risk sports or activities such as bushwalking, snorkeling, and cycling. Higher risk activities like scuba diving, bungee jumping, and rock climbing may be covered for an extra premium but some companies do cover these normally. You need to check directly with the insurance company if you are taking part in these sports.
Pre-existing conditions
Some of us have certain medical conditions that could potentially cause problems when on holiday. Things like asthma, arthritis, allergies. Sometimes these will be covered by the insurance policy, other times they will not and some with preclude you from getting the travel insurance policy. These are spelt out in detail in the PDS and you should contact the travel insurance company directly if you have any concerns due to these medical conditions.
Reviews
Reading reviews from customers is very helpful as it provides an overview of the claims and assistance services that you are unable to get from reading the travel insurance PDS or from the company website. Pay particular attention to the ease and speed of claims and if the company tries to get out of paying claims where they can. 5 Ideas For Buying A Great Christmas Present 5 Idées De Destinations Pour Partir En Vacances Au Soleil 5 Hotels To Make Your Trip In Costa Rica Amazing 5 Hot Jewelry Colors For Spring-summer 2010 5 Holiday Looks To Make You Feel Special 5 Highlights of a Holiday in Kalkan 5 Helpful Traveling Tips For Diabetic Patients 5 Helpful Travel Tips for Diabetic Travelers 5 Halloween Costume Ideas From Alice In Wonderland Movie 5 Guidelines In Choosing An Adventure Travel Agency 5 Green Travel Tips 5 Greatest Myths of the Holiday Season 5 Great Tourist Attractions inside Amsterdam