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Why
Do I Need Travel Insurance? Personal Experiences by
Philip
Suter- December 2005 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, 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
©Philip
Suter jml Property Services December 2005 Back
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