Travel Insurance: Why you shouldn’t travel without it. You can travel without insurance, but it’s inadvisable.
With booked breaks and holidays on the horizon,, most people are well prepared in advance, ensuring they have booked their flights, hotels, transport, rentals and other travel essentials online. But, there’s one thing many people overlook. And that’s travel insurance. While you can travel without insurance – you can travel without insurance, but it’s inadvisable, as so many things can go wrong on a trip. So, making sure you have up-to-date travel insurance in place is an absolute must.
Why Travel Insurance is Essential
Wherever you are travelling to, it’s not always possible to predict everything. For instance, there could be a delay on a leg of the journey, you need to cancel a trip yourself, or you lose your baggage. With travel insurance, all these things, and more, can be covered when you have an emergency abroad. Unbelievably, a quarter or more of travellers do not purchase their travel insurance until the day they are leaving. This means that any issues arising before the trip, such as changes or cancellations to flights for instance, or last minute illness are unprotected.
Travelling uninsured can come with some hefty risks too. In 2024, there were more than 500,000 travel insurance claims reaching a total of £511 million. Additionally, these payouts only get larger with the age of the traveller. Older travellers have an average claim of £1800 when in the 70-year-old bracket compared to those aged 36-40, who typically have claims valued at around £500. Of course, this is reflected in the cost of the insurance, with younger people paying around £38 compared to £190 for older travellers.
Medical claims make up a large portion of this cost, with it being as much as £290 million in 2023 being paid out. If you’re not going to purchase insurance, then a medical bill can be as much as £25,000, as was the case for one traveller injured in a forest fire. And again, the cost of insurance will vary. For those heading into more dangerous zones, and who are planning extreme activities etc, the premium can be much higher than those heading to the beach for a week or two.
When and How to choose the Right Insurance
With this in mind, it’s essential to purchase insurance at the right time as well as buying the right type of insurance. As mentioned, there are different policies for the various activities you can engage in. These include policies for skiing, cruises and safaris. It’s essential that travellers pick the insurance that actually meets their itineraries, and whether you need to just get insurance for Europe or world-wide destinations. Multi-trip policies can be more cost-effective for people who travel regularly. However, these trips need to cover multiple continents if required and can be more costly in the first instance than single trip policies. And don’t forget that all policies need to be checked for any restrictions too.
Experts like Lucie Hart from the Association of British Insurers specifically recommends booking travel insurance early. This ensures better protection for everyone on the trip. With this in mind, it’s essential that travellers know where they can actually get their insurance. These days, many insurers like the Post Office Travel Insurance, offer reputable deals and comparisons. Using an online site like this helps travellers plan better, see all the options clearly, and check prices against the different policies. Better still, there are Post Office Travel Insurance discount codes and special offers in place to reduce the total cost of major policies. This means it’s far easier to get comprehensive travel insurance without incurring hefty policy costs. Making the most of cost-effective travel insurance has multiple benefits too. Not only will travellers be prepared for any eventuality, they won’t need to pay out for something that could have been covered.
So, as you can see, travel insurance saves on both the headache of an issue arising, and your wallet if something does happen. Buy this in advance of your trip (at least a month prior) to ensure full cover. Check out the different options when choosing the right insurance policy for your needs.