Travel insurance protects you against the unexpected when you are away from home, from an overseas medical emergency to a cancelled trip or lost baggage. It is the cover that turns a disrupted or costly journey into a manageable one, for a single trip or for a year of travel. Whether you travel for leisure or for work, the most serious exposures, a medical emergency abroad and an emergency evacuation, are the ones it is most important to cover. We arrange travel cover that matches where and how you travel.
What travel insurance covers
A travel policy brings together the protections a traveller needs. The most significant are overseas medical expenses, and emergency medical evacuation and repatriation, which can run to very large sums in some destinations. Alongside these sit cover for trip cancellation, curtailment, and delay, for missed connections and flight disruption, and for the loss, damage, or delay of baggage and personal belongings, money, and travel documents. Most policies also include personal accident cover, personal liability, and access to a round-the-clock assistance service, with extensions for matters such as cover for your home contents while you are away and rental vehicle excess.
Single trip or annual, for you or your family
Cover can be arranged for a single journey, or as an annual policy that covers an unlimited number of trips through the year, each up to a maximum duration. For anyone who travels more than two or three times a year, the annual option is usually both simpler and more economical. Plans cover an individual or a family, and the level and region of cover should reflect the destinations you visit, since both medical costs and the price of cover vary by region.
The exclusions that matter most
Two points catch travellers out. The first is timing: cover for cancellation only responds if the policy was in place before the event causing the cancellation became known, so travel insurance should be arranged when the trip is booked, not just before departure. The second is pre-existing conditions, which standard policies exclude, typically looking back over the months before the trip. Adventure activities, travel against medical advice, and travel undertaken to seek treatment are also commonly excluded. Knowing what falls outside the policy is as important as knowing what is in it.
Leisure travel and business travel cover
A personal travel policy is arranged by the individual for their own trips. Where an employer sends staff abroad for work, a group business travel policy is usually the better route, because it covers all travelling employees under one annual contract and extends to business equipment and work-related cancellation. The two are counterparts: this page is the individual cover, and the corporate version is arranged by the employer.
Who should consider it
Anyone travelling overseas should hold travel cover, and the case is strongest for travel to destinations where medical care is expensive, for longer or more frequent trips, and for families travelling together. Even a short trip to a nearby country carries the risk of a medical emergency or an evacuation that would be costly to meet without cover. The right plan depends on where you go and how often, rather than a single standard choice.
Where the exposure sits
The decisions that matter are the limits, the region, and the exclusions. Overseas medical and evacuation limits should be high enough for the destinations you visit, since costs differ greatly by country. The region and trip duration on the policy must actually cover your journey, and any adventure activities need to be checked against the terms. Arranging cover early, and being accurate about pre-existing conditions and planned activities, is what keeps a claim from being declined. Reviewing the medical and evacuation limits, the region and duration, and the exclusions is where the protection is decided.
How we structure it
We take time to understand where you travel, how often, and who travels with you, and we place cover with our appointed insurers that fits. We set the medical and evacuation limits to the destinations involved, confirm the region and trip duration are right, and make sure any activities are covered, and we point you toward an annual policy where it would serve you better. We remain your point of contact if a claim is made. The aim is cover that fits your travel and responds where it matters most.