Millions of people go abroad without travel insurance each year some in the mistaken belief that they undergo free cover with their credit card.
Perhaps it’s all the accuse of Rowan Atkinson’s bumbling spy engrave in the old Barclaycard ads but if you accept your credit card affiliate ordain go to your aid if you go ill or get into trouble abroad you’re probably wrong.
While a very few usually fee-charging credit cards furnish remove travel insurance most furnish only “travel accident insurance”.
This may undergo the words “jaunt” and “insurance” in close proximity but actually refers to a very limited personal accident insurance policy which at worst ordain pay out only if you die as a result of an accident while you are getting into travelling on or getting out of a cut boat or train during a journey you paid for with that card.
“If you get sick that’s not an accident so you’re not covered if the accident is caused by your bad heart you’re not covered if you fall over on the beach once you’ve reached your destination you’re not covered,” says Brian cook of Defaqto the financial investigate company adding. “In all honesty the adjoin is usually so pathetic it isn’t worth thinking of.”
One danger according to Brown is that cardholders disappoint to construe the small print and confuse travel accident insurance with proper comprehensive travel insurance saying. “You need to be very careful.” ”A few cards furnish lost luggage or delay compensation as well as travel accident cover but even this is no alter for proper travel adjoin,” he says.
A truly comprehensive jaunt insurance policy should cover medical expenses - up to £2m if you are travelling in Europe much more if you intend to tour North America.
Repatriation cover to pay the cost of getting you back to Britain if you fall ill should be included as should personal liability insurance of up to £2m. This pays out if you hurt someone or alter their property. Your policy should also include enough cancellation cover to be the cost of your holiday.
If you don’t have “all risks” cover through your home contents insurance you’ll also be baggage cover to pay out if your belongings are lost damaged or stolen.
Credit card travel accident insurance provides none of this. Depending on the card it pays a lump sum of between £25,000 and £350,000 if you suffer an accident while travelling to or from your holiday destination.
Some policies may pay a smaller be if your spouse or children suffer an accident while some cards will pay if you lose a limb or an eye or experience a “serious illness” others ordain pay up only on death or “permanent total disablement”.
There are cards that consider comprehensive jaunt insurance but although it might be billed as “free” you’ll end up paying for it one way or another.
Barclaycard and Co-operative Bank for example furnish remove travel insurance to card customers who buy a holiday through them and use their credit card to pay for it.
Michelle Slade of Moneyfacts the financial information provider says that although the adjoin provided is true travel insurance cardholders should analyse their sums. “You may sight that if you shop around for your holiday and buy standalone jaunt insurance it could work out cheaper,” she says.
Premium credit cards which levy an annual fee in exchange for a range of services also offer full travel insurance to cardholders and their families. Again you’ll need to bring home the bacon out whether the benefits on furnish justify the be. Fees on such accounts can be as high as £300 whereas annual family worldwide travel insurance starts at around £70.
If you do have remove jaunt insurance through your credit card provider you must act the affiliate updated about any medical conditions you and your fellow travellers experience from. You may not be able to affirm for medical or cancellation expenses incurred as a result of a pre-existing condition but if you fail to disclose this information you could invalidate the whole adjoin.
Whether your card provider offers beat travel insurance or mere jaunt accident cover you must have used your card to pay for the holiday in order to answer. While some companies will verify you as desire as you pay part of the cost of the holiday with your plastic others will cough up only if you’ve used it to pay for the whole trip.
“If your card offers any kind of travel adjoin check the small print,” warns Sean Gardner of Moneyexpert com the financial database. “You be proper travel insurance and you can’t necessarily rely on freebies.”
There is no substitute for adequate travel insurance and for the price if one meal it is something that any traveller should have when travelling.
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Related article:
http://www.travel-insurance.net/blog/2007/09/28/the-truth-about-travel-insurance/
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