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   1. Car Insurance
   2. Travel Insurance
   3. Health Insurance
8. 

TRAVEL INSURANCE

Get travel insurance and your sorted, right?

As Arnold Schwarzenegger would say - wrong.

Travel insurance is about as easy to understand as dear old Arnie attempting to speak with an Indian accent. When you're planning your summer holiday, probably the last thing on your mind is the possibility of falling ill or experiencing an accident when abroad. That wouldn't happen to you right, Arnie?

Wrong.

Accidents do happen, and if you happen to be in another country, you better take a hammer to the piggy bank. With medical costs increasing worldwide, the burden of footing the bill for foreign treatment can lead to a debt that will last a lot longer than any damn holiday.

Getting travel insurance isn't expensive for crying out loud. We've seen women spend more on a pair of socks than on annual travel insurance. You could get basic cover for less than £30 a year. However, most of us in Britain are paying over the odds for our travel insurance because of sheer laziness.

'Britons? Lazy?' we hear you ask. Never…

Most of us, of course, take the first deal on offer, whatever the price - and whether or not the travel insurance offered is right for us. So many of us jet off with travel insurance that simply doesn't cover us.

Sounds a bit stupid when put like that, doesn't it…

One of the biggest money wasters (since Juan Sebastian Veron) is buying your insurance from a travel agent. The chances are you're paying far more than you would if you bought it elsewhere. It is estimated that that UK holidaymakers waste up to £250 million every year buying their travel insurance from travel agents rather than shopping around for more competitively priced and more comprehensive cover.

Most tour operators and travel agent's policies offer relatively poor levels of cover and cost significantly more than those of on offer from high street providers. And don't assume if you pay more, you get a better deal, as expensive travel insurance doesn't necessarily equate to quality cover. After all, you can pay lots of money for a designer shirt, but still look like a muppet.

One of the single most important tasks when sorting your travel insurance is reading the small print. It doesn't matter if it looks like a lot of words, it doesn't matter if it's so small you need an atomic telescope to read it - read it! Whichever policy you choose, you need to check that you're covered. If you're planning a winter skiing trip for example, check that your insurance covers you if the slopes are green rather than white.

You'd be surprised at how many don't.

Here's your checklist then

So what should you look for in a travel insurance policy? They can't guarantee sunshine sadly, and the level of cover does vary widely. The clever people at the Consumers' Association recommend that your insurer should have:

• At least £1m of medical cover in Europe
• At least £2m in the States and the rest of the world
• At least £1,500 baggage and belongings cover - and watch out for policies, which limit the amount you can claim for any one item. Check that the total covers you for what you're actually taking abroad.
• Personal liability of at least £1m, to cover you if you cause injury or damage
• Compensation for trips which may be cancelled or curtailed - and the costs of getting you home in an emergency
• A 24-hour emergency line, and cover for your legal costs as well
• Membership of the Financial Ombudsman Service. In case you need to complain - the Ombudsman can intervene and make your insurer settle.

You've got your checklist and you've scrubbed up on the lingo, you're now ready to start looking for travel insurance - go go go!

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 If 50 million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. 

Anon