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Are you covered?

Following on from our ‘understanding your policy wording’ post, we thought it might be useful to provide a little bit more detail about what we mean when we say that certain activities, circumstances or events are included or excluded from your policy.

We have done some research and put together the most commonly excluded or additional areas of cover that you may or may not be aware of.

Leisure Activities & Sports

Whilst a lot of activities and sports are automatically included in your travel insurance, there are some that are considered to be slightly more ‘risky’, and so insurers may ask you to pay an additional premium if you want to be covered whilst doing the sport/activity.

For example, if you’re a bit of a thrill seeker and love doing the more adventurous (and hazardous) activities like jet skiing, motorcycling, or sky diving you will need to pay an additional premium to be fully covered. Any activity which states ‘Yes‘ underneath the ‘Additional premium required for cover to apply’ column is not automatically covered.

Golf Cover

Adding golf cover to your policy is optional and is not to be confused with the above activities and sports section. If you injure yourself whilst playing golf then you will still be covered for any medical expenses without purchasing the additional Golf cover. The optional golf cover is primarily to ensure equipment (owned or hired) that may be worth more than the personal possessions covers.

For example, if you have a set of expensive golf clubs that exceeds the single item personal possession cover, then adding the additional cover would mean that this amount would increase to however much the policy states.

Gadget Cover

Some travel insurance policies, including ours, allow you to purchase additional cover for high-value items such as laptops, phones and high-spec cameras. Whilst a standard policy does cover for stolen or damaged personal items, there is usually a single item claim limit (the maximum amount you can claim for any given item) and expensive gadgets often exceed this limit which is where Gadget Cover comes in. The single item claim limit on the additional Gadget Cover will be higher and be more likely to cover the cost of replacing any items that are stolen or damaged.

Catastrophe Cover

Catastrophe cover is an additional option you may chose to include in your policy. This means you’re covered for re-rooting and temporary accommodation in the event of a of a disruption during your trip due to hurricanes, volcanic ash, medical epidemics, tsunami’s or earthquakes.

However, that doesn’t mean your not covered for medical expenses or repatriation should you become injured in the unfortunate event of a natural disaster. A standard policy will still cover you for this, but the additional catastrophe cover would mean that you have more protection for claiming back additional expenses you incur if you have to stay in a hotel for an extra week like lots of holiday makers had to when all flights were grounded during the eruption of the volcano in Iceland.

Business Cover

Business Cover is and optional extra that you can add to your policy if you are traveling for business purposes and need extra cover for things like laptops and computer equipment, business money or any samples or business products. For example, if your product samples were to be stolen whilst you were away and you needed them replacing asap, having business cover would cover the cost or using an emergency courier service to replace the samples.

A standard policy will cover you for stolen or lost items but there is a limit to the level of cover on a single item so if you are taking expensive business equipment or products away with you, you may want to think of adding additional business cover just in case.

Pre-existing Medical Conditions

Whilst many minor conditions are automatically covered on the policy it’s still really important you fully declare your conditions to us. Conditions will not be covered unless they are declared to us and accepted by us in writing. If you fail to mention conditions to us you run the risk of your policy becoming invalid. You can read more about what a pre-existing medical condition is and how this affects your policy here.

Policy Excess

Each section of the policy includes a policy excess. This is a contribution you make towards your claim and you will have the applicable excess deducted away from any amounts you are claiming for. Our standard policy excess is £75.00 and for cruise holidays it’s £150.00 which this applies per person, per claim but this amount varies across insurance companies. When purchasing your insurance you will be given the option to pay additional costs for an ‘excess waiver’. If you do this you will not have to pay any excess if you make a claim.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions about travel insurance or our policies then please don’t hesitate to contact us via the comments or using our contact details below:

Email: Info@planetearthtravelinsurance.co.uk

Contact Number: 0161 439 0333

Website: http://www.wearetravelinsurance.co.uk/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Planetearthtravelinsurance/