Yes, weve all met him – but how many of us meet him six months after his holiday; insurance now a word burned like a brand into his regretful heart. Chastened, broke, stressed out and sorrowful, he spends his days not bragging of his travelling adventures, but moaning of his travelling disasters. Travel insurance – he coulda, he shoulda, he woulda. Trouble is – he didnt.

Things went bad about three days into his trip when he landed in Bangkok on a stopover to India. He decided to book a short flight up to Chang Mai for a couple of nights to see the sights. On his last night he ran into a couple of Aussie guys in a bar, and so started a pretty heavy night on the tiles. The next day, his flight (and many others!) went without him as he slept peacefully in a rice paddy field. Waking up at sunset, he had to shell out for another (very expensive) flight to try to get back to Bangkok to catch his connection to India. He didnt make it and had to purchase a new (extremely expensive) flight for that leg of his journey. Story number one – Travel insurance would have covered that.

Arriving in India, our hero put the disaster of his extra cash outlay behind him. After all, hed save heaps in India because it was so cheap. Leaving the airport in Delhi he got a taxi to a cheap hotel recommended by the driver, dumped his bag, grabbed his camera and iPod, and set off to explore the city. Arriving back six hours later, he pushed open the door to his room to find it had been ransacked, and all his clothes, toiletries and most disappointingly his two-weeks-wages North Face hiking boots had gone. Being a trooper, he took a long slug of water from the bathroom tap and resolved to keep his chin up. Story number two – Even cheap travel insurance would have covered that

Arriving in New York three weeks later, our young explorer (feet akin to tractor tyres from hiking barefoot around Southern India) looked forward to immersing himself in the delights of the city that never slept. He felt sure his luck was beginning to change. Celebrating with a cold beer under the shadow of the Empire State, he felt that finally he could begin to reminisce upon his travels without a bitter bile rising to his throat, when suddenly he began to feel very, very, very ill… Two weeks later with a stern warning from the doctors that his Giardia may reoccur sporadically throughout his life, he was discharged from hospital with shaky legs and a medical bill resembling a division one lottery win.

Story number three – Yes, you guessed it – holiday insurance would have paid for that.

After this last calamity, our unfortunate fellow immediately cancelled the rest of his world tour and returned home, (with an extra charge on his ticket for the changes) to recuperate at his parents house. Unfortunately he had to look after himself as they were both off on their package holiday to Tenerife with Beryl having a wonderful time – fully covered by their travel insurance.

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pPatrick Chong is the Managing Director of Journeys Travel. Their commercial travel insurance website, Insuremore, offers a target=_new href=http://insuremore.co.uk/ rel=nofollowcheap travel insurance/a for families, couples and singles with a quick and easy online claims feature./pbr
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When you see an ad for ‘cheap travel insurance’ what is your gut reaction?Are you immediately suspicious, assume there must be a catch and quickly move along?Or do you look no further than the cheap price and tick another boring detail off your holiday ‘to do’ checklist?

The wise traveller will look a little deeper than the price to ascertain the levels of cover included.It may well be that cheap travel insurance is sufficient to cover the necessities and planned activities for your trip, but always check to see exactly what you are -and are not – getting for your money. Cheap travel insurance may be adequate for one type of trip, but totally inadequate for another.It is important to:

Know what you need
Understand what it all means
Then shop around

For example, if you were planning a ski trip to Colorado cheap travel insurance alone would not be adequate – especially without the addition of winter sports cover.Check to see if the policy includes ample cover for medical expenses and emergencies, as well as mountain rescue, air ambulance and repatriation.Also check the amount of excess you are required to pay (known as ‘deductible’ in the U.S.) which is your contribution towards any claim.Medical care in the United States could be financially devastating without insurance. For example, air ambulance costs to bring you back to the UK from America could set you back anything up to 50,000 (GBP -Pounds Sterling) and from Australia up to 20,000 (GBP).If you don’t have adequate insurance no one else is going to pay these costs for you- they are your responsibility. Yes, a frightening thought!

Insurance companies tendnot to get a lot of sympathy.However, one fact that many travellers may not be aware of is that although the underwriter has to accept any losses associated with claims, it also reflects negatively on the insurance broker who sells the policy.If a large amount of claims are made, causing the underwriter to make a substantial loss, that loss is usually passed along, either in an increase in fees to the insurance broker to renew the contract or, in extreme cases, refusal to renew the broker’s contract.Perhaps you can understand why many companies are nervous about insuring certain types of travellers and activities.

Cheap travel insurance is offered everywhere these days, by retail chains, banks andcredit card companies, to name a few.However, before you give in to a tempting offer, stop to see if it is really a bargain.The media is bombarded with clever advertising for the many insurance comparison websites, and they do provide a valuable service – as long as you remember to check the levels of cover provided.Companies have to pay a commission to the hosting website, so take into account the fact that they have probably cut levels of cover somewhere in order to make it worth their while.Always check the excess/deductible, and levels of cover for medical expenses, personal accident and personal liability.

An amazing amount of travellers still set off on trips thinking they do not need travel insurance.Perhaps theyare not bothered if they lose their luggage and would just replace it. But what many do not realise is that they are leaving themselves wide open to financial loss and legal nightmares in the event of an accident and potential third-party claims.

For example, imagine you are abroad and browsing in a gallery.You trip and knock over an expensive sculpture. The sculpture falls and breaks the assistant’s toe, and a chunk of it splinters and hits you in the eye.This scenario presents an expensive can of worms, both medically and legally.This is just one rather extreme example of why it is important not to forgo travel insurance.

The truth is that cheap travel insurance is not necessarily a rip-off, but it varies from company to company.Some smaller companies are able to offer a cheaper price without cutting the levels of cover by keeping their advertisingexpenses and overheadsto a minimum.

It is not alwaysnecessary to paymore for travel insurance to get better cover. Acheap policy with another company may genuinely offer the same levels of cover for less. The bottom line is that however much you pay for your travel insurance, it is importantto make sure you have adequate levels of cover and a substantial cushion to fall on if the worst should happen!

Jean Andrews is a freelance writer living in the UK. She regularly contributes articles for Travel Insurance Agencies Ltd who offer great deals on UK Travel Insurance and Travel Insurance for residents of Eire.

When you are looking through travel brochures, excited about the prospect of vacationing in some far flung hotpot, all the things that could go wrong while you are over there probably could not be further from your mind. Yet there is no getting away from the fact that these things could happen, so it can pay to arm yourself with a little travel insurance. Here are just some of the reasons why:

Having your belongings stolen could really spoil a holiday, especially if you cannot afford to replace them. If, however, you have a travel insurance policy that covers you in the event of the loss or theft of your belongings, then the worst that could happen is that you have to do without something for a day or two.

You probably are not intending to get ill or become injured while you are abroad, but unfortunately this does happen from time to time. For instance, you might catch a tropical bug, get food poisoning, or injure yourself while larking about on the beach.

You have to remember that the National Health Service will only pay for your medical treatment while you are in the UK, so if you have any health troubles abroad, then you will have to pay for the treatment yourself, and this can be very expensive indeed, especially if an air ambulance is required. However, if you had sorted out comprehensive health cover as part of your travel insurance, then you would not have to worry about expensive medical bills on holiday.

If you are planning to drive while you are away, you have to consider what would happen if your car broke down. At best this might mean that you have to change your holiday plans, but at worst it could leave you totally stranded. If however you had taken out a travel insurance policy that included a free emergency car hire service for just such an occasion, you would not have any of these problems.

If you need to postpone your trip due to unforeseen circumstances, it could end up costing you an arm and a leg. Not only would you probably lose your deposit, but you would also probably be hit with some fairly hefty rescheduling fees.

Some travel insurance policies, however, will cover the costs incurred when you have to postpone a holiday unexpectedly, which at least means that you will not be hit too hard in the pocket.

So if you want to enjoy your holiday without being too anxious about the consequences of the unexpected, travel insurance is a must. Although it can be a bit of a hassle sorting it out, it is well worth it, and if you are a frequent traveler, you can get an annual travel insurance plan which will cover a number of trips with only one set of paperwork, saving you precious time, money, and hassle.

1stoptravelinsurance.co.uk single trip insurance provides cheap travel insurance cover for holidays of up to 365 days to any destination.