What exactly can you expect if you go on holiday without any travel insurance?
You're effectively playing a game of chance. Yes, there's every likelihood that you'll be fine, and you'll come home unscathed. But what if the worst happens?
You could face issues getting home due to missed flights, crippling medical bills and incur other sky-high costs.
The Foreign Office also strongly recommends that you get travel insurance. We took ten minutes to chat to them earlier on this week to bring you their views on the benefits of being insured...
Why do you recommend that all travellers take out travel insurance?
Your credit card accident cover, home insurance, European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) or private health cover is not always sufficient to rely on for overseas travel insurance.
An emergency abroad can be extremely expensive. If you need to be returned to the UK it could cost you thousands of pounds, unless you are adequately insured.
We recommend that all British travellers take out comprehensive travel insurance and that they check that the policy covers them for any activities they are likely to undertake, including extreme activities such as skiing, water sports and the hire of quad bikes and mopeds.
If people aren’t insured, what’s the worst that can happen?
Young people take the most holidays of any age group, and yet are most likely to travel uninsured. There are a number of reasons why they don’t take out insurance when they travel, ranging from the cost, thinking that insurance isn’t needed in Europe if they have an EHIC card, to considering insurance unnecessary because they think that the UK government will pay for treatment, including repatriation, if they become ill or have an accident.
We want to encourage these younger travellers to take out comprehensive travel insurance that covers them for everything they may want to do. It is also important to think about the potential costs involved if things do go wrong; an emergency abroad can be extremely expensive if you are not adequately insured, and it is often the family of the traveller who is left with a hefty bill.
If someone is determined to travel without insurance, what advice would you give them?
We are very aware that insurance is not the most exciting part of planning for a holiday. Many of the people we have assisted said that they didn’t think anything would happen to them, and therefore didn’t bother with insurance or to check if their current policy offered adequate cover.
Whatever the reason, we want to encourage all those planning to head overseas to take out a comprehensive policy that covers them for everything they want to do. That way if something does go wrong, they won’t be left to foot the bill.
We also urge travellers to consider the importance of declaring any pre-existing medical conditions when purchasing travel insurance and also to explore their policy options.
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