Ask any parent and they'll tell you that their child's safety is their number one priority, and the majority of parent's find they spend a great deal of time worrying over what their kids are up to. As their lives are the parent's responsibilities this is of course, a good thing, but when travelling abroad, the children become just one concern of many. It's strange, but often the family holiday, a break from the stresses of everyday life, is actually more stressful than the life they're trying to escape from!
Having worked in the industry for some time, I like to think I know a thing or two about children's travel insurance. So here are some things to look out for:
Children go free?
Quite a few companies are now offering free child travel insurance when buying a policy for accompanying adults. There's no reason to be suspicious of offers like that (we have such a policy at Insuremore), but it is important to see if the small print matches your requirements. For example, how many additional children are covered by an adult policy? If it covers 2, and you have a family with 3 children you need to contact the company about getting additional cover. Likewise, some companies? family policies have very tight definitions of who would be covered. If you have foster children, or are the legal guardians, make a quick check to ensure you're covered.
How old can a ?child? be?
This is an interesting one, because some companies? definitions of ?child? are pushing it a bit. The majority of companies will provide children's travel insurance for sons and daughters up to the age of 18, but it's not unheard of for 21, or even 23, to be the age gap if the relation is in full time education. Of course, by that age, they may not be enamoured by the idea of a family holiday with the folks, but if for some reason they are, then it's a great little saving if you can find a provider who have such an ?interesting? idea of the word ?child?.
Independent Child's Travel Insurance
One thing to look out for is annual children's travel insurance, as some of these offer children the opportunity to travel independently of their parents or guardians, and still be covered. These usually cost an additional premium, but if your child is likely to be needing to travel on their own regularly (for school trips, for example), then this is a great solution. If independent trips are likely to be few and far between, it may be worth paying for one-off single trip child travel insurance.
Check the Small Print
It should go without saying, but all child travel insurance policies are not born equal. Compare a few policies and ensure that your kid is covered for whatever you may plan on getting up to on holiday ? for example, if it's a skiing holiday, you'll very likely have to pay an additional fee to ensure that your child is completely covered for the trip.
Of course on top of this, there's the usual advice of being vigilant. Children can be unpredictable, and while travel insurance should rightly provide you some peace of mind, it does not mean you can completely relax. The usual care for children's safety should be observed even with the child's travel insurance protection: plenty of suncream, all the right vaccinations, a wrist band on toddlers with contact information in case they get lost ? that sort of thing.
When travelling, there are hundreds of things that can go wrong, but with the usual vigilance you would observe for your kid at home and some quality child's travel insurance, you can avoid the majority of problems that could arise and enjoy some quality rest and relaxation in your holiday paradise of choice.
We all have different lifestyles, occupations and hobbies and the insurance industry is always ready to accept that certain people have certain priorities. These days a person can insure virtually anything, whether it be their house and all its contents or their baby finger. The matter of how much a person is willing to pay will often have a large influence on whether or not these priorities can be insured. The travel insurance branch stems from this massive insurance 'tree' but unlike some packages which can seem risky and often unnecessary, travel insurance is a sector which sees more compensation and alleviates more cases of stress abroad than virtually any other sector.
A minor accident in a foreign country can cost you anywhere into the hundreds of thousands unless you have adequate travel insurance. Maybe even more than the cost of the family home. How much money do you spend every year on home insurance? Compared with the more expensive and more common life, home, vehicle and medical insurances, travel insurance is a lot cheaper and covers a far wider range of potential catastrophes and it is just as important as other types of insurance.
Try to imagine this scenario: You've planned your holiday away and just want to get on your plane and start the vacation. You have spent a lot of money on extra accessories: toiletries, camera film, new shoes, new clothes and you're looking forward to finally using them. On your way to the airport your car breaks down, making you late for your flight. Not many people can afford to just purchase another ticket. The airline would never just hand you one, unless you have travel insurance. Travel insurance can cover you for costs in respect of reasonable additional accommodation and travel expenses necessarily incurred to reach your exotic destination on time as a result of the failure of the vehicle in which you are travelling get you to your departure point in time to start the journey, provided you have allowed sufficient travel time to ensure you meet the departure check in time. Terms and conditions usually apply. This means the cost of another flight, cost of a taxi to get you to the airport again, cost of hotel room at the airport if you can't fly till the next day etc.
Or imagine that a traffic jam has slowed you down but it hasn't stopped you getting to the airport just in time to get on your flight. In your hurry to get onto the plane, you've mislaid your hand luggage which contains your money, new sunglasses, some extra cash and some in-flight necessities. You're pretty sure you left it at the duty free chemist. You can't turn back now. You're already running late and the plane might be waiting for you but the other passengers won't be too impressed. Do you just kiss that bag goodbye? Not if you have travel insurance. Travel insurance will replace (in the equivalent in monetary value) your bag and its contents including the money.
Okay, so you got on the plane and you managed to keep all your things in tow. Fantastic. You jet off to your beautiful holiday destination and your accommodation is perfect. However, you manage to get food poisoning in the hotel restaurant and you end up being moved on from one doctor to the next in the hope of diagnosing your ailment, incurring multiple medical costs along the way. This seems excessive for a case of the trots but in some third world countries, good doctors can be hard to come by and the most trivial of illnesses can be overlooked. Travel insurance will cover all your medical costs even if the situation escalates and it turns out to be something worse than food poisoning causing you to be hospitalised. Travel insurance will pay for the cost of transporting you home under medical supervision and if you cannot be safely moved, travel insurance will pay for the cost of flying a close family member to your side to support you and be with you until you are well enough to be transported home.
During your travels you cannot predict what will happen to you and being in a foreign country can often only make it more intimidating or nerve-racking. Travel insurance is designed to ease any complications you may encounter and offer you peace of mind so that your nerves don't get the best of you and spoil your time away.
Both Patrick Chong & Roc Selly are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Patrick Chong has sinced written about articles on various topics from Travel Insurance, Travel and Leisure and Travel Insurance. Patrick Chong is the Managing Director of Journey's Travel. Their commercial travel insurance website, Insuremore, offer cheap