Outside the EU, medical expenses won't be covered, while even inside the EU you may need to pay for transport home or private treatment. Taking out the correct travel insurance policy can cover you against all of these misdemeanours, and give you peace of mind while you're away. If you're looking for the best travel insurance deal for this summer, then take a read of this article for some tips for finding the best policy.



Check What You Already Have

If you're a premium customer with a bank or credit card company, then chances are that you'll already have travel insurance included. This is particularly likely if you're paying a monthly fee for your banking. Make sure you check this out with your bank and read the small print of the deal ? it might not be valid outside of the EU or if you have special circumstances, but a phone call should clear this up. If you don't have a policy already, then it really pays to shop around. It's easier to do now thanks to the web ? all you really need to do is key ?travel insurance? into a search engine, flick a few of the results and enter your requirements. Price comparison websites are particularly useful, so if you filter through a couple of these then you'll be on the right track.

Get an EHIC card

The free European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) entitles you to free or discounted medical treatment in state run hospitals in the European Union and Switzerland. If you're travelling in Europe, it's important you get one, as it means you'll be treated like a citizen to the country that you're visiting. However, don't be fooled into thinking this alone is an adequate substitute for travel insurance. For a start, it's only valid in the EU and Switzerland. Then you've got to remember that you will only have access to state run hospitals with an EHIC, which may be more limited and few and far between in some countries. Also, an EHIC won't cover you for anything other than medical expenses ? so remember you'll still need cover for baggage loss and flight cancellation, and it won't cover you if you go further afield.

How Much Cover Do You Really Need?

Getting an EHIC card for the EU is fine for medical treatment, but then it won't actually protect you for loss of baggage, or flight cancellation. Furthermore, not all European countries have substantial state owned hospital infrastructure, which may mean you end up at a private hospital for emergency treatment. In this case, you may have to pay in order to be treated, and in any case you may have to pay for emergency flights back to the UK. Despite these issues, it's important that you don't overpay. It's extremely unlikely that your medical expenses would ever exceed more than ?2,000,000, while personal liability cover should be around the ?1,000,000 mark. Take out around this amount of cover with extra for loss of baggage or flight cancellation and you should be ready to go!