Tips on travelling and insurance this holiday season

During the holiday season, most people will be taking trips to the beach, visiting relatives, holidaying interstate or even overseas. Regardless whether you are only travelling an hour’s drive to the beach or flying overseas you should ensure that you fully covered for the activities you are planning on doing. Choice website has detailed and unbiased information of the different types of travel insurance options that may be of interest to read.

If you are planning to drive, or be travelling by car check that your current car insurance is adequate for your travel needs. Things like car hire, towing cost and accommodation requirements are important things to consider. For example if you happen to be stuck in the middle of outback Queensland where the closest town is 200 km away, getting a mechanic or if the car needs to be towed, the costs can be very expensive. If you car is completely undrivable, having a hire car option can help you continue your holiday safely.

Before you start your travelling, check your insurance and what you are covered for especially:

• Check that all of your family are adequately covered.
• Check for any exclusions on the policy? For example if your holiday requires you to drive on a beach ensure that your policy covers for this type of claim.
• Check the timeframe for claiming as with some policies you may need to notify the insurance company straight away.

If you do need to make a claim below are some of the things you will need to remember:

• Ensure that your insurance and travel documents are with you at all time. You could need these at any time.
• Before you start accumulating any expenses check with your travel insurance to make sure you can get reimbursed for any expenses or if they have a preferred service provider wherever you are (both within Australia and overseas).
• Always make sure you hang onto any receipts that relates to the injury such as medial and pharmacy bills, any travel and transport costs for example to the doctors or hospital.
• If you are going overseas also keeping thorough notes of any medical providers including the names of doctors, nurses, and health providers can be beneficial. Getting a hold of copies of your medical records could prove to be helpful before you leave as obtaining these from some less developed and remote countries could be very difficult and timely.