Without travel insurance, a setback becomes a bill

Travel insurance is almost always bought at an awkward moment: between booking and packing, with your phone in your hand. That is why you can settle this entirely in the chat, without filling in a quotation form and without waiting for an office to open. Your destination, your dates, who is travelling with you, and whether you are going by car. That is enough to know what you need.

You often already have a piece of cover without knowing it, through your credit card, your hospital policy or your breakdown assistance. We ask about that first, so you do not pay for something that is already running. If you travel more than once a year, we look at whether an annual policy works out cheaper for you than insuring each trip separately.

And if something goes wrong on the way, you call the assistance number on your policy, wherever in the world you are. For everything after that you can use the same chat. You reach the same point of contact.

1. 01

   You send a message through the chat on this page.

2. 02

   You answer a few targeted questions about your trip. No long questionnaire.

3. 03

   You get a tailored proposal usually within two working days, explaining what is covered, up to what amount, and what is not in the policy.

4. 04

   If you agree, you confirm the proposal.

• People who drive within Europe once a year. With a European health insurance card and the assistance in your car policy, most of it is often already there. Check that before you add anything.
• People whose booking can be cancelled free of charge. You would be paying for cover you will not use. Cancellation is for what you lose, not for what you can get back.
• People who already have credit card assistance and know the conditions. Some cards come with solid assistance cover.* If you know it and it is enough, a second policy is money gone.
• People who want to cover something already under way. An illness that is already there, a strike already announced, a trip that was already uncertain at booking: those are no longer uncertain events.

The European health insurance card gives you access to public healthcare in the EU, the European Economic Area and Switzerland on that country’s own terms — including the share its residents pay themselves. It does not apply in a private clinic and it does not bring you home.*

Alongside that: your hospital policy often covers part of an admission abroad, your family liability policy covers damage you cause to others while travelling too, your car policy usually contains roadside assistance, and some credit cards come with assistance cover on their own terms about who travels with you, for how long, and whether the trip had to be paid for with that card.*

The gap that is left is almost always the same: repatriation, costs outside Europe, and cancellation. That is what the policy should be aimed at, not at what you already have four times over.

Cancellation cover is taken out at booking. Leave it until just before departure and the reason you want to cancel is often already there — and then it is no longer an uncertain event but a known one.

Most insurers therefore accept cancellation cover only within a short window after the booking. How long that window is varies; that it exists does not.

A per-trip policy is for the trip you are booking now, with a premium that depends on the destination, the duration and the trip cost. An annual policy covers everything you do that year, with a maximum duration per trip.

The tipping points are simple: from two or three trips a year the annual policy usually wins, and a family whose children also travel without their parents is almost always better off with one. Watch that maximum duration per trip: one long journey sometimes falls just outside it.