Insure yourself against our top travel mistake
A DREAM overseas holiday can quickly turn into a living nightmare if you’re left without travel insurance to cover you when something goes horribly wrong.
Tens of thousands of Australians will be heading overseas for the Christmas holiday period but some might be leaving themselves open to disaster by failing to take out cover.
Insurer Budget Direct said some of the significant claims travellers made after unplanned overseas events included:
sickness – which often occurs while scuba diving or going to a high altitude – in Bali cost $42,000.
• A broken wrist after falling in the US cost $147,000.
• Sudden onset of kidney stones in the US led to a $300,000 medical bill and holiday cancellation costs.
New independent research commissioned for Budget Direct found only one in six Australians who have travelled overseas in the past two years believe travel insurance is a must-have item on their holiday checklist. And one in two admitted they purchased travel insurance at the very last moment before jetting off.
Compareinsurance.com.au director Natalie Ball urged jetsetters to arrange travel insurance as soon as large expenses such as flights and accommodation were booked.
“This is important because the cancellation benefit kicks in as soon as they buy their policy,” she said. “Anything can happen in the lead-up to going on holiday. A family member could become ill and your flights and accommodation could be reimbursed.”
Expenses that are often covered in an international travel insurance policy include medical or dental emergencies, stolen luggage and trip cancellation fees.
Ms Ball said the cost of travel insurance could be small; for a 30-year-old on a 10-day trip to Bali, unlimited medical cover could be just $25 for the trip’s duration.
“It’s such a small price to pay should something happen overseas (where) you could be up for tens of thousands of dollars,” she said.
Budget Direct’s general manager of travel insurance, Tanya McCaffrey, said a simple injury such as a broken leg could cost a jetsetter “from $5000 to hundreds of thousands”.
She said, without insurance, “it’s quite unknown on what you leave yourself exposed to”.
“A lot of people don’t consider what you pack in your luggage,” Ms McCaffrey said.
“We all have iPhones and if you take laptops and these items with you, there’s limits.”
She said some travel insurance policies cost “less than a cup of coffee” a day.
The research also found the most common reasons people failed to take out travel insurance were the cost (40 per cent), short trip duration (38 per cent) and because the jetsetter was only visiting family while away (38 per cent).