Tips on travel cover

A basic form of travel insurance is often provided by your bank when purchasing an air ticket using your credit card. But this cover may not be sufficient, as it often places caps on age, costs, services and certain destinations. As such, go through your policy with a fine-tooth comb to determine exactly what’s included and excluded.

Most travel insurance offerings cover includes emergency medical expenses, hospital cash benefit per day, personal accident cover in the event of death or permanent disability, emergency travel and accommodation, legal assistance and personal liability cover, among others. However not all policies are the same; various types of travel insurance are available depending on your needs. These include:

Business insurance: If you’re travelling for business you’d fall into one of two categories: administrative insurance for travelling to a meeting, or industrial insurance if you’re travelling to perform a service. This generally provides cover for aspects like delayed or cancelled flights, lost passports and medical cover.

Senior citizen travel insurance: For those over 70 this covers things like medical expenses, a visit from a family member if necessary, missed flights or cancellations and lost or delayed luggage.

Student travel insurance: This is for younger people travelling for work or leisure and includes cover for emergency medical costs, injury or damage to a third person or their property, cancellation of a trip and missed flights.

Group travel insurance: If there are more people travelling as a group to the same destination, group travel insurance may be a better bet. This type of insurance generally includes cover for medical costs, cash back for lost or delayed luggage, flight cancellations and missed flights and cover if a third person is injured.