Travel insurance is an annoying little bugger. It's one of those things that you don't always think about but is necessary. If you're going to Europe it's not such a problem as you can get a EHIC card and you're covered. Easy. So if you're going to Europe, and live in Europe grab yourself one as it's the cheapest travel insurance you'll ever get. However, if you're going elsewhere you need to get yourself some proper insurance. You may be thinking, nah nothing will happen to me. But even if you're the safest, most sensible person in the world you could still need insurance.
Travel insurance doesn't just cover you for medical and health purposes, it also covers your baggage, passport, if you have to come home early anything. A lot of these things you have no control over. If your baggage gets lost on the plane there's nothing you can do about so travel insurance will be handy as many offer a certain amount of money to cover your baggage and belongings.
There are a lot of policies out there though and finding the one for you can be difficult. So like with choosing flights, with travel insurance you need to do your research and you need to shop around before you commit to anything.
You need to make sure your policy is going to cover what you want it to. A lot only cover for a certain amount of days at a time so if your going for four, five, six months check the policy will cover you for that long. The best thing to do in those circumstances is to have a look on a website like gocompare. They will show you every policy that covers your dates and the price. Obviously some will be madly expensive and others will be slightly cheaper. When I first looked mine ranged from £120 - £300 but that's because I'm going for a long time. If you're on a budget then obviously look at the cheaper ones but make sure the medical covers you for at least £2 million, that sounds extravagant but America and Australia will charge the earth just to call an ambulance out and you don't want to get stuck with a whopping bill because you're insurance doesn't cover it.
Also check the excess. You don't want to make a claim and then find you've got pay £500 out of it when you know you won't have that money. Be realistic about it.
Once you've got an idea of what you think you need and want from your insurance start shopping around. The post office and your bank or building societies are great places to look. The post office are great for travelling requirements generally but I didn't find they were the cheapest. Different banks and building societies may offer deals depending on the type of account you hold with them and how long you've been banking so it's worth asking. But don't expect it, my building society offered me no discount and I've banked with them all my life.
There are tonnes of companies who don't put themselves on comparison websites so it's important to just have a google and see what you get. I googled 'working holiday insurance' 'australian insurance' 'young person working holiday insurance' and lot's of other things and found a great website which is perfectly suited to the type of holiday I'm going on. Google will forever be your best friend when planning a trip so don't be scared to google ridiculous things to find what you want. You may find a gem.
So there's a few little tips and tricks and places to look if like me you're putting off getting you're insurance. The longer you put it off the more expensive it's going to get so dive it and get it sorted. It will be super exciting when you do - one step closer and £120 lighter.
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