Claiming on your travel insurance? These five tips will help your claim go smoothly

Experts at Holidaysafe have drawn up a list of five top tips to help make claiming on your travel insurance as hassle-free as possible.   

It’s been a turbulent summer for British holidaymakers, with cancelled flights, lost luggage and delayed departures dominating the headlines. So, with the holidays coming to an end, it’s likely many Brits may need to make a claim on their travel insurance.

Estimates about the average claim made on travel insurance policies vary, but a typical non-medical travel insurance claim of around £500 is not unusual. Claims for medical related issues can be much higher – averaging around £1,300*. So, it’s worth taking the time to find the most appropriate cover for a trip abroad.

Sarah Page, brand manager at Holidaysafe said: “Protecting a holiday with suitable travel insurance is the first step in safeguarding a trip against the unexpected. Should travellers need to submit a claim to their insurer, it is important that they follow their insurer’s claims process to help make the process as smooth as possible.

“It can be frustrating to keep going backwards and forwards with your travel insurer, so providing as much information as you can when submitting a claim can make all the difference and make for a much simpler process.”

Here are Sarah’s five top tips on how to sail through the claims process:

1. Before you travel
   Make sure you understand your policy and whether it offers protection for the things you’d expect to be covered for. Take a copy of your travel insurance documents with you on holiday and make a note of the emergency medical assistance team’s number. You’ll need this if you have an emergency medical issue abroad, allowing you to notify the team. You’ll also be able to check your policy wording to see whether you are covered to claim for any unexpected events that arise during your trip, rather than having to check when you get back home.

2. Before you claim
   Before submitting a claim, it’s a good idea to make sure you fully understand any exclusions in your policy and any excesses that you may have to pay. Remember, in some circumstances, you may need to recover any lost costs elsewhere in the first instance. For example, if an airline cancels your flight, they are responsible for getting you to your destination and to cover any hotel and related costs. A common mistake is not understanding the excess – which is the amount you agree to contribute towards the cost of the claim. Policy excesses vary from £0 upwards, depending on the cover you have. So, it is worth looking through the policy terms and conditions to see if there is an excess that applies to the policy purchased or if there’s anything that easily stands out to indicate that the claim may be declined. For example, in the event that the excess is £100 and you are claiming for £70, you wouldn’t be covered to claim as the amount falls below the excess.

3. Detail is everything
   Put as much detail as possible in your claim. For example, if you put ‘bag was stolen’, this does not give much information as to where the bag was, when it was stolen or the value of the bag, so the insurer may ask for more information for clarity. It may also be part of your insurer’s claims process to provide a written police report when submitting a claim for a lost or stolen item, as example. For this reason, it’s important to fully understand what supporting information is required for the claim.

4. Read the claim form carefully and follow the instructions
   These days insurance companies spend a lot of time making forms clear and easy to understand. Most claim forms set out exactly what needs to be sent in to support a claim. If you only complete the form and don’t send any relevant evidence with it, the person assessing the claim may request the missing information. This means that the claim takes longer to review in full.

5. Back up your claim with the right documents
   Probably the single biggest reason for delays in getting your claim settled is not having the right documents. In general, the more relevant paperwork you can send in to back up your claim, the better. If you’re claiming for lost or stolen possessions, you’ll need a proof of purchase – this can be a bank/credit card statement, receipt or gift receipt or online purchase receipts. For cancellation claims connected to medical conditions most companies ask for a medical certificate to be completed by a GP or doctor, this certificate will ask all the relevant questions they want answered. If you get a letter from the GP instead of having the certificate completed it is likely that the letter will not answer the questions needed and you’ll need to go back to your doctor, which again could delay your claim.

“These simple tips can make all the difference and help you get your claim settled quickly,” adds Sarah. “While we are, as travel insurance provider, are doing all we can to help make the claims process more straightforward, it’s important that customers are aware of the basic requirements to make sure they get their claim reviewed as quickly as possible.”