What can you ask for when you take out travel insurance?

With the start of the holidays, many Spaniards begin to plan their summer trips. In order to travel with complete peace of mind, it is advisable to have insurance, especially if it is an international destination.

For this reason, today we take a look at what aspects you need to check when taking out travel insurance, what cover it is essential to include and how to proceed when requesting a claim.

Travel insurance: What cover is it compulsory to include?

Travel insurance is an adhesion contract with general conditions where the companies impose a standard contract drawn up in advance, although each of them gives you different modalities. These can range from the most basic, which include a single guarantee such as cancellation and some relating to delay expenses and loss of luggage with a minimum insured sum, to others that include top guarantees of cancellation, health care, civil liability, legal defence, etc.

Therefore, each person chooses the option that interests them by accepting the basic coverage, the voluntary coverage, increasing the insured sums and, if necessary, eliminating excesses or the amount of these.

What about international travel?

In order to be able to enter some countries, insurance with minimum coverage is required. In these cases, the insurance company that sells specific insurance for these destinations will have to incorporate the minimum coverage required by these destination countries. For example:

- Thailand requires travel medical insurance to cover all medical treatment to a minimum value (USD 20,000), extension of stay up to 10 days (hospitalisation and isolation expenses in case of infection) and to cover COVID-19 expenses.

- Russia requires accreditation of travel insurance with medical coverage for any contingency and repatriation.

- Schengen Area: Schengen insurance for travel in Schengen countries for a maximum of 3 months in a 6-month period has the minimum coverage for repatriation expenses in case of emergency or death, emergency medical assistance and emergency hospital care, with a minimum coverage of 30,000 euros.

What is not usually included in insurance policies?

There are no insurances in which all the coverages included are unlimited. However, in the same way that the guarantee, risk and assumptions included must be defined in the conditions, the exclusions and limiting clauses must also be set out.

The most common exclusions are the following: chronic illnesses and in some cases only if you have suffered any symptoms within the 30 days prior to taking out the policy, cancellations due to drug consumption (unless prescribed), alcoholism, epidemics, war, intentionally caused self-harm, suicide or attempted suicide, failure to present the necessary documents for the trip (passport, visa, etc.) and injuries that occur in a state of mental derangement.

What should you look out for when taking out insurance?

You have to take into account the duration of the trip and the destination, because if you are travelling to a country where you cannot use the European Health Insurance Card, you have to take out insurance with good medical cover abroad.

Normally, companies tend to establish rates, premiums and products according to three or four geographical distinctions: Spain, Europe and neighbouring countries, the rest of the world except the USA, Japan and Canada.

It should be noted that there are cancellation insurance policies that include a limit of days for taking out the insurance and that are only valid if they have been taken out at the time of the trip or within the following 7 days at the latest. It is therefore essential to demand a copy of the terms and conditions and check them or take legal advice on the scope of the insurance contract.

You should also have information about the process for reporting a claim, the possibility of using an app, telephone (including the possibility of using a free call) or via the web. And take note of the supporting documentation that, depending on the policy, may be requested to settle or reimburse expenses generated in a claim (delays, lost luggage, etc.).

Does it have to include the same coverage if I travel to the EU and to a country outside the EU?

The companies usually have different modalities depending on the destination in question. For trips within Spain or to the European Union, it is sufficient to take out a policy with cover for cancellation, loss/damage and theft of luggage, extension of stay, delays and loss of contracted services and reimbursement of holidays not taken.

What is important to include if the trip is outside the European Union?

A policy should be taken out that in addition to those highlighted for Spain and the EU also includes health care cover (with adequate capital sums according to the health costs of the country to which you are travelling), repatriation, family relocation, legal assistance and civil liability, kidnapping expenses.

Is it substantial to include repatriation to the country of origin due to illness?

It is always advisable to include the repatriation guarantee, being ideal that its maximum limits of indemnity consider an adequate sum insured or that it covers its full cost with an adequate capital.

How to claim if the insurance does not cover an event that happened in the country of destination?

Faced with an incident in a remote country and a rejection by the insurance company, the first option is to ask for help, information or collaboration from the embassies or consulates, as the process of making a claim to the insurance companies is regulated, but subject to deadlines normally between 1 and 2 months, apart from this there are certain problems that cannot be solved in the short term, because many of them end up in court.

From Audacia Abogados we remind you that every company is obliged to process the claims of the insured and even that they are known and resolved by a Customer Service department in a rigorous, impartial way and with the strength to bind the company with a positive resolution for the insured.

If they do not give you a favourable resolution or if they do not respond to you directly, you can start legal action (the territorial competence is of the courts corresponding to the insured person's domicile, any agreement to the contrary being null and void).

If your insurance company tries to make a fool of you or does not even respond, contact us.