Gap Year Travellers Urged To Pick Travel Protection Plan Carefully

25 July, 2014: An insurance specialist has recently released a warning for students leaving on gap years to choose wisely when picking their travel protection plan, as terms between these packages tend to vary quite considerably. 

This conclusion was drawn from a study comparing nearly 200 gap year policies offered by companies in the United Kingdom, which found the terms for each of the packages to be significantly different from one another. Areas in which these programmes exhibited the biggest discrepancies included duration of the trip, coverage for theft or loss, and the ability to return to the UK during the period covered by both the gap year and the policy itself. 

This last point in particular seemed divisive, as half the policies were immediately nullified should the student return home at any point during the period covered – even for important events such as weddings or family deaths. Similarly, the duration of the coverage itself ranged anywhere from 31 days to two years, a severely wide gap; 12 percent of the policies were also found to only insure travellers for periods under one year, although 57 percent extended to the full two years. Coverage for lost baggage ranged from £0 to £3.000 depending on the policy, and some of these packages were also found to require a minimum age of 19 (while others left it at only 16). 

Sources within the company in question therefore advised students to be extremely thorough in their choice of travel protection, and to ensure that the policy they were about to pick for their gap year actually did offer the protection they needed, in order to avoid disappointments at a later stage. 

Gap year travel insurance differs from annual travel insurance in that it offers protection for one longer trip, rather than several shorter trips over the course of one year. 

About Insuremore: 

Insuremore provide a range of low-cost travel insurance policies for the B2C market, including single-trip, multi-trip and family insurance. Contact them at http://insuremore.co.uk/ 

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