Travel insurance – what to pay attention to

We have a full holiday season, some of us are planning a vacation or are already going on a foreign holiday, and that is why it is worth considering whether we are prepared in 100% To foreign war. For the safety of your and your loved ones it is worth to take care of the purchase of additional travel insurance.

Almost every year the whole country is shaken by information about a very serious or even fatal tourist accident and the need to organize a collection which will allow the person to be treated, possibly the collected amount will be needed to bring the body to Poland. In this short article, we describe a few but important issues to pay attention to when choosing insurance and answer the question whether insurance is “necessary” expenditure or necessity.

Why buy extra insurance?

When choosing holidays abroad, we carefully follow the offers of travel agencies or plan every detail of the trip. Are you sure? Are we considering the possibility of participating, for example, in a communication accident, or are we assuming that our luggage will be stolen? A large part of the answer will certainly be negative but common sense thinking would ask the question: “Okay, but what then? What should I pay attention to when choosing insurance?"

In answer to this question, it should be pointed out that insurance companies operating on the Polish market, apart from the compulsory insurance offer, also have a differentiated voluntary insurance offer – one from examples of voluntary insurance is tourism insurance.

It should be remembered that the scope of tourism insurance in each insurance company may be different. The most common scope of insurance in the domestic market is, among others, liability insurance OC, insurance for treatment costs abroad, insurance related to the consequences of accidents.

It is also clear that tourism insurance can also cover sports equipment and other baggage insurance.

Tourist insurance – provisions of the OWU

When considering the offer of an insurance company, let us pay particular attention to the provisions of the OWU, i.e. the general terms of the contract. This is a document describing all relevant issues concerning the contract, i.e. the definition of random events, the duration of the insurance, the exclusion of liability of the insurance company, the procedure for reporting the damage, the determination of the sum of the insurance.

Special attention should be paid to the amount of the insurance, as this is the amount that determines the upper limit of the financial liability of the insurance company [1] . The higher the amount of insurance, the wider the coverage in the insurance company's offer. If we are practicing injury-gene sports or travelling outside the EU, it is safer to insure ourselves for a higher amount of money, as treatment costs may be significant and not included in the standard travel insurance.

The issue of civil liability insurance in private life is also important, because if we damage or destroy someone's property, then our insurance company will pay the appropriate compensation. In contrast, if we did not have such a policy, we would have to repair the damage from our own money.

It is also worth paying attention to insurance related to accidents. This insurance includes events causing damage to the health or death of the insured person. In the interests of health, the life of their loved ones and their own, it is worth taking care of the higher amount of insurance against accidents and checking whether the scope of insurance also covers the costs of transport to Poland.

If we are people who like to actively spend time while leaving, i.e. we use specialized sports equipment, we should be interested in insurance of this equipment as well as the entire luggage.

In the case of this insurance, it is important to point out whether the amount of the insurance is reduced by any compensation paid until it is exhausted. It is also essential to check that compensation is calculated on the basis of the actual value of the equipment or the replacement.

Many times the offer of travel insurance covers sports equipment, but if we are users of equipment of considerable value, it is better to purchase completely separate insurance of sports equipment with a higher total insurance.

Isn't the ECUZ card enough?

It is almost necessary to have an EKUZ card (European Health Insurance Card) when travelling outside Poland – on the basis of this document medical assistance will be provided to us in a medical facility. However, it is important to realise that not all EU Member States have the same subject of medical care.

Which means there's a possibility of partial payment for medical examinations. The National Health Fund website provides information in which countries the use of medical services is linked to payment of compensation [2] .

Important: the ECI card is valid only in EU countries, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, the card is recognised in the UK. This means that in countries such as Turkey, Egypt, we will not be able to use the ECI card, and if we do not have a purchased insurance covering medical assistance, we will have to pay it from our own financial resources.

Every damage event (accident, collision) is associated with significant nerves, and it is more likely that it is happening in another country and in a situation where emergency services do not speak our language. Relatively small expenses for the purchase of additional insurance can be significantly reimbursed, but above all provide incredible comfort in an unexpected situation.

Written by Michał Pankiewicz

The author is a graduate of KUL in the direction of Law. From 2022 related to Russell Bedford. His interests include civil law, in particular commercial company law and compensation law. Privately passionate about geopolitics.