Long Stay Travel insurance Terms and Conditions: An Expert Guide

One of the most important parts of long stay travel insurance is often overlooked, perhaps because it's not the most alluring part of the adventure - and that's the terms and conditions.

While terms and conditions can be lengthy, dry, and even difficult to understand at times, they're really important when it comes to travel insurance.

The terms and conditions are the hidden treasure chest when it comes to understanding your policy. They tell you anything and everything you need to know, from what's covered to what's excluded and how to submit a claim in a moment of need.

By the end of this article, you will understand why the T&Cs (terms and conditions) are so essential, what to look for in them, and some tips and tricks along the way.

With more than 14 years in the insurance and travel sectors, we've seen our fair share of insurance contracts (and claims). As travel lovers ourselves, we know what travelers are looking for.

Why are the terms and conditions so important?

Everything you need to know about your long stay travel insurance policy is in there. This is particularly important when you're relying on a travel insurance policy for a longer period of time (long stay).

We highly recommend that all travel insurance seekers read the terms and conditions before buying a policy so they know the ins and outs of what they're covered for, what they're not, and what to expect.

The terms and conditions can reveal something about a policy that may not be obvious at the get-go. For example, there can be a specific guarantee in your policy that requires a lot of additional information, so the information is placed into the T&Cs. This information is often about exclusions in your policy, so it's extremely relevant to you as the traveler.

Additionally, this is where you will learn about the claim process if and when you need to make one. Claim processes can be quite specific, and failure to follow the process can result in a denied claim, which isn't great news.

In order to get the most out of your travel insurance policy, you should know the claim process before you step foot out the door. That way, you know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it correctly, per your contract.

How to successfully get through the terms and conditions

For travel insurance specifically, there are a few things that can help you work your way through the T&Cs, absorbing all of the information you need and understanding it all along the way.

Remember PIT

Start with a little bit of information and work your way up. The PIT acronym can help you. It stands for Product, IPID, Terms.

When looking at a policy (before purchasing, ideally), start by reading the product page. That's the website page of the insurance policy you're looking at.

This page should give you an overview of the main guarantees, where the policy is valid, and what isn't covered in comparison to similar policies.

Once you have a good overall sense of the policy, read the IPID.

The IPID is a document that's sort of in between a product page and the terms and conditions. It gives you more information than the product page but less information than the T&Cs. This is intentional, actually.

T&Cs of anything can be long and clunky, filled with legalese, long-winded definitions, and legal jargon. IPIDs are intended to summarize the key points of the policy and terms and conditions in a way that is easier to understand and digest. There is a goldmine of information in the IPID, so you should read it second, after the product page.

💡 IPID itself actually stands for Insurance Product Information Document!

After reading the product page and IPID, you should have a solid picture of the policy, but there's still a lot of information you are missing. This is where the final step comes in: it's time to read the T&Cs.

By starting with the Product page and then the IPID, you will have more context going into the terms, as well as a basic understanding, so you will be able to follow them, hopefully, with more ease.

What to pay close attention to

While you should get as much information out of the terms and conditions as you can, there are a couple of things that you should pay extra attention to, and those are the exclusions and the claim process.

Travel insurance exclusions

When you're going to be overseas for multiple weeks or months, it's more important than ever to understand the exclusions. Let's take the "Sports" guarantee as an example.

You may see "Sports" as a guarantee on a lot of different long stay travel insurance policies - but what exactly does that mean? You need to head to the T&C's to get a grasp of the entire picture.

Depending on the policy, Sports coverage provides search and rescue costs in the sea or the mountains, for example. This type of basic information can usually be seen on a product page.

However, when you look closer (at the T&Cs), you'll learn really important information like:

• Specific sports and activities are excluded, even if they take place in the mountains or the sea.
• Details about participating in athletic events like races.
• Billing details that can disqualify an event.
• Details that may disqualify a Sports claim, such as natural disasters.
• Additional exclusions when it comes to details about the Insured.
• Etc.

If you plan to do outdoor activities during your trip, knowing whether or not the activities you have planned are covered and when that coverage is null and void (due to exclusions) is extremely important.

This is just one example. The terms and conditions will do a deeper dive into all of the guarantees that the policy has.

The claim process

Lastly, knowing the claim process before you ever need to make a claim is crucial.

Many travelers don't realize that there are often detailed instructions for when and how a claim needs to be submitted.

For example, when emergency medical care is being sought abroad, claims may need to be submitted before treatment is received. Treatment may also need to be received at a specific hospital or with a specific provider within the insurer's network.

Details like this can be found in the trusted T&Cs.

FAQs: terms and conditions