Weather the Storm to Compare Travel Insurance

It is important to compare travel insurance quotes thoroughly. There is always some small exemption clause that can void an insurance claim, and in many cases those clauses surround the topic of the weather. Below are a few exemptions you would be wise to look out for when buying cheap travel insurance.

It is always worth taking the time to compare travel insurance small print with regard to weather. Rest assured the weather will rarely work in your favour when it comes to exemptions. Went on a summer holiday to soak up some rays, only to find bucketing rain for two weeks? Tough luck, there is no travel insurance company that will give you your money back for rubbish weather.

At the more extreme end of the scale, if you're on holiday in the tropics somewhere and you get caught up in a cataclysmic storm, then you can claim on your travel insurance legitimately if it affected your holiday dramatically. Be sure to check your policy however, freak weather can come under the elusive term of "Acts of God" which can be a get out clause for insurers. Insurance companies are also unlikely to pay out on your claim if the severe weather conditions were "foreseeable".

Understandably the weather can be quite unpredictable, but if a tourist board has issued a warning to travellers, or a meteorological association predicts storms/hurricanes/tsunamis, then insurers will argue your holiday circumstances were "foreseeable" and therefore you are at fault for negligence: deliberately putting yourself in harm's way. In the same way that a health insurance policy won't pay out to a customer for a pre-existing health problem, travel insurance policies won't pay out for pre-existing weather problems. If a weather warning has already been issued, do not expect help from your insurer unless you have made sure there is no specific clause in your policy.

Even if the weather is not seen as a pre-existing or foreseeable condition, there are occasions when an exemption clause can catch out the unwary. If you don't compare travel insurance quotes you could miss examples such as this. Imagine you're going on holiday to Barbados when two days before your flight, the hotel you were due to stay in is destroyed by a hurricane. If the hotel is unusable but flights are still running to Barbados then an insurance company may not owe you compensation. It is essential that you check before you book your holiday how comprehensive your travel insurance is in order to avoid disappointment.

Kim has 2 years experience in the Travel insurance industry. She enjoys writing articles on various topics.