Gap Year Insurance & Other Tips
August 2005
For many school is not only out for summer it's finished altogether, and many leavers will be looking to spend the next year or so on a gap-year. Planning of course is very important and many parents will be shocked to find that over 25% of all gap-yearers have no insurance. This might be forgiven if they're going to spend time in France or Italy but most gap years are spent in far off lands, often underdeveloped
Specialist Insurance Policies
Many people buy yearly travel insurance policies but they are no good for a gap-year because most of them only insure for each holiday lasting a maximum of 30 days. So gap-yearers need extended cover for say 12 months which will cost around £300, see table below.
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Company
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Cost
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Info
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| American Express Travel |
£532*
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| Columbus Travel Insurance |
£328
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| Direct Line Travel Insurance |
£238
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| Endsleigh Travel Insurance |
£287
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All based on 12 months cover. Check for 'risky activities' surcharge
*£330 if USA is excluded
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For most people it's not really your personal effects that need to be insured, rather the policy is for medical expenses which can easily rack up bills of 10s thousands of pound. However you should go through any policy you're looking to buy to see if all the countries you're planning to visit are covered and for what.
Extreme sports such as bungee jumping or sky-diving are normally not covered but can be for an extra fee. Also be aware that most gap-year insurance policies cover only the holiday part of your trip and not any work you may do abroad. For example, if you get a job driving a delivery van most you won't be covered, you would be covered however if you bought a cheap camper van and drove around Australia.
Other Gap Year Tips
1. Figure out the cost of withdrawing (using ATMs etc) money from your bank account, most UK bank charges are very high apart from the Nationwide which offers no charges combined with excellent foreign exchange rates - Click Here for more details
2. What happens if you lose your ATM/Credit card? Consider granting a power of attorney to your parents so they can sort out new bank cards for you, this is 10 times easier than you doing it from 8,000 miles away
3. A good idea for keeping 'crisis money' is to get hold of a pre-paid credit card from www.cash2go.com. It's not the cheapest service around but can easily be funded from the UK
Summary
Insurance, especially medical insurance is virtually never needed so for many people it's all too easy to avoid paying. But chances are most gap yearers are heading to parts of the world that are many miles from the UK, therefore in our view insurance should almost be the first expense one budgets for.
See Also
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