Travel and Insurance

Do you get to travel abroad often? One, I’m jealous. Two, make sure that you know what this can mean for your insurance policies.

Existing Insurance Policies

For the majority of Life Insurance and Critical Illness policies, travelling abroad once your policy is in place, will generally have no bearing on the validity of your cover. If you plan to live abroad for a considerable amount of time, the insurer may maintain your insurance policy, provided that you continue to pay your premiums from a UK bank account.

Income Protection policies are slightly different. For some income protection policies if you choose to travel abroad and make a claim, the insurer may pay the claim for a set period and then halt the payments until you return to one of their accepted countries of residence; typically includes the UK, North America, mainland Europe, Australia and New Zealand). If your circumstances change and you are no longer a UK tax payer, it is possible that your policy will no longer be valid.

Short-term Income Protection policies known as Accident, Sickness and Unemployment cover, can carry stipulations that they will not pay a claim if the cause of your incapacity is due to work abroad.

New Policies

With any new Life Insurance, Critical Illness and Income Protection policy you will need to tell the insurer if you have any upcoming plans to travel or reside outside of the UK. General holidays abroad will not cause a concern to the insurers, but if you are planning to travel to locations that are known war zones or places of civil unrest, the insurer will want to know your reasons for travel.

Common questions include:

• Where are you travelling to?
• How long will you be outside of the UK?
• What is the reason for your journey?

Insurers will also ask for your travel history over the last few years. If you have been to any destinations that have a high risk of HIV, it is possible that the insurer may ask you to provide a saliva or blood test to confirm if you have/have not contracted the condition.

When you arrange an Accident, Sickness or Unemployment policy you may not be asked about your upcoming or previous travel. You should make sure that you read the terms and conditions of these policies thoroughly to make sure how any future travel could affect your policy.

Popular travel:

• Afghanistan
• Angola
• Australia
• Bahrain
• Black Sea
• Brazil
• Canada
• Caspian Sea
• China
• Colombia
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• Dubai
• Gulf of Mexico
• Hong Kong
• India
• Iran
• Iraq
• Japan
• Kuwait
• Libya
• Nigeria
• North Sea
• Oman
• Pakistan
• Pointe Noire
• Russia
• Saudi Arabia
• Singapore
• Somalia
• South Africa
• Syria
• Ukraine
• United Arab Emirates (UAE)
• USA

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