Are your expensive valuable items covered by your travel insurance

It is often a sad reality that travel insurance contracts get relegated to the deepest recesses of our bags, much the same way as warranties and guarantee papers are stuffed away without any ceremony. It is an equally sad reality, and almost always to their dismay, that the average person does not pay much attention to travel insurance beyond that of medical cover.

Medical cover is often considered the most important cover whilst on travel with holidaymakers ensuring that they are well taken care of in times of medical emergencies. Travel opportunities create memories that last a lifetime which the digital age has made so easy to capture and share. It is with this thought in mind that Judy on early retirement booked a special trip to Spain.

She dutifully made sure she had her medical insurance which she spoke about at length to her travel agent when making her bookings. She had also just taken up photography as a hobby which she was quite good at. To celebrate her newly found creative passion she treated herself to a very expensive digital camera worth a small fortune. Being her favourite possession she took it along with her to capture the many magic moments she was sure to have in Spain, so that once back home she could share them with her loved ones. She knew how proud they were of her and wanted to show off her technological savvy skills.

On collecting her tickets and papers, she was once again advised to consider whether she had enough of travel insurance cover. Would she not consider an all risks policy as additional cover as she was carrying valuables with her? Judy was adamant that additional cover would just be an extra expense and that she would take extra caution with her valuables.

Travel insurance cover is designed to offer you protection in times of unplanned, unforeseen situations. An innovative product offered to travellers is the option of choosing the excess waiver. This means that no excess would be paid on any claims. The all risks policy cover offers more protection and calls for expensive valuable items to be itemised with serial numbers. This ensures that there are no hassles when having to make a claim due to an unfortunate event such as theft.

Judy did have a memorable holiday in Spain, but not all of which were for good reasons. As careful as she was with her luggage, she did fall victim to petty crime. Her expensive digital camera for which she paid close to R 15 000 was stolen along with her carry-on luggage. She was heartbroken when told her travel insurance cover did not include expensive single items of which her digital camera was one. On her option of travel insurance cover, she would only receive R 2 000 which would not be enough to replace her prized possession. Hindsight told her that taking the all risks policy would have been the better choice and the extra cost of the policy would have saved Judy from forking out another small fortune for a new camera.