Travel insurance - there's still time to check the small print

Anyone taking a late-summer holiday to foreign parts and game enough to tackle adventurous activities like white water rafting, jet skiing or parasailing is advised to double check the small print on their insurance policies.

Many insurers will not cover activities they class as 'hazardous' so if anything goes wrong and injuries are sustained then the policy may be worthless.

A summer holiday is an ideal opportunity to get away from it all and try a new activity. But every year there are tragic cases in which holidaymakers suffer devastating injuries only to find that their insurance policy didn't cover them. The injured person can find themselves with a hefty bill to cover overseas medical treatment, extra accommodation to enable relatives to stay on and even the cost an air ambulance back to the UK. They can also find themselves unable to claim compensation for future care.

Compensation claims for overseas accidents are usually subject to the law of the country where the injury occurred. This makes them extremely difficult to pursue and affects the injured person's entitlement to compensation. Therefore there can be no reliance on being able to pursue a claim in order to cover medical costs and recover compensation.

There is also a common, often costly, misconception that all EU citizens get the same free health care that we are entitled to on the NHS. In fact, UK patients will be treated on the same terms as insured nationals of the country they're in - and very few EU countries pay the full cost of medical treatment.

Getting injured abroad is stressful and it can be expensive, which is why we all need appropriate insurance to ensure full cover for all eventualities.

So before caution is thrown to the wind take a few minutes to check policies. What may not seem like a hazardous activity on the face of it, may be viewed very differently by insurance companies.

For more information on personal injury or if you would like advice, please contact Kate Manley on kate.manley@harveyingram.com or call 0116 257 6157.