June 1 marks Dare Day, a day encouraging people to do something daring they have never done before. Whilst this may be good at a ‘face your fears’ level, Europesure Travel Insurance warns that this mentality can frequently contravene the terms and conditions of a travel insurance policy. That could mean no payout, if you then have reason to call upon your holiday insurance.
In this sense, it pays to not even consider being daring until you have read the terms and conditions of your travel insurance policy thoroughly. That will set boundaries and limits as to how daring you can be.
Daring sporting activities covered by travel insurance terms
Europesure recognises that many travellers do like to engage in different types of sporting activity whilst abroad, particularly those not really possible on home soil. For that reason, it offers the ‘daring’ traveller a long list of activities included within their travel insurance protection, if a claim results from participation in them.
This list, featuring on both Europesure’s single trip and annual travel insurance policies, includes many activities that many of us may consider quite daring. Take, for instance, abseiling, ballooning, camel riding, kite buggying, parasailing, quad biking, tree trekking and zorbing. The important thing, however, is to check any limits or conditions that are applied to such activities. That may be a certain height or depth that cannot be exceeded, or may be a case of wearing a helmet and protective clothing during participation. It may also well be a matter of ensuring that you are only participating in an activity that is supervised.
The list of activities gives you a lot of flexibility to be daring by trying something new, or something that you enjoy doing. It also avoids you having to ring up and try to check whether you are covered for many of the types of activity that typically catch your eye whilst in a resort or destination. What it does not allow you to do is to be reckless.
Recklessness in travel insurance terms
Recklessness can come about through putting yourself at risk, by drinking excessive amounts of alcohol and/or taking drugs. Should these actions be a factor in any incident for which you then wish to claim, that claim would not usually be accepted.
Recklessness can also be a case of taking on a dare, or daring oneself to do something that common sense would dictate is dangerous. This includes traversing the gap between balconies or jumping from a balcony into a pool – a highly dangerous behaviour known as ‘balconing’ that has led to far too many fatalities in holiday destinations.
In the same bracket are ‘posing’ activities such as owling and planking and also laying or sitting on parts of buildings that are not intended for that purpose. This may well be to satisfy a dare but it is crazy behaviour that again would not be covered by your insurance. It would neither pay out for an injury, nor cover funeral expenses if your body needed to be taken back to your home country. The same is true of jumping from structures. The only case in which this is permissible is if you are jumping in order to save someone’s life.
So, if you find yourself, for instance, on a high wall, perhaps by a promenade, and need to get down, do not jump onto the pavement or beach. Walk to wherever the wall becomes lower or where steps will help you get down. If not, a broken leg might well cost you a tidy sum, funded by your own pocket.
Why travel insurance terms are a contract
Do not dare to flout the rules with your travel insurance policy in any way, as it is a contract between you and the insurer. This means that you should not take the gamble of travelling with undeclared pre-existing medical conditions. If what you suffer from is not listed in your policy wording, you are not covered for it, full stop.
Travelling against medical advice is another dare you should not take as you, again, would not be able to claim on your policy, if you fell ill. In the same sort of bracket falls travelling to a country to which your Government has advised nothing but essential travel, or perhaps declared that it is not safe to travel to at all. Again, if you go against this advice, your travel insurance will not cover you.
And, of course, taking the major dare of travelling without any travel insurance whatsoever is just asking for trouble. So many things can go wrong, creating major heartache if you are then left having to pay the price for your error of judgement.
Don’t dare to leave travel insurance purchase to the last minute
Daring to leave it to the last minute to buy your travel insurance can leave you exposed to financial losses, if you then have to cancel the trip. That might be because of illness to yourself or a family member. It could be because you have been called up for jury service. It could equally be due to redundancy – a situation that makes it difficult for you to travel and spend more money, when your budget has become much tighter.
If you have laid out a lot of money for your travel plans, you could see all of that expenditure go down the drain. Unless you have cancellation protection in place at the time when such cancellation becomes necessary, you will have to shoulder the financial losses yourself.
Striking a balance
Being too daring is really not compatible with travel insurance, for good reason. Travel insurers know what is a risk too far and do not encourage insured individuals to take it.
You should remember that travel insurance is a very vital part of your holiday and business trip planning and that it is foolish to leave home without it. What you need to do is strike a happy balance between boldness and compliance with your insurance terms. If you do, you should still be able to have a brilliantly memorable experience.
The thing to bear in mind, continually, is that he who dares really doesn’t win, if that ‘dare’ contravenes the terms and conditions of their holiday cover.
