Visit DirectTravel >>Name: DirectTravel Insurance No. of Reviews: 4
If you generally get your insurance policy for your holidays from the travel agent because they say it is free, this may not be the case and you may find that the cost is built into the package. Travel agents earn a great deal in commissions by selling insurance and you can usually get a better deal with an insurer that sells direct to consumers. Always check with your agent about insuring yourself elsewhere.
The company Direct Travel Insurance was established in 1993. Since then they have provided more than 7 million people with holiday insurance, either through their call centre or the website at Direct-Travel.co.uk. Direct Travel's wide range of policies allow you to find a cover that suits you whether you are backpacking, skiing, travelling for business or a single trip.
Direct Travels policies are underwritten by AIG in the UK and you will be given access to an emergency assistant line which is operational 24 hours a day, as well as the Talking Nurses service. All claims are handled at the offices in West Sussex, UK.
Their free travel advice line can be used both before you travel and during the journey to provide you with information on visa's, passports, vaccinations, travel, security updates and if you need to relay a message urgently. Though this is only available if you buy Premier Plus, Backpacker or Senior Citizen policies
DirectTravels holiday and insurance policies have received awards from the independent market research company Defaqto, who rated them as five star for the cost of their standard travel insurance policy. They were also given a five star rating for the cover included in their premier plus policy.
It would be advisable to visit this website even before you go to the travel agent as it contains so much information. There are guides to each country and these tell you whether violent crime is a problem, the degree of societal, economical and political unrest, the stability of the government and any likely internal or external conflicts, as well as information on militant groups, insurgents or terrorists. DirectTravel's tips also include information on things you should do before going on holiday, personal conduct abroad, dehydration, airports, currency and recent alerts.
On the subject of their great website, it should be mentioned that their branding has not been so great for navigating there easily. The official site is www.direct-travel.co.uk ... but that is the only one that this company owns, with even www.directtravel.co.uk being the property of another similarly named company (though currently not in use). The .coms are both owned by other people who have chosen to put travel insurance adverts on their site so accidentally hitting www.directtravel.com or www.direct-travel.com could end up misleading you down the wrong path. The only real safe way is to bookmark/favourite the actual site once you're on it if you intend on returning later.
If you are looking for extras like airport parking or airport hotels, then you will be interested to know that Direct Travel insurance have teamed up with Holiday Extras to offer their customers discounted rates for these. You can receive a quote for such directly on the website.
You are also entitled to a discount if you have an all risks home insurance contents policy that covers you when you remove possessions from your home, as you can choose your travel insurance with these sections removed. Really one of those "about time" moments in insuring. Consequently you will only pay for the cover you want.
If you have grandchildren who are under 23 and in full time further education you can include them free on your policy when you buy a European annual multi trip policy or with an extra surchage when you buy a Worldwide annual multi trip policy. As with most online processing insurers you will receive an immediate email when you purchase a policy, which states how much you have paid, the policy number, commencement date, who is insured, the territories covered and your period of insurance. †
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13/10/2008 There was a lot of text on this website but the travel insurance quotation form was easy to find and use, and was short. It didn't seem to work properly though - it kept reverting back to default travel dates rather than the ones I entered. It offered me four different insurance levels, starting at £5.78 and going up to £15.50 for their platinum option, which includes cover for airline failure - probably quite a prudent thing to have these days! I was impressed with their prices - even their platinum option was cheaper than the best quote I'd had elsewhere.