An accident, an illness, the theft of your luggage, a car breakdown can throw you into embarrassment during your vacation. Insurance and assistance are solutions to deal with most of these incidents.
The insurance intervenes to indemnify the insured. Assistance, on the other hand, brings help, renders a service.
Under what conditions are insurance and assistance contracts likely to intervene? What do they offer?
Vacation insurance
Insurers offer guarantees to meet the needs of travellers: trip cancellation, life accident cover, individual accident, illness, theft of luggage. These guarantees are present in different contracts.
If you go abroad
The European health insurance card is essential to travel to a country in the European Economic Area. Outside Europe, coverage varies depending on the country of destination and you should contact your social security fund.
Trip cancellation cover
Illness, accident, death of a loved one… one of these events obliges you to cancel the planned trip. The organizer of the stay will leave all or part of the canceled services at your expense, called cancellation fees.
If you benefit from travel cancellation cover, these costs will be covered, in part or in full, if the cause of the cancellation is covered by the contract.
The different cancellation insurance formulas
The cancellation guarantee can:
- be included in the price of the trip;
- be offered by the travel agency against payment of an additional sum. When the customer subscribes to this insurance, the travel agency gives him a summary of the contract which specifies the extent of the guarantees and exclusions;
- be included in an individually subscribed travel insurance contract which also guarantees, in addition to cancellation, your civil liability, your luggage and the payment of lump sum compensation in the event of a bodily accident;
- be covered by a specific insurance contract;
- be part of the guarantees associated with your top-of-the-range payment card (its use implies, however, that the trip has been paid for with this same card).
The application of the cancellation insurance
The cancellation of the trip must not only be caused by a reason provided for in the contract (serious illness or accident, death, etc.), but also be unforeseeable at the time of taking out the contract and not intentional. Thus, the insurance will not cover the cancellation linked to an illness declared before the subscription or the adhesion to the contract.
Guaranteed grounds for cancellation vary from contract to contract. In addition to illness, accident, death of a loved one, other causes of cancellation may be offered for subscription, in particular:
- serious material damage to your home or vehicle;
- economic dismissal;
- invitation to a remedial university exam;
- the occurrence of a natural event abroad, the place of your destination;
- the occurrence of a random event as defined in the contract.
It is possible to insure, under the same conditions, the costs of canceling the rental of a pleasure boat, a villa or an apartment.
Accident and illness guarantees
During your holidays, you may be ill or the victim of an accident: the health and bodily accident insurance contracts that you have already taken out apply and cover in particular the costs of treatment, incapacity, invalidity and the death.
Before your departure, it is therefore recommended to identify the guarantees included in your various contracts:
Check:
- where applicable, the countries for which these guarantees are granted to you,
- the exclusions provided for certain activities considered to present a particular risk,
- guarantee limits.
If it appears necessary to supplement existing guarantees or to provide new ones, contact your insurer.
Baggage insurance
A carrier or a hotelier may be liable for the damage, loss or theft of your baggage. You may have recourse against them or their insurer but, however, there are limits of liability: you will therefore not necessarily be reimbursed in full.
There are also possibilities for compensation under personal guarantees:
The resort guarantee
Included in multi-risk home contracts, it can cover certain property of the insured, lost or damaged, during stays away from home, whether in France or abroad.
Baggage guarantee
Most often, it covers personal effects and goods taken or purchased, anywhere in the world, against loss, theft, disappearance, deterioration. It can be taken out in a contract offered by the travel agency or can be part of a package of guarantees and services offered by a financial institution. Also remember to check the guarantees associated with your payment card, which can also cover luggage, provided that the trip was paid for with it.
The guarantee of valuables
It takes care of the theft, loss, and sometimes the breakage of certain valuables, such as cameras, mobile phones or jewellery.
Assistance on vacation
The assistance organization intervenes as soon as you find yourself in a difficult situation (car breakdown, accident, serious illness). It brings you help, renders a service, but is not intended to compensate.
Insurance companies most often include assistance guarantees in their contracts (vehicle, multi-risk home, etc.). However, it is possible to subscribe to specific assistance contracts.
You can benefit from an assistance guarantee:
- annexed to an insurance contract,
- subscribed by the organizer of the stay,
- taken out by your employer for business trips and sometimes also for private trips,
- attached to your payment card.
Services related to people
You or one of the insured persons are seriously ill or injured.
The assistance company organizes repatriation, transport and admission to hospital*.
Support contracts also include money-back guarantees medical and hospitalization expenses abroad within the limits of the ceilings they provide.
A death occurs during the trip.
The assistance company organizes the repatriation of the body to the place of burial*.
You must interrupt your stay due to the death of a loved one.
The assistance organization covers your transport costs to the place of death, funeral, etc.
You are hospitalized for more than ten days, without possible repatriation.
The assistance organization provides a member of your family with a return ticket to come to your bedside. The contract may also provide for the payment of accommodation costs.
*In both cases, the contracts include the payment of the return costs of the other insured persons.
Services related to your car
Your vehicle breaks down, is damaged or stolen.
The assistance organization designated in your automobile insurance contract takes care, depending on the event and the formula chosen:
- towing costs;
- sending spare parts that cannot be found on site;
- repatriation of the vehicle near your home;
- accommodation costs for the duration of the repairs;
- the repatriation of passengers;
- the return of the vehicle repaired on site or stolen and found. The company sends a driver or arranges one-way transportation.
Sick or injured, you are unable to drive and cannot be replaced by a passenger.
The company sends a driver to repatriate your vehicle and its occupants.
The authorities of the country where you are staying require you to pay bail.
The assistance organization advances this deposit, within the limits provided for in the contract.
Other services offered by assistance companies
Assistance companies offer other guarantees, for example:
- reimbursement of the cost of extending your stay at the hotel after hospitalization (within a limit set by the contract),
- in the event of an accident, reimbursement of vehicle rental costs (up to a certain amount),
- search costs carried out by rescuers or rescue organizations,
- domestic assistance following a burglary, fire or water damage to the home of the absent person: the company organizes and pays for emergency measures (sending a locksmith, etc.),
- an advance in the event of theft or loss of all means of payment,
- legal assistance abroad.
Check your insurance contracts before leaving on vacation
Regardless of the contract taken out, check:
- who has the quality of insured: yourself, the members of your family, the people accompanying you,
- the guarantees: cancellation, damage to luggage, repatriation assistance, etc. To do this, refer to the specific conditions of your contract which specify the guarantees actually taken out among all those which have been offered to you and which are described in the general conditions;
- the list of exclusions: claims resulting from the practice of certain sports such as paragliding or skydiving may for example not be covered,
- the countries in which the guarantees are applicable,
- guarantee limits.
If you go by car or motorbike, look on the back of your green card in which countries your compulsory insurance is valid (countries not crossed out). If you are visiting or passing through a country whose name is crossed out or not on the green card, find out from your insurer how you can be insured. Be aware that the territorial limits sometimes differ, in the same contract, depending on the guarantees.
Request extended warranties, if applicable
Extended warranties are a good idea if you are planning on buying a new product. They can help protect your investment, and in some cases, they can even save you money.
Create a summary sheet
You will enter the references of the insurance and/or assistance contracts and the telephone numbers that would be useful to you during your trip.