If you have recently booked a holiday or need to go abroad for business purposes you are probably excited and have not really thought about your travel insurance.

Before taking any sort of trip it is extremely important to have travel insurance and to understand and know what cover you have. You may find that depending on where your proposed holiday is you may need to upgrade or purchase additional protection.

Understanding what your travel insurance cover will insure you for will mean that should you find your self needing to make a claim once abroad a lot easier and give you the peace of mind that you are covered for events that you may be worried about.

Travel insurance does not cover you for everything, all travel insurance policies will have a list of unforeseen circumstances for which you will be covered. It is important to read through the list and make sure that this applies to you your family and your circumstances of travel.

If something should occur whilst away and it is not on the travel insurance policy list you will not be covered. Some policies will state what is excluded but generally speaking if they have not included it you must assume you will not be able to make a claim if found in that situation.

Standard travel insurance policies will cover you for events such as the following.

Your tour operator goes broke

Your cruise line goes broke

If you or you family needs emergency medical treatment or in the case of a death

Your trip is cancelled due to bad weather

Your trip is cancelled due to flight cancellation

If you have lost your job after at least 3 years of employment

Lost or damaged luggage

Stolen luggage

Although most travel insurance companies cover you for medical treatment whilst on holiday you may not be covered should you need to have medical treatment before you go and have to cancel the holiday due to a pre existing medical condition.

Although you may feel you will never need to use your travel insurance it is surprising how many people actually do, the cost of travel insurance will vary depending on the company and the type policy they are selling.

Always check with your travel insurance company if you are entitled to a refund should you decide to cancel the policy soon after purchasing it. Some companies offer a 'cooling off' period a certain amount of time from receipt of your policy where by you can cancel and receive a full refund.

Most people travel abroad for holidays so having travel insurance can mean the difference to a stress free holiday or one of worry. This type of insurance could possibly be the most important insurance policy you will ever have.