Personal Liability and Comprehensive Travel Insurance

Comprehensive travel insurance is an easy, all-in-one package that covers you against a wide range of potential issues while travelling. It comes highly recommended, whether you’re going on short a Mediterranean getaway or an extended trip around the world.

One component of the best comprehensive travel insurance packages that you really should ensure you have while travelling abroad is personal liability.

What Is Personal Liability Insurance?

Simply put, personal liability insurance is when an insurer covers the expenses for which you would be billed for accidentally causing physical or property damage. To illustrate, let’s say you’re walking down the street, heavy luggage in tow. You’re so focused on the GPS navigator app on your phone that you smash your lowered head into the face of someone walking briskly on the street towards you. In a romantic movie, you would have met your soul mate; in real life, you could very likely have broken that person’s nose – and be facing damage claims in the process. If you ensure you have a personal liability clause in your policy, your insurer would pay out these damage claims in your stead. If you don’t have such coverage, you’d be forced to pay damages out of your own pocket.

Why the Fuss About Including Personal Liability?

Many people like to trim down their policy in order to save as much money as possible. Others tend to focus so much on protecting themselves that they fail to realise the very real risks that they could actually harm someone else – with the burden of paying claims and damages falling squarely on their shoulders. In some cases, personal liability cover is not included in a policy, but there are good reasons the best insurers add a hefty liability coverage in their comprehensive travel insurance packages.

First off, personal liability insurance is relatively cheap when compared to other forms of cover. For just a few pounds you can add personal liability cover exceeding hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Secondly, the risk of causing damage to others and to expensive property is significantly raised when travelling abroad, especially when you're exposed to unfamiliar environments. Couple this with a traveller’s ignorance of local laws, and it's easy to see how travellers can get into trouble without even knowing it.

Thirdly, costs vary wildly around the world. Exchange rates aside, the costs of medical expenses and property replacement can far exceed what you may imagine in some parts of the world.

It is for these reasons above, and so many more, that personal liability cover is so useful. Once you understand the reasons, it's not hard to see why the best comprehensive travel insurance policies include generous personal liability coverage.

Patrick Chong is the Managing Director of Insuremore. We provide comprehensive travel insurance and offer a range of policies including single-trip, multi-trip and family insurance. For all your travel cover needs, Insuremore can help you in the quickest and most cost-efficient way.

Writer and Online Marketing Manager in London.