Are you travelling for a long time and wondering how insurance works on a long trip? We're about to embark on a six-month trip in Europe with our motorhome and have started looking into insurance. Here you can see what we've come up with. Of course, we'd love to hear your views and experiences!
Insurance for property at home
If you leave your house or apartment at home, it is of course important to have this insured! Since we have a houseboat, we have boat insurance. We also have home insurance. The latter we have with If, because it is the only company (what we could find) that offers home insurance when living in a houseboat. Regardless of the company, it is of course important to check what is covered by the insurance!
Insurance on long journeys - Persons
Home insurance usually provides travel insurance for 45 days. After that, you can take out additional travel insurance, but this is usually extremely expensive.
The cheapest option we found was backpacker insurance (people under 40) or travel insurance plus (people over 40) with Solid Försäkringar. If you pay for a trip with a credit card, you may also have insurance through it, but this does not apply when travelling with a motorhome.
As we are travelling in Europe, we believe we will be able to get by on the European Health Insurance Card alone (available free of charge from Social Security Agency) in combination with regular accident insurance. The only thing we know we are missing out on is ambulance transport home, which you can only get if you have travel insurance.
Insurance on a long journey - Vehicles
If you are travelling by car or motorhome, you also need to have the vehicle insured. We have motorhome insurance, and have checked that it is valid in the countries we are travelling in.
We also have Roadside Assistance, so we can get help if the car breaks down and gets stuck on the road somewhere. We have both these insurance policies with Motormännen, but there are of course other insurance companies that offer these services as well.
Read more about insurance and what it might be like to have an accident. accident while travelling, with the blogger 4000 miles.
BP says:
We also have our apartment block insurance with If. There you can also buy an accident insurance for a very cheap money/year (395 SEK in our case). It covers Europe and even home flights via SOS Copenhagen. Check it out!
05 October 2014 - 20:07
Ditte says:
Personal insurance beyond the 45 days is expensive. But in Europe, the health insurance card works well, but only for essential care and in general medical centres and hospitals.
We have good experience with this in Spain, but care can vary from country to country.
And if you are badly injured and recommended to be treated at home, there is no flight home after the 45 days and the insurance has expired.
It may be more favourable to fly home to extend the policy.
And you can make do with the 45 days. However, I would not do that.
And if the accident is really serious and specialist care is needed, I/Bosse would probably like to be able to talk to the people who are going to operate/take care of me. And not all doctors in Europe speak English, German or any other language you might know.
But on the other hand, you should not "paint the devil" on the wall.
You can start with 45 days and then possibly extend before the policy expires.
Exciting about your trip and interesting to see what you decide to do with the insurance.
05 October 2014 - 22:31
admin says:
BP, thanks for the tip! I will check with If. We have accident insurance with another company but it's just time for a new payment, so it's appropriate to check now!
Ditte, thank you very much for your comments! Our first thought was to extend the travel insurance, but it would cost (for both of us) 14,000 SEK! We thought that was a bit steep... and it was after that that we started to look around and think about it. We not only have the European Health Insurance Card, but also accident insurance that is valid throughout Europe. Doesn't that cover some things too? I'll check a bit more...
06 October 2014 - 7:24
Mr Nils-Åke Hansson says:
Birgitta & I have taken out ex travel insurance with LF We know that the European health insurance card works great Birgitta got sick so I had to call an ambulance no talk of money. BUT where does the ambulance drive I did not get to go with. AND where do you have the motorhome if you have come to a new place by bus or train. SOS has helped us well. Even assistance on the motorhome is good to have. There is little to think about if the accident is frame on the trip.
If you are young or over 65, you think differently.
Mv
Nisse
http://husbilochresor.com/
06 October 2014 - 18:46
Ditte says:
Definitely think that accident insurance is good to have and it may also include repatriation. An interesting option that I will also check out. But assume that it is not free either. And then acute illness is not included there ... or ? It's tricky and expensive no matter what you do. Interesting to see what you come up with.
06 October 2014 - 19:28
admin says:
Nils-Åke, thank you for sharing your experience! Good, but unpleasant to not know where the ambulance is going... Yes, there are some things to consider! We are 39 and 54, so neither young people nor pensioners...
😉
Ditte, accident insurance is probably good to have and easy to choose because it costs much less. Unfortunately, it doesn't cover everything that travel insurance does. The best thing would be to have both, but our budget is getting tight now....
😉
06 October 2014 - 20:22
Elina says:
hello
I have heard that motorhome insurance with most companies is only valid for 180 days within the EU, i.e. after that the motorhome is uninsured. Emphasise that this applies to the motorhome and not the people (who are covered by Home Insurance travel insurance or travel insurance with e.g. Gouda). How do you get around this if you want to stay longer than 180 days! You can drive home with an uninsured motorhome!
14 December 2018 - 18:01