Eliminate important risks
Travel insurers are working less on increasing premiums than on protecting themselves against certain risks in general. You recently revised the General Insurance Conditions and now exclude pandemics, epidemics and other events that can be linked to Covid-19. We are talking about an? Explicit exclusion? certain events associated with epidemics and pandemics, if these have been declared by the authorities. Similar events and the resulting quarantines are no longer included in most insurers' catalog of benefits. Some of the new regulations only apply to newly concluded contracts; some of the existing insurance conditions are supplemented by the new AVB.
Since the insurers exclude important risks, they are no longer dependent on increasing the premiums, because the additional services that previously had to be provided no longer occur. However, there is still the possibility that the premiums will be adjusted upwards, which depends on the development of the damage situation due to Covid-19.
An example of previous additional costs is the Mobiliar, which had to pay around 40 million Swiss francs for the cancellation of trips in the first half of last year. In the previous year it was around five million francs less.
This is what the innovations mean for the insured
In view of the numerous revisions and the large differences between the individual insurances, it is advisable to obtain detailed information before taking out travel insurance at all. Only the general insurance conditions as they existed when the contract was concluded are valid. Customers should therefore get a detailed explanation of which risks are insured and how and which options they have for using the services. Important: A protocol should be drawn up about the consultation!
Another tip: Those who like to travel should definitely book at short notice and then with tour operators who are comparatively generous with the cancellation conditions. A long-term booking is currently not recommended, because the imponderables regarding the holiday are still too great. At the moment it also makes sense to focus more on package tours, because the flexibility is still greater here than with individually planned trips.
Some excluded risks can be insured as additional components, but these are then significantly more expensive than before as long as they were still included in the insurance. Otherwise, it is essential to take a close look before taking out insurance and to know the rights of the insurance. When does it have to pay, when does it have the right to refuse it? The individual insurers are sometimes very different, so it is worth taking a closer look at the details.
Conclusion: travel insurance is still not more expensive
What is not, can still be! The current situation with the discussed premium increase for travel insurance can be described in a similar way. So far, insurance has not become more expensive, but some insurers are not ruling out the possibility that their policies will soon be accompanied by higher premiums. Others are ruling out more and more risks that are currently considered probable and are thus completely evading liability. Still others offer certain partial services as additional components and thus make the premiums even more expensive.
