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Ski Insurance
One in three of you don't take out insurance when you go skiing, say the Ski Club of Great Britain. If you do take out an insurance policy, three per cent of you will need to make a claim. What happens if you need to make a claim but don't have an insurance policy? Your worst nightmare scenario is being landed with thousands of pounds of medical and rescue bills. The most common ski injury is damage to the knees, such as ligament tears, and treatment of this costs about £2,500 in the US or £700 in Europe. Figure air ambulance rescue into the equation and you are facing several thousand pounds of bills.But it is not just medical emergencies that insurance can protect you from bearing the brunt of financially - policies may include cover for stolen or broken equipment, baggage loss, piste closure, personal liability, loss of ski passes and lessons, and repatriation.
Insurers
If you Google 'ski insurance' you'll find a plethora of different companies that can insure you to go skiing, from sports travel specialists, insurers, credit card companies, ski and mountaineering associations, and even supermarkets. So, what does the Tesco have over the AA, or The British Mountaineering Council (BMC) have over Insure and Go?It depends what kind of skier you are. If you are a beginner or inexperienced skiier, or someone happy to stick to the piste at all times, you will find basic policies will suit your requirements, even the cheapest ones. If you do a wintersports one-week single trip search on moneysupermarket.com you will find that policy prices start at approximately £20.
If you are a more advanced skier and wish to engage in some off-piste, heli-skiing or cat-skiing, or even ski touring or ski mountaineering, you will need to find a policy suitable for the activities you wish to do. The best bet for the extreme skier is checking out specialist insurance providers such as Ski Club of Great Britain, the BMC, Dogtag, Snowcard, and ski-insurance.co.uk.
Expect premiums to get more expensive depending on the increased risk or danger involved. For example, sport specialist insurer Dogtag's premium for a weeks' wintersports cover on their most basic 'Sport' package for Europe are between £32.09 and £46.90, depending on what level of cover you opt for. This will allow you to ski off-piste with a qualified local guide. A 'Sport+' package covers you for heli- and cat-skiing, costing £42.61, and an 'Extreme' package covers you for ski-touring and ski mountaineering, starting from £51.68. (Note: Dogtag's min duration for insurance if 10 days).
The BMC is an exception to this, with only one 'Alpine & Ski' package that covers the daredevil skier for ski touring and mountaineering, heli- and cat-skiing, off-piste skiing, ice-climbing and alpine climbing (under 6,500m). The cost of this is £37.47 for a week's cover, but you also have to buy BMC membeship to take advantage of this insurance, at £29.50 for a year. But watch out for special offers on the membership that see it discounted up to 50 per cent.
Read the small print
'Always read the small print,' says Betony Gardner of the Ski Club of Great Britain (SCGB).'People never read the small print until it is too late,' says Mike Welby, the MD of Dogtag.
'Make sure you are definitely covered,' says Perry Wilson of Insure and Go.
We know it is boring squinting at all of the terms and conditions of your policy, but if you take out a insurance that does not cover you for the activities you are doing and you are injured you'll be kicking yourself - that is if you haven't broken both legs already.
Likewise, if you have expensive equipment, double- and triple-check that your precious Scott Crusades or K2 Apache Coombas are covered. In some policies equipment cover might be as low as £300 (Tesco), some policies might only allow a pay-out of £200 per item stolen, or in some cases you will need to know if your policy allows for you to leave your skis unattended outside restaurants. If your policy states you must take resonalble measures to secure your skis against theft, and your £600-worth of planks are nabbed just propped up at the side of the restaurant, you'll feel like a dunce.
If don't read the policy properly before you buy it, pore over straight away, as you still have some leeway. 'You have two weeks on any insurance policy by which you can cancel and get a full refund,' says Mike Welby.
Ski Insurance tips
Carry your proof of insurance with you in your ski jacket pocket. Some specialist insurers, such as Insure and Go and Snow card give you a credit-card style card to carry on you, which is much more practical than a soggy computer print-out when it comes down to showing the pisteur you can pay for your helicopter rescue. Even more practical is the Dogtag, which is worn around your neck and contains your insurance details and also you can upload medical information onto it such as your blood type, medication you are taking and next of kin.
Buy insurance in advance of your holiday, or it will be invalid. Auditors always ask for proof of travel, such as air tickets, to ensure your cover is for the holiday and guard against people buying insurance after their accident.
Off piste with or without a guide? Some insurance policies state you must be with a qualified guide that knows the region to have your off-piste cover validated, for example Dogtag, whereas with Insure and Go and SCGB you are covered without a guide as well. Bear this in mind even if you only want to mark the freshies off the side of the piste.
Jumping? Some insurers won't cover you for any kind of park action or any aerials on skis, such as the Insure and go and Dogtag. However, SCGB does cover you for jumping in the park (but not for heli-skiing).Other activities? Specialists such as SCGB, Insure and Go, and Dogtag offer cover for ice skating, tobogganning etc. Check the activities you want to do are included in your policy.
How much insurance do you want? Often policies will have different bands of cover, even if the activities covered don't change, offering different amounts of cover. For example £2,000,000 medical expenses on a premium policy or £500,000 for a basic policy. You have to weight this up depending on how many risks you'll be taking.
How much excess do you want to pay? Perry Wilson from Insure and Go says: 'If you have to pay an excess on medical treatment, try and get the most inexpensive treatment you can, it might be cheaper than your excess, for example if you go to a physio for a sprained ankle look at the physios in the phone book rather then the one at the bottom of the slopes that probably charges about five times as much.'
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