Motor
What a total-loss valuation actually means
When an insurer writes off a vehicle it pays market value, and market value is a specific figure you can contest.
Margit Halvorsen
Contributing writer, Insured and Ready
Margit writes about travel cover, medical limits and the exclusions that surface only at a claim.
Contact Margit through our contact page — mark your message for their attention and it will be passed on.
20 articles
Travel
Travel cover: the medical limit is the only number that matters
Baggage limits are trivial next to the cost of an air ambulance. Most travellers compare the wrong figure.
Travel
Annual multi-trip policies and the trip-length trap
Annual cover is usually better value past three trips, and it fails quietly on the one long trip of the year.
Motor
Fronting: naming the wrong main driver voids motor cover
Putting a parent on a young driver's policy as the main user is a misrepresentation, and it is the one insurers look hardest for.
Motor
Social, domestic and pleasure: the use class that decides a motor claim
Class of use is one of the shortest fields on a motor quote and one of the most common reasons an otherwise valid claim fails.
Motor
Annual mileage is a declaration, not a guess
The mileage figure on a motor quote is a material fact, and a service record or odometer reading can contradict it years later.
Travel
Cancellation cover pays for reasons on a list, not for changed minds
Travel cancellation is one of the most misunderstood benefits in insurance: it responds to specified events, not to disappointment.
Travel
Baggage claims are settled after depreciation
A three-year-old suitcase of clothes is worth far less than the cost of replacing it, and travel policies pay the former.
Travel
The alcohol exclusion is broader than being drunk
Travel policies exclude claims arising from alcohol, and insurers apply that clause to a wider set of situations than most…
Travel
Delay, missed departure and abandonment are three separate benefits
A disrupted journey can trigger any one of three clauses, and each has its own trigger, evidence requirement and payout.
Travel
Winter sports cover, off-piste and the helmet clause
Skiing extensions are cheap and narrow. What voids them is usually not the skiing but where and how it was done.
Travel
Age limits and pregnancy: where travel policies stop
Two of the most common reasons a traveller cannot buy standard cover have nothing to do with illness, and both are set by fixed…
Motor
Breakdown cover is a service contract wearing an insurance badge
It is sold beside motor policies and behaves nothing like one. What you buy is a promise to attend, not a promise to indemnify.
Travel
Hiring a scooter abroad is where most travel cover stops
Two wheels, a beach road and a rental agreement in a language you do not read. Travel policies have a clause for exactly this.
Travel
Car hire excess cover and the desk that sells it twice
The rental includes damage cover with an excess large enough to hurt. Two separate products exist to remove it, and they work…
Travel
Unattended is the word that decides a travel theft claim
Almost every travel policy excludes theft of unattended property. The definition is narrower than the ordinary meaning of the word.
Travel
Epidemic and pandemic clauses were rewritten in both directions
After a period of global disruption, travel wordings changed. Some now cover more than they did, and some cover considerably less.
Travel
Cruise cover is an add-on because a ship is not a country
Medical care at sea is limited and expensive, and a missed sailing cannot be fixed by catching a later one. Cruise sections exist…
Travel
A reciprocal health card is not a travel policy
State-to-state agreements can pay for treatment abroad on local terms. They stop well short of what a travel insurer does.
Travel
The activity list decides whether a holiday accident is covered
Travel policies sort activities into tiers, and the tier decides the premium and the cover. Nothing about the tier is intuitive.