Travel insurance claim kit

1. What happened

Illness or injury on the trip: hospital, doctor, ambulance, medicine, or being flown home.

2. The first 24 hours

Practical steps that usually help a claim. They are not legal rules: your policy wording comes first.

1. 1
   Get care first

   In an emergency get treated. Do not delay urgent care to phone the insurer.

2. 2
   Call the insurer's emergency line

   As soon as you can, call the number on your policy. The assistance team can often guarantee payment to the hospital or arrange a transfer, which is far easier than claiming back later.

3. 3
   Ask the hospital for paperwork before you leave

   Itemised bill, medical report and proof of payment. It is hard to get them from another country after you fly home.

4. 4
   Write down what happened

   Date, place, how the illness or injury happened, and who treated you, while you remember it clearly.

5. 5
   Do not agree to be flown home or moved without asking

   If the insurer has not approved it, the cost may not be covered. Ask, and note who approved it.

• Policy number, insurer name and its 24-hour emergency assistance numberMost claims start with the assistance line; you will need the number in every message.
• Itemised bills from the hospital, clinic or doctor, with proof you paidA total on its own is rarely enough: insurers ask what each charge was for.
• Medical report or discharge summary: diagnosis, treatment and datesShows the treatment was medically necessary and when it began.
• Prescriptions and pharmacy receiptsMedicine bought abroad is claimed from the receipt.
• Ambulance, taxi to hospital or medical transport invoicesEmergency transport is often charged separately from other medical costs.
• Tickets, boarding passes or booking confirmation showing your travel datesProves you were abroad and that the trip was covered.
• A log of who you spoke to at the insurer or assistance company, with dates and reference numbersSettles later disputes about what you were told to do.
• Your own record of when any related condition began and what you declared when buying the policyPre-existing conditions are the most common reason for a refusal.

Ticks are saved on this device only. Keep copies, not originals, and photograph paper receipts before you post anything.

4. Deadlines

5. What insurers commonly refuse or limit

• Most policies do not pay for something that happens after you have drunk excessive alcohol or taken recreational drugs or other substances.
• Declare existing medical conditions and pending treatment or tests when you buy. Failing to declare something may invalidate the policy, and some policies exclude treatment linked to a pre-existing mental health condition.
• Sports such as bungee jumping, jet skiing, winter sports or skydiving are not usually included in standard policies. You may need an add-on or a specialist policy.
• Using or hiring quad bikes or mopeds is not usually covered.
• Many policies will not cover travel to a destination where the government advises against all or all but essential travel. Read your policy and the official travel advice before you book.
• Many policies have a maximum trip length or an annual limit on days abroad, and only cover the places you listed, including places you pass through.
• Most insurers offer only limited cover for terrorist acts, although some add-ons give more, including cancellation cover.
• A UK GHIC or EHIC gives access to state-provided healthcare in the EU, Switzerland and some other countries on the same terms as residents. It does not cover private care or repatriation and is not a substitute for travel insurance.

Source: GOV.UK: Foreign travel insurance, policy exclusions to look out for, checked 30 Sep 2026

These are patterns, not your policy. Whether a claim is paid depends on the exact wording, so read the exclusions and limits section of yours.

6. Airline, card and insurer: who pays what

• Airline compensation and refunds come firstcheck

  Insurers usually want you to claim from the airline or supplier first, and will normally take what they paid into account. Tell the insurer about any payment you get. You cannot be paid twice for the same loss.

  Flight compensation tool
• Baggage: count your airline deadlinescheck

  Use the lost-baggage tool to count the written-complaint deadline to the airline from your dates.

  Lost baggage tool
• Card benefitscheck

  Some cards include travel cover, often only if you paid for the trip with that card. The terms sit in the card's guide to benefits, and the cover may be secondary to your own policy. Ask the card issuer, and ask both insurers which pays first.

• A card dispute is a separate routecheck

  If a provider took your money and did not deliver, your card issuer may be able to reverse the charge. That is not insurance and has its own deadlines.

  Travel disputes kit

7. Claim letter

Built in your browser from what you type. It makes no legal argument: it states the facts, the amount and the documents you enclose (the ones you ticked above).

Fields you leave blank stay as [brackets] for you to fill in. Send it with the documents, by the route your insurer names, and keep proof you sent it.