Are you planning to go abroad this summer? With the pound down against other currencies, you might be best off staying in England this year. But if you can’t get enough of sunny Mediterranean beaches, or even further afield, and then it’s probably time to start planning your break.

Flights and hotels… check! But what about getting properly insured? An amazing two thirds of Brits travel abroad each year without an insurance policy, while 8% admit never taking out insurance on a foreign trip! Travelling uninsured presents a number of risks.

It’s not particularly likely that something will go wrong on your dream holiday – but if in the case it does, how will you compensate it? If you don’t know where to start when it comes to shopping for travel insurance, then answering the following three tips will give you some good pointers.

Check What Cover You Already Have

Before you wade into the travel insurance market and spend time finding the right package for you, make sure you check bank accounts and credit cards to see if they already offer you cover. Many credit card and bank account providers have benefits for ‘premier’ customers, and it’s possible that you may already be one of these and therefore already have a policy.

If you’re not sure, then call your bank to find out what they can offer. Paying a monthly fee for having a premium account is unlikely to be worth it in the long run, but it’s possible you could upgrade for free if you’re a particularly good customer and the bank wants to give you incentive to stay on.

If you can get one of these deals, then great, but also make sure your holiday destination is covered.

Check on Your Circumstances

While you can tailor your insurance package according to your needs – such as getting ski cover and the like – you will also need to consider special circumstances for your group. For instance, do you or any of your party have a history of serious illness? If the answer is yes, then the quote you’re after can rocket upwards.

Likewise, the same can happen for pregnant women and those over sixty five. However, it may still be possible to find a specialist insurer that will give you a quote which is less than traditional insurers. If worst comes to worst and you can’t find a reasonable quote and you’re only travelling within the EU, then get an EHIC card and find insurance for baggage loss and flight cancellation. Be warned though, an EHIC card will not always cover all medical expenses.

Don’t Over Cover

When searching for a policy, it’s important to understand what kind of cover you need. If you just take the first policy you find, you’re likely to either be substantially over insuring yourself, or perhaps even under insuring. Be particularly wary of premium insurance deals offering extremely high amounts of cover when you don’t really need it.

For instance, do you really need £50 million worth of medical insurance cover? The answer is almost certainly not. In fact, it’s probably best to go for something more towards the £2 million mark for maximum medical expenses cover, while you should go towards £1 million for personal liability.

Flight cancellation is also worth considering too – no one wants to be in the nightmare scenario of not being able to go on holiday for whatever reason, but then having to stump up for it anyway.