Travel Insurance Editing and Proofreading Services

Somebody breaks an ankle in a resort, is taken to the nearest private clinic, has surgery, pays eleven thousand euros on a credit card, and telephones the insurer when they get home. The policy required them to call before treatment. The claim is reduced by a substantial amount because a public hospital forty minutes away would have cost a fraction of that — and the instruction that would have prevented it was on page nineteen.

We edit what travel insurers and assistance companies produce — policy wordings and their summaries, pre-travel and welcome documentation, medical emergency and assistance instructions, pre-existing medical condition declarations, claim forms and evidence requirements, decline and reduction letters, and the material given to travellers at the point of sale. Our editors work on instructions that have to be found in an emergency abroad.

The instruction to contact the assistance line before treatment is the most valuable sentence in a travel policy, and its failure is a condition buried where nobody in trouble will look. The traveller is in pain, in another language, and is doing whatever the person in front of them suggests. We work through these so the instruction appears on the card in the wallet and the confirmation email rather than only in the wording, since the policy document is at home and the phone is not; so the reason is given rather than the rule, because "we can direct you to a hospital that will bill us directly and you will pay nothing" changes behaviour and "you must notify us" does not; so what happens if the call cannot be made first is stated plainly, given that an unconscious traveller cannot telephone anybody and a policy that appears to punish that reads as a trap; so the consequence of not calling is quantified rather than described, as "we may reduce your claim" is vague and "you may pay the difference between a private clinic and a public hospital, often several thousand pounds" is not; so the number is given in a form that works abroad, with an alternative for a phone with no credit; so the pre-existing condition declaration is explained with what counts and when to update it, since this is the other half of most declined claims; so the exclusions travellers actually hit — alcohol, unattended baggage, unlisted activities — are listed in the summary rather than the wording; and so the summary is one page and is sent again the week before travel. Documents written this way prevent the claim.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including policy documents, medical information and claims correspondence. We are editors rather than insurers, clinicians or assistance providers, and we give no advice on cover and offer no view on any claim. What we can do is put the sentence where somebody in trouble will find it.