Ill, Hijacked And Carrying An Exploding Laptop

People wear jumpers on aeroplanes and carry exploding laptops. But even more frightening is what we're not covered for when going abroad. Here's how to get properly covered.

Two or three things related to our money and travelling around have come up recently, so, if you don't mind, I'm going to meander through them.

It appalled me to read a story from the BBC yesterday about two men removed from a plane, because they were suspected of being terrorists. It seems their 'suspicious' behaviour was being Asian (tut tut), wearing jumpers and trousers (very suspect), and looking at their watches (because no law-abiding citizen ever looks at his watch when the plane is late for take off). If this isn't an overreaction, I don't know what is.

When I buy travel insurance, I don't even look to see what terrorism cover I get. The statistics show that the odds of anything happening to me are pretty darn low. But for those of you who believe in Sod's Law, you may want the peace of mind of extra cover, particularly if you're travelling to a country on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office's danger list, or even to the US.

The thing is, there isn't a great deal of cover available. There are four main areas to consider:

• Repatriation - Or, to put it another way, recovery of your dead body. Some insurers will include this for terrorism (excluding nuclear, chemical and biological terrorism), but you need to scrutinise the small print.
  
  
• Injury by terrorism - You need to go cross-eyed checking this out in the small print as well.
  
  
• Hijack - This is often covered. You can get, say, £500 to £2,000 for each 24 hours that you're sitting on the plane gibbering or wondering how many of them you can take out.
  
  
• Threat of terrorism - Alas, this is something you'll struggle to claim for. However, if flights are cancelled you'll still be able to seek a plane ticket refund from the airline, even if you can't get your other travel and accommodation costs back.

If you're truly concerned, you should contact the provider and ask them what is covered. For extra peace of mind get it in writing; an email will do.

Another thorny subject which has knocked on my email inbox recently is that of pre-existing medical conditions. It's frustrating trying to find a decent policy that'll cover them, but there are some insurers out there that will do it.

The easiest way to find them is to look at lists published by charities. The British Heart Foundation has a long list of possible providers. There are other organisations you can contact too. Freedom Insurance, a specialist broker, gives this list of charities:

• CLIC Sargent
• Cancerbackup
• Breast Cancer Care
• NACC
• CML Support
• NET Patient Foundation
• UK Haemophilia Society
• Addison's Disease Society
• Dreams Come True
• Cardiomyopathy Association
• PBC Foundation
• Christian Lewis Trust
• Spinal Injuries Association
• Cancer Research UK

One item I carry with me a lot when I travel is my laptop and guess what? Yep, it's an exploding one! I have it with me in the office now. I'm wearing trousers and a jumper and."Sorry, what boss?"."No, I'm not clock-watching".

-- Fool HQ has been evacuated. --

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