The travel policy you paid for and still cannot use at the desk

Lonely Planet's insurance guide starts from the part people skip. The useful policy is the one matched to the trip you are taking, and the limits live in the paperwork, not in the advert. The Points Guy published a reader's account of travelers who bought comprehensive cover for a booked tour and still did not know, when it mattered, what the certificate included, what it left out, or which steps a claim required. The policy number, the assistance phone, and the dates are often buried past the first page of that file. TripCheck's AI Insurance Scan can lift those details, and you can type them instead. The scan is optional. TripCheck's privacy policy says a scanned image is processed once and is not kept. Travel Shield, the insurance vault, is part of Pro at £3.99 a month or £24.99 a year, about £2.08 a month.

Last updated 2026-10-26

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The clinic already has the question

A receptionist wants the policy number and a phone that answers at night. You open the certificate. The first page is a welcome. The number sits in a table, and the emergency line is easy to miss. Email search finds the message and then you are still hunting the line. That is the practical version of the mistake The Points Guy describes: the policy was purchased, and the holder had not learned it. Lonely Planet's wider point is the same. Cover you have not read is not yet cover you can use, because the exclusions and the claim steps are in the document you left in a download folder.

Keep the few lines you will be asked for

After you type the fields, or after a scan, the vault holds the provider, the policy number, the emergency phone, and the dates next to the passport. The next desk does not need the whole file. The scan does not replace the insurer and it does not decide a claim. If you use the camera, the image is not stored. That commitment is TripCheck's own privacy policy, not a finding from the travel articles. Travel Shield itself is on Pro. A new account includes a 7-day Pro trial, so the policy can sit beside the passport before you pay. Read the certificate for what is actually covered. The links below are about that reading, not a ranking of insurers.

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Sources

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