Travel Insurance, now there's a thought! Her Majesty's Grateful Government have come to the conclusion that it needs looking into again as all these travel agents are ripping the public off and mis-selling the stuff and, and, and....

Well, no actually. Some busybody from Which? found, they reckon, an agent who did something wrong. More likely an agent slung their interfering bat out the door when they found out he or she was a time waster and Which? decided to get revenge. We have already had one review and it was decided that the sale of TI should come under the Financial Services thing and every travel agent should, therefore, know everyting about pensions, mortgages and how to get a bank to give you ten quid.

The point that was missed, was that although a travel agent may not know much about buying endowment mortages from XYZ Building Society, Insurance brokers certainly know naff all about holidays and travel.

Despite the media, Travel Agents have been making quite a good job of flogging travel insurance ever since Thomas Cook was a boy and they do know a bit about it. What is more, they will usually spell out the important bits for you which is more than will happen if you buy yours from the checkout girl at ASDA. And no, they do not rip you off. True, the multiples used to make a bit of a killing but independents have about a 25% markup on travel insurance which is no more nor no less than anyone else flogging insurance. This dropped to the extent that many independent agents were cheaper than the banks, post office and building societies. Indeed, where I used to work, TI was on average no more than £1 more expensive than Direct Line's.

So, what do you need? The E111 is pretty basic stuff. Rather like hiring a car to go from London to Birmingham and getting one of those stupid SMART cars. It will get you there but if you get into real trouble your are stuffed. So you get the proper thing. The main thing is the amount of cancellation cover. This needs to be enough per head for the TOTAL cost of the holiday. Cheap travel insurance can have cancellation cover for £500 a head. £3,000 a head is probably a better bet. Remember, you cannot pro rata reduce things if everything goes pear shaped. Medical cover makes me laugh. Ten million? Five million? Look, the largest claim ever for medical on a travel insurance was about £250,000. If you are more than that, you are dead. Lost or stolen items is another thing. Bear iin mind that you must look after your kit properly at all times - and I mean at all times - and if you do have two platinum and diamond tiaras and a diamond the size of the Koh-I-Nor, lock it in a safe repository, no-one will believe that you had them on a £119 a head late deal to Malaga anyway. If  you want to know more, read my advice pages on my website www.advantagetravel.co.uk.

One thing to look out for. Scheduled Airline Failure. This is very important if you are a regular "up front with the driver" business traveller. As said elsewhere, the most financially insecure way of buying an airline ticket is directly from an airline. Given that many airlines are about as financially secure as Enron on a bad day, Scheduled Airline Failure is becoming an important aspect. Okay, if your ticket cost £50 you may take a philosophical view (you would have to, even a credit card purchase will not cover you for that) but across the pond, in business class, we could be talking £4,000 which is a different matter. When I get around to talking about bonding in more depth I will explain why. For now, make sure you have it!