It wasn’t too many years ago when travel was still at a premium price and was largely reserved for those who have a bit of cash to burn. In today’s world travel to the furthest reaches of the planet is available to anyone who knows how to save and take advantage of a good online deal when they see one.

The National Competition Commission, the CNC, has fined a group of six major insurers a record €120.7 million for price fixing, almost double the previous record held by Telefonica.

The six firms, and their respective fines, are:

Asefa €27.76 million
Swiss Re €22.64 million
Mapfre €21.63 million
Scor €18.59 million
Munic Re 15.86 million
Caser €14.2 million
The Law of Construction Planning of 2002 forced the developers to seek insurance policies to cover possible damage to materials in new buildings for a period of ten years, thus ensuring that compensation would be available in the event of faults or structural defects.

The Mediterranean diet, already thought to protect against heart disease and cancer, may also help to prevent depression, Spanish researchers say.

They found depression was more than 30% less likely to develop in people who followed a diet high in vegetables, fruit and cereals, and low in red meat.

They studied 10,094 healthy adults over four years, the Journal of the American Medical Association reports.

However, the team stressed additional, larger-scale studies were required.

A new report by consumer magazine Which? Holiday has found that four airlines are ignoring an EU ruling made last November which states that they cannot automatically add extras such as insurance at the time of booking.

Researchers checked out a total of 11 airline websites and found that more than a third of them were flouting the regulations in relation to travel insurance.

Conventional thinking is that one good thing about recessions is that they chop the head off the inflation monster. This is true, as shown by the Retail Price Index in Britain dipping into negative territory. But quirks abound.

Earlier this year The Weekly Telegraph reported predictions of a rise in medical insurance claims triggered by the global economic recession.

A survey this week by a travel insurance specialist found that 70 per cent of holidaymakers did not realise that they will be required to cover the costs of medical treatment should they sustain an injury while under the influence of alcohol. A further 80 per cent of those surveyed admitted to getting “very drunk” while abroad.

“We advise all travellers to think twice before drinking heavily on holiday this summer”, said Stuart Bensusan, insurance director at EssentialTravel.co.uk, the London-based company that carried out the research

A report released by Sainsbury’s Finance this week found that a further 500,000 people with medical conditions travelled abroad over the past 12 months with no travel insurance.

It estimates that 267,000 people with heart problems failed to inform their insurance companies about their condition, while 206,000 people with respiratory problems did the same.

Fears of being refused cover or the need to secure a cheaper premium during the economic downturn were cited as the main reasons why people failed to accurately inform their insurance providers of conditions.

People who settle permanently abroad are offered a number of UK-based medical insurance plans from which to choose.

The number of expats who regularly hop back to their country of origin appears to be growing. Yet few plans exist for this group and last month’s unexpected withdrawal of Exeter Friendly Society from the international insurance market has aggravated matters.

Everybody is interested in Cheap Travel Insurance, so for a start avoid the travel insurance that your flight provider or tour operator will try to sell you as it is expensive at best, very expensive as a rule!

For travelers to Spain there are many options when looking for either single trip travel insurance for your holiday, or annual travel insurance if you are a frequent visitor to your holiday home in Spain, or perhaps you have family that have retired to enjoy the relaxed and healthy lifestyle that living in Spain provides, and you want to visit them as often as you can.