Travel Insurance - confused what I need

easy

We're thinking of booking a VERY expensive family holiday in the carribean to celebrate my 50th birthday, which will be in November 2010. One of the tour co's is currently offering 50% discounts, which is why we're thinking of booking so early. In the past I've never booked anything more than 3-4 months in advance.

We won't be going abroad before then, altho may book the odd weekend here in the UK (not much tho', saving up for the Big One).


As it is sooooo far away (time wise), would I be better insuring for a single trip? My main concern is that of health probs (not currently a worry), DH's job disappearing (again not an immediate worry, but with the current economy, who knows?) or my elderly mum becoming ill/dying at last minute (she isn't booked on the holiday, but obv I couldn't just leave her).


A quick look at single trip quotes seems to offer cancellation cover of about £500, but this hol is priced at ovr £2000 each ?

Sorry if this should be in the travel section, I couldn't decide where best to put it.

easy

no advice ?

bpc101

There are loads of policies that will cover more than £500 for cancellation, I just checked out one that was £5,000!

Of course you get what you pay for with insurance, so the cheapest policies won't cover you for much.

The other thing you need to look out for is whether they will cover a trip so far in advance, a lot of policies are for travel dates within the next 6 months.

lisyloo

You don't normally get redundancy covered on travel insurance policies.
Normally it would be death, sickness etc.
So make sure you check what you are being covered for.

I don't know of a product that gives cover for paying for your holiday if you lose your job (apart from general income protection).

dacouch

Actually there are quite a few companies that include reduncy (Subject to certain terms), here is the wording from Fortis for cancellation cover (This is the broker only policy).

Your financial circumstances or
unemployment (other than
redundancy if you are under 65
and have two years’ continuous
employment with the same
employer)

http://www.fortisinsurance.co.uk/images/pdf/533.pdf (Page 14)

RibAd

With the trip being about a year and six months away, some single trip/multi trip policies won't cover for a trip that's a more than a year in advance, simply because they can't put the policy in force more than a year before inception date.

Have a shop around and see if you can read policy wordings online to compare policies.

If it's a very expensive holiday, check your cancellation limit, as you may have an option to increase it.

Check over the exclusions and conditions for things like Redundancy (also in cancellation sections) as could be covered and medical conditions as they may be subject to special t+cs or exclusions.

Check as well with the travel agent/tour op on what insurance they offer and make sure that Abta bonded.

Anything you're not sure about, give the company a quick call.

Hope that helps!